I had been super busy for the past few days cuz had to prepare for my PT6. As you can see, I wrote PT6 twice up there.

Why?

Cuz I only got a partial pass the first time!!! Haha. Damn. I couldn't even believe it myself that I was THE ONE sitting in the left hand seat the other day making 2 stupid mistakes.

Not even my friends. Not even my instructors. Not even the examiner himself.


The details below is kinda boring to some, so skip this for summary later. But fellow pilots should read this to know how blur I was.

VPL holding pattern is a Non-Standard one: Left Hand.

I was tracking inbound from to VPL on R-155 and 26DME from VPL.

I made a Parallel Entry for outbound + 7.

After passing cone of confusion, I turned Right to heading 034 and flew for 1minute, then turned Right to intercept VPL R-034 inbound.
Overhead VPL, I then turned RIGHT to heading 034!!

According to the chart, I should be turning to the LEFT!!! wtf.....

Wait, another mistake.

After beacon outbound, as written in the chart, Procedure Turn is to be done at 11DME to the right.

But instead to the right, I turned LEFT. 180degrees base leg procedure -_-"
What the hell was I thinking at that time....


Honestly, more than 100approaches I made using this chart, that was the first time I made such a huge blunder. If you ask me why, I can only say that it just wasn't my day. Big Mommas were building up in overhead VPL and I was doing the holding pattern right inside the clouds, total darkness with thunders and rain around me. Updrafts and downdrafts were giving me a hard time just to maintain control of the aircraft. At one point, I was thrown 400feet down in less than 1 second. Almost hit my head on the canopy. wtf. My focus that time was just to regain altitude and control....until I forgot totally about the chart procedures.


In simple, I did the opposite of what the procedures should be.

I scored all A's for my airways procedures (which saved my arse), but for this simple VOR/DME thingy I failed miserably.

Thus a partial pass in PT6. Fyi, this is the final Progress Test before grad and I just had to screw up part of it. During this time summore. Damnit. Haha.

I had to go for the additional simulator session and then the resit, which was yesterday afternoon!

And I passed! =D
Finally another huge burden off my shoulder. Treated myself with a cup of Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino blended coffee. =)

You can't imagine how f*cked up I felt after I touchdown that day (after the first PT6). I lost confidence totally in the VOR DME approach procedure. Feared whether I could maintain altitude next time. Feared whether I could turn correctly next time. Feared this, feared that.

It was like, for something that you did 100 times and got it correct 100 times and 100% confident that you won't get it wrong at all, then at the 101st attempt, suddenly you just get it all wrong.




Oh well, it is still a valuable experience to learn from.

I am still a human being. Not a machine.

Airways 4 was yesterday night. Destination to Penang, WMKP.

We took off at 1910hours after waiting for the evening thunderstorm to stop.

Forecast Penang thunderstorm and rain from 1800hours to 2200hours local time. "We will turn back if it is real bad there," my instructor said.

Climbed to 7000feet and clouds were all over, from mainland towards the sea.

Further up south is Penang and as expected, alot of Big Mommas on top of the island. From left cockpit view, mainland was covered fully by low clouds.

10minutes to reaching Penang, frequent lightning strikes were detected in our Stormscope radar.

Butterworth Approach informed us that from their weather radar, there was a "small gap" between the Big Mommas that we could fly through.

But something went wrong with the autopilot seconds after we transmitted. It disengaged by itself.

Initially I thought maybe it was my right arm tapped on the Disengage Button accidentally. I tried to engage it again but it was useless.

My instructor said "We are not gonna take any chances to fly through this weather without autopilot."

And so we requested 180 back to home base 8000feet. Clearance granted and I took over the control manually to fly back.




This morning was the last airways sortie, Airways 3 routing to Alor Setar, WMKA in the morning 10.30am local time.

Beautiful weather. No Big Mommas. No rain.

Just haze. Visibility was 8km.

It was supposed to be a night flying airways to Penang but the weather was just not good to go. One channel of thunderstorms over the sea above 2000feet.

We cancelled the flight plan and went for simulator session for an hour and a half before the sim machine crashed. -_-"

Not my fault. I was about to flare and land then the screen just went upside down. Instructor gave up trying to reset it and we went back to hangar to check out weather again.

Local weather was good for circuits&landing and so I practiced 2 hours of that.

2 hours of circuits and landings!!! Damn...I lost count of how many touch&gos I made. 15? 20?

Routing this time is to Ipoh, then Penang and lastly back here. A 3-hour sortie.

Weather was not very good. Isolated thunderstorms all around. And got worse as we proceed inland, especially overhead Ipoh.


Although this aircraft is capable of flying into the thick dark clouds, but we tried to avoid them if possible. Especially clouds that was still in towering stage or in mature stage.

We flew with autopilot engaged after take-off passing 800feet. Well, not fully autopilot mode, because for training purposes, we are only allowed to use the heading mode and altitude mode during airways exercises.

In other words, we only need to twist the heading bug and key in the required altitude and rate of climb/descend, and the autopilot will do the job for us.

Auto-throttle? Auto-trim? Nope, not in this aircraft. We change the power setting and rudder trim by ourselves. Elevator trim, yes, done by autopilot.

As for take-off and landing part, we have to disengage the autopilot and fly manually.

Since part of the flying had been taken over by autopilot, what's left for us is to give briefings (SID,STAR, Approach, Weather), monitor the instruments and handle the RT calls.



Flying sounds easy eh? ;)

I passed my PT5 two days ago!! Wahahahahaha!! Performance was not that good though. Not the usual me when I flew that day.

But anyway it's still a pass!

Just one last PT to go: PT6

Currently I only left with 6 more sorties to go until PT6. If Flight Ops schedules me everyday, I should be able to complete the 200hours by this week.

And then what??

Finish up the paperwork and pack my stuffs and go home!!

Yesterday night when I came back from hangar I saw the whole campus was in pitch dark.

The school did not pay electricity bill eh, I thought.

My friends told me it was Earth Hour from 2030hours to 2130hours.

Oh, Earth Hour. Didn't know that it was yesterday. Too busy to prepare for flying.





Office politics are everywhere, even in this school. And things can get real messy. Like what is happening to a batchmate of mine.

He just wants to learn to fly properly and graduate from here fast.

But because of some sorta wars are going on between some instructors, my friend is now in the middle of the battlefield, as a victim.

The story is too long and too complicated to post it here. Sigh~~

I am under one of those instructors and I may just be the next victim if I make the wrong move.

Spare me from all these sh*t, please.

Done with my GH 4 since two days ago and still waiting for my turn to do PT5.


Anyway, I have some news to share.

1) my reporting date back in kl is on 2nd of July 2009. Which means I have 2 months to rot. Time for part time job??

2) the company will not sponsor any more cadets and has stopped the direct entry application until further notice. At least not in these two years time.

3) the batch that will be reporting here on the 13th next month (which my friend happens to be in the batch) is the last company-sponsored batch. So if you have friends want to apply, just tell them to study uni for another 3-4 years and get a degree first.

4) SIA has grounded 17 jumbo jets for long term parking. A SG-London trip in an A380 had only 60+ passengers.

5) female cadet pilots (and private sponsored pilots) will have a very very tough time to get a job in these few years. Consider a job as AFI or FI.

6) our fate is hanging in balance. To the sponsored ones, study hard, be extra patient, don't fail in tests/exams and don't give the company a chance to kick you out.

Good news? Things still proceed according to plan. For now.
No more details here. More to share when we meet up one day.

I think I mentioned once before about the flying with different instructors.

Standard Operating Procedures, in simple, is to standardize the all kinds of operating procedures from pre-flight check, procedures in the air, until post-flight check.

However, there are always some idiotic instructors, for whatever reason, unable to follow the SOP and teach their students well.

In my case, well, my Twin Engine instructor, Z fits nicely into the category. Wtf.

He was grounded twice, by the Standard Officer already and I really don't understand why, people like him can exist here.

My batchmates and I (4 of us) filed a report on him today and requested to change instructor. But no, the procedures that Z taught us were not enough to get him grounded.

=(

So what's next? Continue fly with him and memorize 2 types of SOP.

Memorize is one thing, but whether can we perform 100% in the air is another matter.

Procedures are to be practiced until they become a habit. To change a habit is already tough.

Now to switch from one habit to another habit is.....ah.... *faint*

Of course, it is not something impossible to do, provided we have the time to practice. The problem is we do not have the time!

The flying exam (or Progress Test as we call it) for Twin Engine has to be done after around 10 flying hours (or 6 sorties).

I completed 4 of them and tomorrow gotta fly another 2. Thursday should be my PT day.

Oh, I love my school~~~


Look at the bright side? Yes, I am becoming more hardworking.

Can I pass the PT? Yes of course!!!!! I am so full of confidence.......

New exercises covered yesterday such as:

-Asymmetric Drill,
-Engine Fire In The Air,
-Engine Failure After Take-off (EFATO),
-Asymmetric Rejoin,
-Asymmetric Circuit.


Asymmetric simply means NOT symmetric.

2 perfectly fine engines are giving the same thrusts so that it can fly symmetrical, but what if one of the engine fails?

Since only one engine is producing thrust, the airplane will start to yaw (and then roll) towards one side, which is the Dead Engine side. And in less than 2seconds, it will start to spiral dive.

Faster. And faster.

Turning into a 280km/h roller coaster ride into hell.

That is if the pilots do nothing to regain control of the aircraft. =)


No one wants to enter a spiral dive, so we have to regain control very fast, recognize which engine fails and complete the necessary emergency drills.

Controlling of an aircraft flying asymmetrically was definitely not an easy task for newcomers like me.

I had to floor (and maintain the leg pressure) the rudder pedal whenever the rudder trim was not to be used.

The first try was easy cuz my legs still had energy. By the time we went for the 5th, my legs were almost like jelly. Haha.

Seriously the rudder input was hell alot.

But later with the help of rudder trim, control became easier.

I think I gonna do some stretchings and warm-ups first before each flight.

I finally started my Twin Engine(TE) actual flying phase yesterday evening!!!! Muahahahahhahahahahhahahah!!!!

I practiced on Medium Turns, Steep Turns, Clean Stall and Approach Configuration Stall exercises.
With the instructor on the right of course. No solo flights in TE.
We were planning to do asymmetric exercises too. But I requested to turn back to land.

After a month of not flying and just simulator, airsickness came to haunt me again. Although the intensity was much lesser (just felt dizzy and numb), I still couldn't give 100% concentration on what he was teaching.

The sortie ended 20mins earlier. Haha. Kinda waste to continue my sortie if I couldn't focus.

My body should be able to adapt fully after 2 more sorties.

Sim L1/12 is the last Part 1 simulator sortie which I was tested on the basic instrument flying skills and also nav aids tracking&procedures.

I also found out how long my 100% concentration last.

Only 1hour 30minutes. (A 2-hour sortie.)

Hence it caused me two major mistakes during the last 30mins of the sortie:
-Forgot to switch the required nav aid frequency.
-Overshot the altitude that I was supposed to maintain.
Both happened during ILS approach to land.

My mind just went blank. Eyes fixed on a position longer than usual. Scanning pattern of instruments was not in the correct order.

But I think I should be able to pass this test.

So now I just gonna wait for actual flying sorties and Part 2 simulator.




The school has come up with more funny and brilliant rules&regulations for the cadets.

Oh, to those who are coming here to study, don't worry, I won't spoil the fun!!

=) =)

There is so much more for you to learn about this school!!

And you will come to understand (very soon..in less than 2 weeks of schooling) how deep is my love for this school since October 23rd 2007.

Flew on the airways to Ipoh and then to Penang before coming back to Lgk.

After one night of practicing, I still couldn't remember all the procedures.

I seriously need to think ahead of the aircraft.




Anyway, in respond to weixi's request:

Both of these two sorties are related to SIDs and STARs.

SID - Standard Instrument Departure
STAR - Standard Instrument Arrival

Without going into the details, they are just standard procedures to depart and also to land at an airfield. Again, these procedures are listed in the charts for pilots to refer during flight.

Eg: ANDOK SID - take off Runway 21, climb to 500feet, turn left heading 205 climb 1000feet, then turn left heading 130 to intercept Radial 155 VPL to Andok and further climb to 8000feet.


So instead of such a long instruction, it is simplified to just ANDOK DEPARTURE.

Just in LGK here alone, we have more than 10 SIDs and STARs combined!

Tomorrow will have a tougher sortie to fly: Airways.

TE Sim L1/7

Instrument Landing System (ILS), most commonly used by airliners during an approach to land.

Unlike other non-precision approach systems, this one provides a more accurate guidance to pilots especially during bad weather conditions.

This kinda system not only gives lateral guidance, but also shows the vertical guidance (glideslope).

Now you see why some airlines have such psychomotor test?? To those of you who went for the test, I am pretty sure you were told to complete a task that required you to steer the vertical and horizontal axis to center position and then maintain it as long as possible.


Same concept as above, we applied it here in ILS, where we have to maintain the aircraft steadily on the glidepath and to the centreline of runway....

ALL the way down to a point called Decision Altitude (DA).

If we are visual with the runway at this point, continue with the approach visually to land.

If no, then abort the approach and carry out the Missed Approach Procedure (which is stated clearly in each and every Jeppesen chart in most of the airfields today). Different airfields, different procedures.

To remember all those procedures, you need superhuman memory power. Obviously, we don't. So we bring those charts along in flight. Something like a road map, in simple.

I am tired. Bye~

6th simulator session: VOR DME approach, with winds this time.

Mental calculation has improved quite abit. Thanks to the mini clipboard that I bought two days ago.

I realized that my mental calculation was slow NOT because I calculate slow. It's because I have a lousy short term memory power.

It's like, given information A, B and C,

I need to count D and E while trying to fly the aircraft and keep a mental picture of the aircraft location and what I have to do next.

After 5mins, I need to calculate F and G using info A, B, C.

And now the problem comes, I forget what are the values of those.

Yes, I can ask the instructor again for the info, but that is gonna make me look like fool who does not pay attention to what he is saying.

So the mini clipboard comes in handy. I just need to put it on my right thigh, jot down those values and a quick glance helps to refresh what I forgot!

TE Sim L1/4

TE Sim L1/5

Imagine you are descending steadily from 3000feet along the approach path with intention to land.

Suddenly the aircraft you are flying went out of control.

It starts to make a gradual left bank. 10degrees, 20degrees, 30degrees.

No matter how much rudder input you give, the aircraft keeps rolling to the left. Rudder trim is put to fully right.

You notice altimeter reading is dropping like mad. Rate of descent 800feet per minute and still increasing.

Realising that rudders have become useless, you slam the control stick to the right, trying to keep the aircraft in control. Almost 30degrees of bank angle.

Both engines are not giving maximum power.

You reduce power on the right engine to 20percent while keeping the left one at 70percent.

Altimeter reading 2000feet. You look around for places to make a forced landing. But it seems  a populated area is below you. No clearings, no forests, no rivers, no sea. 

Only the runway ahead is available.

There is no other choice left. It's either you make it to the runway, or you die, together with people who are unlucky enough to be in your way.

Left engine power cut further and you bank more to the right. Aircraft descends further.

1000feet. Landing gears down. Flaps to Approach position. Then to Landing position. Runway is just ahead. 

500feet

300feet

200feet

And you try to flare using wings level. But the moment you release the pressure on control stick, aircraft starts moving to the left.

Using your 1,000,000,000 hours of experience, you decide to use your modified Wing Low method (without the aircraft nose aligns with runway centreline).

Land on the right main wheel, you release the control pressure slowly together with left engine power.

The moment aircraft nose aligns with runway centreline you let the left main wheel touchdown.

And finally the nose wheel.

You think you made a perfect landing already. However right after touchdown, aircraft turns left and heads towards a building. 

You tried to stop the damned aircraft but to no avail. There is only word in your mind now.

"Wtf!"

You crash into the building.

The end.

That is what happened to me yesterday in simulator.

Ok, the last 4 lines are exaggerating.  I made it up. For fun. -_-"

Right after landing I engaged on the parking brake and the screen paused.

The simulator got some problems, you see. Rudders especially were unserviceable.

So while waiting for technician to come and repair it, my instructor and I took turns to fly it. ;p

Quite fun seriously. It's not like you can get this kinda situation often in the actual flying!

Performance in simulator is better than yesterday. At least the departure and take-off briefs are more fluent.

Autopilot makes life so much easier. To climb/descent/turning, we just need to turn the knobs and the machine does everything for us.

Mental calculation is lesser today but not for tomorrow.

Such calculations involve sin and cos angle to correct for wind and drift effect.

Then we have the descend/climb and turning calculations.

Eg:
A rate one turn--->> 180degrees/minute = 45degrees/15second.

Rate of climb/descend--->> 500 feet per minute = 125feet/15seconds.

Every 15seconds, we have to call out the heading and altitude, at the same time we have to monitor the speeds, descent/climb rate, calculating the next heading&altitude for the next 15seconds.

Sounds alot of work to you?

Autopilot can reduce the workload but we cannot fly on that all the time. At least not for now.

I will try to memorize the figures for the next training.

Twin Engine Simulator or TE Sim in short.

First, checklist! Pre-flight check is a must. Obviously there is no external checks. So we started from internal checks.

Kinda slow in the checks cuz I needed some time to familiar myself with the hell alot of buttons, knobs and switches inside.

Next, the FMS setup. *Click Click Click* *Twist Twist Twist*

Needless to say, I was slow in that too. The instructor guided me step by step while explaining to me where is where and what is what. ;p

Fyi, the image projected in front covers the peripheral vision. It's not like playing videogame on TV because what we see only a small part at the center of vision.

We have 'other static' objects around the TV (and those fall within our vision) to tell our eyes that only the objects in the screen are moving (not you!).

So in simulator, our eyes are telling us one thing but the body feels another. At one point, I needed to perform a medium turn to the right.

Control stick and right rudder were applied simultaneously (Method: Bank, Balance, Back pressure).

I saw the screen outside and knew that I was climbing but my body registered zero G force. And hence resulted in disorientation. Haha.

Well I accidentally found out 2 ways to counter it though. One: Look at the instruments ONLY.

Two: Hmmm, a trick, I'd say. But to all the cadets who are going to fly sim one day, you will find out this method yourself. ;p