From the title above, i guess you know what kinda topic i gonna blog today. But not in the first part of this post.
My DCAT exam just ended two days ago, which was Thursday. Principle of Flights (POF) 60 questions, 60mins; Electrics 30questions, 30mins; Aircraft Systems 45 questions, 45mins; Engines 45questions, 45mins; and lastly Radio Telephony 30 questions, 30mins. Out of all the subjects, i think Electrics was the toughest to do because some of the questions are quite tricky and the answers are so similar to each other. But after discussing with my instructor, i guess i can pass, but to get 100% is a little bit hard! POF, Aircraft Systems and Radio Telephony were easy. No problem with those three. And then Engines got a 3 questions that i wasn't sure. So far so good. Result gonna be out in a week time.
Our exam finally ended at 3.15pm. But before we could rest, we were told to go for our Type Rating Single Engine (TSE) class at 5pm! I was playing table tennis when I got the news and then me and my friends rushed back to hostel to bath and change into our uniform. Classes went on for two hours. And guess what? WE WERE INFORMED TO FLY THE NEXT DAY!!! Muahahhahhahha!! Everything was like so sudden, you know. Just finished exam and now we gonna fly already! I had been thinking we would at least start to fly on Monday. Well, there are a few problems though. We haven't received the Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) for DA-40. Plus, there quite a few of documents and stuffs that we need to prepare before flight. Hehe. The 42 hours of PPL flying starts now!
Starting from today onwards, I will post and share about my experience during my training and I am gonna label the title as FLIGHT DAY ONE, FLIGHT DAY TWO, and so on.
Now FLIGHT DAY ONE............
Me and another 4 guys are being grouped together under a Japanese instructor. I was thinking that I may have communication problem with him but I was wrong! His accent is somewhat like Australian English! Not bad!
My flight was scheduled to be 4.30pm yesterday, but due to delay, I started to fly at 5pm. Well, my instructor showed me how to do pre-flight checks. There is a list of things that pilots need to check the aircraft before the aircraft is fit to fly. Examples: fuselage, wings, landing gears, engine oil, gear oil, fuel, tail plane, control surfaces, canopy, etc. This pre-flight has to be taken seriously, because if the pilot takes off without certain defects on the plane, there is a possibility that he will go to hell faster than he thought!
After the checks, I got into the cockpit with the instructor. Instructor on the right seat and I was on the left seat. I wore the life jackets, fasten seatbelt, put on the headset and all ready to go!!!!!!!! During start-up, pilot also need to do certain checks at the instrument panel. I shall not elaborate on that as I don't even know it myself! Haha. After I get my AFM, I will start learning it as soon as possible. The instructor did not teach me on that and so I only observed what he was doing. Looked simple to me though. Hehe. Before taxi to holding point for take-off, he did the Radio Telephony (RT) communication with the control tower to ask for clearance. For those who dunno, pilot is not allowed to simply take-off as his own will. There are many aircrafts in the vicinity, taking off and landing and taxiing and it is a must for pilot to ask for clearance first so that the tower can arrange and avoid unwanted things to happen.
And after 5mins, we line-up on the runway, bearing 030 degrees. Throttle lever to the max. With both feet at the rudder pedal and hands on the joystick, we took-off smoothly! Whooo!! DAMN CUN!! First time I got to fly in this kinda aircraft and there was only this feeling that I could describe in one word: HAPPINESS!! =D
Ladies and gentlemen, I can tell you that the view from up above the sky was totally breathtaking! =D
The trees, cars, people and everything on land were like ants!! Hehe. And when I looked out far ahead to the horizon, the view was majestic! The mountains, the sea, the cloud, the sun, oh my god! The natural beauties are so ever beautiful!! =D It looked as if I could touch the sun!! =D
We were cruising at 1500ft above mean sea level. The instructor gave me the chance to take control of the plane! Hehe. Relax man. I wasn't going to crash the aircraft! In order for the instructor to pass the handling of controls to me, he had to say "you have controls" and then I had to reply "I have controls". Haha. I moved the joystick to the left a little, and the aircraft rolled to the left a little. The joystick was kinda sensitive. I tried to maintain the nose level attitude because the wind was a little turbulent and the aircraft was swaying to left and right, up and down. Sort of like mini roller coaster. Ok, I have to admit that I had the dizzy feeling and felt wanna vomit! Haha. The instructor said that it was normal and I will get used to this sooner or later. He confessed that he vomited like hell for the first ten sorties before he finally got the hang of it. Haha.
And of course, I have to personally thank my four good friends (BG,YW,ERIC,ALVIN) who had specially trained me to withstand the dizziness (and spinning like tornado) by dragging me along into "THE CUP OF GENTING HIGHLANDS" and turned the bloody cup at such a speed that only could be described as LIGHTNING SPEED. And not just once, I tell you. It was four times! Did I count wrongly? I think more than that! Goodness. Thanks guys! =D
oh yea. I felt my limbs sort of like numb. Well, the instructor said that I did not have sufficient water before flight and thus I became dehydrated. I guess I have to drink more water for my future sorties! At least 2 litres, he said.
Anyway, we finally came to the runway and the instructor ask for clearance to land. Descend. Full flaps down. Slowly and slowly we landed on the runway. Not bad. Haha. We proceeded to the apron, stopped the engine, and that was the end of my first sortie of the day. =D
Today I will have my second sortie called Effect of Controls 1 (EOC 1) at 3.30pm. I gotta get to the hangar an hour before the scheduled time to listen for briefing and stuffs like that. Catch my next "flight" soon. Ciaozzzzz.
Countdown to DCAT exam: 14hours and still counting..
Q: What are the benefits of preparing early for exam?
A: You will not need to stay up late and burn the midnight oil.
Q: What are the disadvantages of preparing early for exam?
A: You will feel bored very fast because you basically have studied and revised everything that you need to know. You will have a lot of free time and you will start wondering what else to study. Just like me now.
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