One More Flight...

December 14th,

Dear Dad,

                       3rd circuit flown today. One more final circuit to fly with assigned instructor Capt. Chiam. If he clears me for Solo Check tomorrow, Friday will be my Solo Check. If all goes well, Sunday's flight will be my FIRST SOLO FLIGHT. What's a solo check you ask? Well, a solo check is A check flight to make sure you're good enough to go fly alone.  Our assigned instructors (in my case, Captain Chiam) will pass us to a senior flight instructor and then  will assess whether or not we are clear for our solo flight. Once we get the GREEN LIGHT from them, we're good to go. Quick info: ALL CADETS LOOK FORWARD TO GETTING THEIR FIRST SOLO. ITS A GREAT FEELING AND IT MEANS ALOT TO PILOTS WHO HAD JUST STARTED FLYING.

                              Back in our 'Flight Operations' room . Me, Captain Chiam, and Hong  was spotted by Captain Mani (a senior instructor). He asked Captain Chiam how is me and Hong progressing. After knowing we require one more flight or a little bit more to go on for our Solo Check, Captain Mani instantly 'booked' me and Hong to fly with Him the Solo Check. He expects us to be ready by Friday, and that means I will be flying the Solo Check with Captain Mani if my instructor clears me tomorrow! Rather than feeling 'ohhhh noooooooooooooooo!', I actually look forward for the Solo Check flight. If everything goes well, then its GOOD TO GO for sunday. Can't wait.

                              Back in the hangar, I had an interesting situation, Still in the Flight Ops room, as Captain Zeenu was leaving the room, he said....... I read your 'Diary'. Diary.... What could that mean? Did he meant this blog? If He is then.. WELCOME TO MY BLOG CAPTAIN ZEENU! Hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy updating about my flying experience here!


Oh, during one small part after take off today, Controls were handed over to Captain Chiam as he wanted to demonstrate a low level circuit (if im not mistaken). During the initial climb after take off, I did the checks and flip a few switches,whereas Captain Chiam did the flying, I'd like to point out at that moment, I had a brief moment of what it feels like to be a co-pilot in the airlines. It was a very similar situation to what goes on in the cockpit in the Airliners. Great experience!


TO SOLO FLIGHT AND BEYOND!

Quotes of the day,

-... I read your 'diary'- Captain Zeenu
-... I want to see you this Friday- Captain Mani
-... Choose Judgment  over Feelings while  flying...- Captain Chiam
-... You think when you judge, but you don't think when you feel- My good friend, Hong

The 10th Hour!

December 13th,

                       And after 9 days of flying (not consecutively), I finally collected my 10th hour of flying! Weather was crystal clear, horizon was visible. The ideal weather for aviators is finally back! Hopefully for sometime. Here's how it looked like.

 
Not everytime we'll get this kind of scenery at our hangar.

                       And so , for today's exercise me and Captain Chiam flew our 2nd circuit. Not easy, but not difficult too. With just the right amount of mental flying and being prepared for the flight will get you off to a good start. Here's the usual things we do before take off.

Going through checks on engine instruments.

Continuing on with reference pages.

And off we go taxi-ing to holding point Bravo. Here in this picture we're on taxiway Echo.
I can't help but say I am quite proud of being able to keep the the yellow line (centreline) in the middle of the plane. Think I finally am prepared to taxi the aircraft comfortably on ground already.

Lining up on Runway 10. Getting clearance for take-off. 

After take off checks, Landing and Taxi lights off,flaps retract check speed change to 80 knots (160km/h).

And here we are at crosswind. Picture deliberately enlarged to show the runway.

At late downwind carrying out the 3 wing chord check ( checking the spacing of our aircraft before commencing our descending turn. )

And here we are at base leg.

           And after the base leg, we continue with our final approach. 

           Apologies for not being able to show my landing and final approach picture. My cameraman sort of forgotten to take pictures of it because he was too 'excited' to see my final approach and landing technique!

And so we continued with 5 more touch and go's ( landing and immediately after that taking off). Capt. Chiam demonstrated a Flapless Circuit. Which means no flaps required during approach, meaning to say a higher landing speed. Simple. Throughout the exercise today, i felt more comfortable with the aircraft, and i hope from today's flight, my chemistry with the Diamond aircraft will grow and throughout the lesson today will my techniques be perfected.


To be continued...

One of those wet days.

12th December,

                      Latest weather report for today.

      We update our latest METAR report. A report on the latest weather. 

(Ignore the word 'night flying', this one's not updated YET)

We look at the Airliners taxi-ing past us. Most of the time we wave at them.

Going into the engineering section of our hangar to take a look at our aircrafts.

Most of the time trying to understand our aircrafts better inside out.

This here is the Diamond DA-40, and this it looks like INSIDE THE WING.

For the cadets who were gonna fly for their PPL (Private Pilots Licence) test.
This board shows them the course they have to fly and throughout performing what kind of exercises.

For this particular photo. Its meant for me. Yesterday, I was asked by Capt. Chiam to draw

15 Normal circuits and 15 Flapless circuits on papers. Not a punishment though,he said its for us to remember our circuits and knowing it better. A technique which I must say is Super Effective for me. Highly reckoned for circuit flyers. Circuit flying is basically flying around the airport and throughout the flight, numerous things had to be done . Things like checking Instruments, making radio calls, maintain constant visual with the airport and to get used to doing go-arounds when any failures happens.

       Aside from these. We had a few special guests who came to the hangar today. A group of AFRS (Airport Fire and Rescue Services) officers came to our hangar today. Motive was to teach them how to remove us cadets from different aircrafts should anything happen *touch wood. I'll just let the pictures do the talking. 

The AFRS rides.

The officers going through the instruments in the Diamond Aircraft. 

(don't their uniform looks similar to ours??)

And here comes Hazwan, our first demonstrator to 'How to remove a passed out cadet from a Diamond Aircraft'.

And now the officer's turns to remove 'poor' Shaiful.

And our rainy day for today just passed us like that. Hopefully it'll be another productive day tomorrow. Heard its good weather is coming in tomorrow. 

To update on next flight!

First Self Take Off!

December 2nd,

                       Woke up to a wet morning with a wet nose,preparing a wet trip on the wet roads of pengkalan chepa to our hangar. Weather seems to be unsteady today. Looks windy and wet at the same time. Slight drizzle. METAR (Aerodrome Meteorological Conditions) reported light rain with only 6000 metres visibility and with base clouds at 1200 feet.

                       Guessed my flight was going to be cancelled. Thought of going back home early, but was put on STANDBY by Captain Ramesh. I was scheduled to be the SECOND pilot to fly today in aircraft 9M-NRC. So rather than rotting in the flight planning or briefing room, me and maxim ( friend ) took a sit into the Diamond 40's cockpit. Showed him how things work in the Diamond. He's a Piper Warrior flyer, so our Diamond is a little alien for him. After explaining everything to him , he was very impress with our 'baby', and said he would'nt mind flying 'her' too.

                      As we continue to chat in the cockpit, a couple of seniors were calling my name saying Capt. Ramesh wanted to see me in the Flight Operations room. As I entered the room, without me saying a word, he immediately asked me to prepare the aircraft ( MEANS I AM FLYING!!! ) But there was a few people scratching their heads, I was scheduled to fly second to my batch mate Joshua, but he was kind enough to let me fly first when Capt. Ramesh asked who wants to fly first. THANKS AGAIN JOSHUA ...

                   Anyway, during preparations of the aircraft, there was a minor fuel leak at the fuel draining hole on the left side of the aircraft,under the wing. Luckily Capt. Ramesh could solve the problem just with the help of a screwdriver. Hoping not too much fuel was lost during the leak, I checked the fuel quantity and it was still at a safe flying quantity. And so we proceed. Today's back-sitter ( passenger in backsit of aircraft ) was another one of my batch mate, Ralphael from Sabah.

                 

 What's so special today was, I finally have a picture of me in the cockpit in the Pilot-In-Command's sit, only thing was I was still on ground.

            Me at holding point Bravo awaiting a Boeing 737-400 of Malaysia Airlines to land.
                                                    ( Credits to Ralph for taking the picture.)


             Other than the picture, another great thing happened today, I took of the plane MYSELF !!! Taxi-ed the aircraft a little bit better today compared to previous attempts to taxi. A little unsteady of course for a starter, but basically I lift the plane up myself.

               Rotated ( Pull stick backwards) at 59 knots ( 118 km/h) waiting speed to increase 70 knots and continue climb to 500 feet. 200 feet press on brakes to prevent wheel from spinning, 300 feet after take-off checks ( Landing and Taxi lights off, Flaps retracted fully), 400 feet lookout (right clear, front clear, left clear, all around clear, fuel sufficient, engine temperature and pressure's are in green zone) , 500 feet, make right turn to Bachok and continue with our usual practice.

               T'was an AWESOME feeling to do all those by yourself. Especially when you're still new. Won't forget today.

December 2nd, rotated aircraft on my own in aircraft 9M-NRG with instructor Capt. Ramesh.