This Day Has Come...

November 30th,


                        It was a very moody, gloomy morning.. Low clouds, low clouds everywhere. Those who were suppose to fly today, boarded the bus with disappointed faces. When we reached our Hangar. Oh, what a sight! Low Rainy clouds were coming from the South, and then dark clouds were also approaching from North East (from the sea), there were light showers and drizzles every now and then.. And from our hangar, it looked like there was a Super Storm approaching from the sea. Everyone now and then I walk out to the Apron ( aircraft parking lot) to see the weather, I went back into the flight briefing room with my head down. I even got a call from my Dad..


''Son, don't feel to down, this might be a blessing in disguise..''


                      I nodded and agreed over the phone and just sat down in the waiting room .. Waiting, and waiting, and waiting..


                     Finally, at approximately 1345hrs, the sky was beginning to clear up.. I could see the clear blue sky I was hoping for for the whole morning. It was a miracle.. Even the dark skies over the sea seemed to vanish out from thin air.

                      Yes, today is the day I was to fly my PPL (Private Pilot Licence) test. A test which decide whether or not I am capable of handling an aircraft myself. Namely, to take off and land safely, do emergency checks thoroughly , situational awareness etc.. And today, the examiner I was to fly with was , none other than the Great Instructor which I will , shall , and always look up to, Captain Zeenudin Kurashi.

                      Some of you might remember ( I hope ) that I once posted a post of a flight with him and he did ...

...THIS TO ME, last year...

                After so many months later, I finally got to fly with the instructor I've been looking up to ever since he did that to my forearm. 

                 Anyways, I was very thankful that the weather decided to play nice with me today. It cleared up, and it also gave no crosswinds during landing, it was a direct headwind. A headwind is defined as "a wind that blows against the direction of travel of an aircraft''.. To those who are to enter the aviation industry or the junior cadets who are reading this, do remember it is always better to land in a HEADWIND than a TAILWIND.

                 So the test was carried out as per normal, I was only asked to demonstrate a good landing , and after that carry out the rest of the flight at the training area. Maneuvers were carried out and thankfully my exercises was good. I had no problems doing all requested maneuvers. In return, Captain. Zeenu showed me a 60 degree bank angle with the feeling of 2g pressing me against my sit. Trust me, it feels like you have a baby elephant sitting on your chest and it's super hard to move your body.

                By the way, if you're wondering what's a bank angle, its:

I hope you are able to figure out what the picture is explaining..


           So all maneuvers were done, and the final landing was done by Capt. Zeenu himself, and goodness.. His trademark: Upon landing, willy all the way back  until the vacating point of the runway.. Super rare. Super good experience.


Shut down the engine. And I was congratulated by him that I had passed the test.

This day has come at last.

After the flight, Captain Zeenu on the left, Me on the right. And this was the aircraft I cleared my test in.

9M- NRA.

I'm finally a man who can take off and land an aircraft myself and meet the requirements of calling myself a Pilot.


No , I'm not a pilot who flies the Big Jets in the commercial airlines.
Yes, I'm a pilot who can take you up in the air, and bring you down safely.

However, the journey doesn't end here.. Nope, this is just the beginning. I am to convert into a different aircraft after this flight. The Piper Warrior.

More Challenges To Face.
More New Things To Learn.
More New Exciting Adventures To Go Through.

P/s:  Sir, thank you again for passing me and teaching me the things on air today. And great control of the aircraft today sir. You opened my eyes to a whole new level of flying experience! And I do hope we'll still be able to fly with each other soon enough as I still have many things to learn from you. And hopefully one day, I will be lucky enough to sit on your right in an Airbus. :)


~ ....Work on your weakness to improve -  Capt. Zeenudin

~ ... See this as a blessing in disguise - Dad

On a side note: I would like to thank my Dad to remind me to stay positive in the morning. Always looking at the bright side of life.  And making me believe miracles do happen. Thank you dad. :) 

Last Navigation Flight in the Diamond DA 40

November 25th,

                       23 days ago, I flew my first navigation solo . And today finally, it's my final navigation solo flight in a Diamond DA 40 (the aircraft i'm flying). Many of you might say ''so what, it's just a plane..'' or '' what's the difference?The next plane is still gonna fly right??'' .. Well, just imagine that chemistry you had with your first love, and suddenly something/someone have him/her taken away from you from whatever circumstances. Then you'll know how it feels... Yeah that's right, I was in love with my aircraft. :) The first aircraft any pilot flew their first solo in will definitely have a special place in their hearts. I've been through a lot of lessons with this aircraft and I sure look forward to fly the next aircraft I'm assigned to fly, The Piper Warrior. So yeah, anyway, don't wanna get all touchy touchy... I'll get straight to the point. 

                   My final navigation solo in the Diamond was to Terengganu Airport, or The Sultan Mahmud Airport.. Beautiful place to fly , great sight as the runway extend towards the South China Sea. Imagine taking off towards the sea.. Mmph, it sure is a beautiful sight.. 

Beautiful isn't it? :)

So basically I flew a coastal route to this place . As the runway was under maintenance , I only got to flew overhead, but still it was great. So here are are few pictures of the flight.. :)

Overhead Pulau Perhentian while en-route to Terengganu. 

 Take a closer look on the ground, you can see the extended runway of Terengganu Airfield.

The slightly larger island on the left , that's Redang Island.

Tracking by the coast back to Kota Bharu airfield. And here's a clearer view of Redang Island.

Engine Temperature's and Pressure all green.

My last pose in a Diamond with Perhentian Islands as background. Yes, aircraft was banked to get the Islands in the picture. I just had to, but don't try it if you don't know what you're doing!

Landed at Kota Bharu airfield. Definitely gonna miss this baby. :)

I say again, I AM DEFINITELY GOING TO MISS THIS AIRCRAFT! :')

              Haha, it was a great flight.. :)


Now, 2 more solo flights left, and 1 more dual (with instructor) flight, and I'm off to my PPL (Private Pilot Licence) flying test. That's the determining test whether or not I'm qualified a pilot or not. If I pass that test, I shall officially be known as a pilot. 

Well, not a pilot you see in the airlines, but a man who can take off and land an aircraft safely. Haha!

Till then again!

To Infinite and Beyond... 


P/s: Pictures taken in flight was done when aircraft was properly trimmed to maintain altitude. If you do not know how to maintain altitude by trimming, I suggest you NOT TO TRY THIS while in flight. 

*not saying i'm a great flyer, but I know what I'm doing :P

2nd Navigation and Back-Sitting spree

September 4th,

                       A day after my 2nd navigation flight.. I won't say there were improvements, but there were new things to learn. I can safely say I'm better at maintaining set altitudes already, unless the up and downdrafts of the wind tends to get a little feisty then that's a different story. This time we traveled a little deeper inland to Kampung Kubu Datu for our navigation exercise, we were expecting to climb 8000 feet (2438.4 meters) as our cruising altitude but unfortunately we weren't able to due to low clouds and so we opted for 3000 feet (914 meters )instead. Navigation is all about map-ground referencing. If we were to climb above the clouds, the clouds will obviously block our view and hence be at risk of getting lost and disoriented ( of course we won't get lost that easily because we are equipped with a  GPS in our aircraft, but still , at our current level we are training to fly using our eyes and maintaining visual reference points on the ground. ).

                    Anyway, here are a few pics from my flight. Photo taken from batch mate Ralph.

Describing visual reference to Instructor, Captain Afiq

An example of a reference point. Here's our second reporting point, we were over head Pasir Mas.

One has to describe to the instructor the prominent features of the reporting point.

Low clouds.. Trust me , you DON'T WANT to go in there. 

Clouds clouds and more clouds.

There's a towering one..

En-route to our final destination: Kampung Kubu Datu.

And here's what our route looked like on the map.

At 3000 feet, this was how close we were to the clouds.

As for today, I back-sitted two flights with my batch mates flying, a coastal navigation route( Brandon ) and an Instrument Flying ( Ralph ) exercise.


Today's navigation route was suppose to be the same route I flew , but unfortunately, again due to very low clouds we had to divert. I'll show you in a bit how the clouds looked like..

Route diversions could happened anytime  , whether it's because of incoming weather or low clouds , etc.. A pilot has to navigate his way around and try to divert to another route as soon as possible. Aside from reporting and letting the Air Traffic Control Tower know our intentions of diverting, while in flight, we have paper work to do too, and we'll have to draw out a new route as quickly and simple as we can on the map itself. Fortunately , I brought my own map and the necessary documents to fill-in in flight , luckily we didn't have to cancel our flight, we were able to proceed.

On another note: A cadet normally doesn't bring that much stuffs up in the air. But because of my inheritance of my father's habit of collecting and bringing things for 'JUST IN CASE' purposes , I brought up the necessary documents and a pre-flight drawn coastal route map in flight , and thankfully, we had what we needed..

Thanks Dad.. :)

Here are some shots on the flight:

Low Clouds, How now??

From the Captain's view, it looked like this.

From our view , it looked like THIS.

Our instructor took over control as Brandon does the plots on the map.

 Diverting to Bachok, and then to .. Pulau Perhentian

What it looked like when we diverted... Looks like Mcd's Mcflurry or Sundae Ice Cream..

A sunny flight it was.

Approaching  Pulau Perhentian.

    

Pulau Perhentian from above.

Can you see the resort?

Can you see it now?

How about now??

Transfering fuel from right wing to the left wing.

Contrails left by big jets.

Spot the military airbase.

Looking lovely from the coast.

Descending to 3000 feet from 5000 feet. Airfield in sight.

1000 feet.

Here's Kota Bharu from 1000 feet.

Turning final, to land 

On Final, to land. 

The sun.

Here are pictures from the 2nd flight i back sitted today.

Not alot of pictures, but here's one of the exercise, doing a Steep Turn with reference to the instruments in flight.

Hope noone's feeling dizzy yet.

Feel like falling?

Feel like you're flying?? Contrails again above us 

And there ends our week in flying.

First Navigation Flight.

September 27th,


                        A day after my first ever Navigation flight , from Kota Bharu airfield to Dabong, approximately 101 nautical miles or 187 kilometers back on fourth .. I will not be afraid to admit it was a little disastrous. From difficulties in maintaining a particular direction of flight ( heading ) because I was reading the Map or crosswinds ( wind blowing from the left or right side of the aircraft ) up to 32 knots or  59 km/h, or difficulty in maintaining a set altitude ( in my case ,5000 feet ) due to updraft winds and so on .. I felt like I was introduce back into flying again. Clearly, this is a wake up call for me, that my previous flights were not as significant as this exercise , Navigation. One has to Aviate, Navigate, and Communicate in this exercise.

                                  Navigation is all about Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Modifying , and clearly I still only possess the traits of Executing. In Navigation , one has to go through a labyrinth of work just to prepare a cross-country flight, from Plotting Maps, to Navigation Logs ( calculation on our aircraft speed base on wind conditions, minimum fuel requirements, our estimated elapsed time to a destination and so on.. ), and then preparing a mass and balance sheet ( calculating the location of the aircraft's center of gravity, take off distance, and landing distance , etc... ). Lots of work had to be done in order prepare for navigation, and I hope I'll be able to master the skills required for Navigation soon !


                    Unfortunately , during my flight yesterday, nobody back-sitted me so I don't have any pics on my nav flight, however , the day before yesterday , I managed to backsit my own batch mate's nav flight, which according to him, also 'kelam-kabut'.. Here are the pics I manage to take..

On our way to Dabong, low clouds...  Hard to identify ground features..

Looked like the clouds was spiraling.. 

Looking abit busy inside..

On the right side of the Aircraft, dark clouds above and low clouds below..

And we diverted before reaching our destination because of the weather, as you can see as we turned this is how it looked like..

        On the other hand, here are pictures of my flight 2 days before yesterday, it was an instrument flight, and Captain Aung was my assigned instructor,he's a Burmese.. Was introduce into the 'unusual-attitude' exercise.. Unusual attitude is the simulation of our aircraft entering any abnormal conditions like a sudden extreme climb or a sudden extreme descend and we have to recover from those kind of conditions. Trust me, if you were sitting behind this flight, it'll probably be like a roller coaster ride, and the G-forces are Crazy! 

Before flight, going through checklist..

How to recover from an unusual attitude..

Entering an unusual attitude.. As you can see how high our aircraft's nose was pointing! Photo enlarged on purpose to give a clearer view of what it looked like!

Maintaining straight and level without looking outside, purely relying on the screen in front of me..

Quotes

 F.O Chun Wei, of the A330 fleet of MAS:

•    '' It is ok to do badly, you learn more by falling. Most important you find your way back up, fix the problem..''
•    '' You are James's son, he is a great photographer and he is dedicated to his work, that is why he is great, you can learn alot from him.''                                                                                                                       
•    ''Sometimes the closest help you can get is just around you..''

F.O Bryan See, of the B 737-800 fleet of MAS:

•   '' Navigation, do lots of preparation. Study the maps. Wind calculation etc. Know your whereabouts and situation awareness. ''  
•   '' Hand over controls when workload increases. If solo , choose to only do paperwork when stable  on a specific course.''                                                                                             

                                                                      
 Capt. Jackie ( Instructor ) :

•  ''First time Nav is like this, don't worry..''

  Ragu (graduated senior from HM and KLIFA) :

•  ''Try to draw out your routes and remember the steps. Remind  yourself why these steps are important .. No one is perfect on their first flight... And you  have many more to come..You'll ace it brother.''

Note: Would like to thank the kind seniors who have been helpful to me lately and to guide me through this. Thank you Guys! I'll be honored to fly with any of you one day on the right hand sit!