Tee Bee Niner

After a few days of panic, before my COE expires on friday, I finally managed to snivel a couple flights from Republic of SIngapore Flying Club. I'm rather peeved actually with how my club's instructor for not answering my calls and smses. In the end, had to hit the panic button and call RSFC.

Not a bad choice actually, seeing that I get to fly a different airplane. The Socata TB-9 Tampico.
Beautiful plane from the outside, even the cockpit looks nice and advanced. Too bad I was late and had no time to enjoy and take in the view before flying. I was running from the clubhouse onto the tarmac. Flight instructor already had the plane engine up and running before I even reached the aircraft. Seemed like a scramble scenario from a fighter pilot movie.

Into the aircraft! Headsets on! Finally I get to shake hands with C.S Lee my instructor for that flight. He just landed a Silkair flight at Changi and rushed over to instruct and help me get my COE done. Bless him. So then, we carried on.
Pre-take off checks. Time to get acquainted with the new plane. Everything here is switches and electrical switches. Definitely a lot more advanced than the Cessna.
"9V-BOZ, runway available 1500 feet, backtrack RW21 clear for take-off!"
Ah! The sexy voice lady ATC! Her voice is so clear with feminine warmth that it jerked me out of my reverie with the checklist and proceeded to take off.
Take-off speed 65, climb at 75. Flaps up after 200 ft.

First thing one notices when flying the TB-9 is its unusual nose attitude. Its much higher than that of the Cessna. So much so that you can't really see forward of the nose at level attitude and at normal power. Its rather like flying on instrument. Ah, but the view from the top, rear and the sides. Good visibility all around. If you ask me, put a 200 HP engine on this baby and it'll be perfect. That way, lower nose attitude, perfect visibility all round.

Flying-wise, I personally felt that handling a new aircraft really put a lot of workload and I was behind the aircraft much of the time. I wasn't Aviating, Navigating and Communicating as well as I should have. But that got better as the flight went on. Flying with C.S was so much more relaxing than flying w Darshan. But no doubt both have their own way of teaching and both are effective.

Apparently, I have a v bad habit of taking my hands off the throttle to fly with both hands on the control. That did not go too well with Capt. Lee and he said so. Logic is so you can have power when you need it that split second. Similary he did not like the way I extended my fingers when I used the throttle. Reason: The mixture control is right next to the throttle and I could accidentally kill the engine by pulling the mixture accidentally.

So, level turns, steep turns and then Stalls. The TB-9 does not pitch over when it stalls and just falls like a rock while maintaining nose attitude. They've changed the stall warning to a continuous pulsing beep. Good! I hated the stall warning the last time I flew the TB9 eons ago.
It was a horrific loud shriek at the moment of stall. Does one's heart no good.
I felt I was rather sloppy at stalling. I lost 300 ft on the first stall. No good. 2nd time was better. 200 feet. And that's hte amount that should be lost according to Capt Lee. If you lose less means that you were cheating and did not stall. (Bet Darshan would argue with that seeing in the cessna we could recover below 200 feet.)

Lots of aircraft in Area Alpha. Choppers flitting around. SYFC flying about. They kept their distances today. Nothing interesting on that score. Lightning bolts seen from residual storm clouds around Singapore. Rather disconcerting.

Back to Seletar for recovering, PFL and boy the TB-9 is a heavy bitch. She sinks really fast. Its rather ironic, she looks sleek and sexy from the outside but she's heavy! Its like Catherine zeta Jones having the weight of Queen Latifah!
Apparently, the nose attitude is really different when it comes to landing as well. It seemed to me on short final we were about to fly into the ground. Boy my heartbeat doubled and I pulled up on the stick. Went on for 2 more approaches
1st
FI: "No no, that's too much nose up!"
Me: (In my mind) 'Too late, if I nose down now we'll bounce'
"BAM! heavy touchdown.

2nd
FI: " Too early a flare! Get the nose down!"
Me: (in my mind) 'Another 2 seconds and we'll be a dent in the runway. Thats early?"
BAM! Heavy touchdown.

3rd
Me: Ok, tell me when my nose attitude is OK
FI: This is ok, hold hold hold
Me: '(In my mind) This is crazy! We'll 3 pointer the aircraft!
Smooth touchdown.

All 3 landings were by the FI account was alright. Even the first 2. But a pilot landing in fear wondering if he's doing the right thing has fouled up already by being unsure!
We made a total of 8 landings. By the end I got the hang of it and made a rather smooth touchdown with a Stop and go.

4 important differences
1) Nose Attitude is very different
2) Nose Attitude does not drop during a stall
3) TB-9 uses a fin stabiliser and not an elevator. Therefore, its more responsive as the entire tailfin moves
4) Low wing acft and heavy. Sinks v fast.

All in all, a great flight. A great pleasure to fly with C.S Lee. I'll hope to do so more often next time. I still like the Cessna 172. Its more direct, straightforward and forgiving. No lies or pretentiousness. But I must say the TB-9 is a nice plane to fly

COE renewal [C172]

Haven't flown in a while.

Had a couple 'solo' flights with my SFC flight instructor 2 weeks ago. Clocked 3 hours. Not enough. One requires 5 hrs to maintain his PPL in Singapore.
Those last 2 flights were pretty interesting. (Every flight is)
What was interesting is that I bounced the plane on landing. Something that only happened a couple times when I was still an SPL.
Oh and 4 sparrows decided to play chicken with the Cessna on take off upwind. My reaction was less that stellar having let my pilot hat collect dust for a year.
Me: "OH JESUS!!"
CFI: What?
Me: "DID YOU SEE THAT!? Those sparrows!"
CFI: Oh... carry on, turn left for 310."
[Flight continues.]

Other than that. All went well.

CCTS Evaluation.

Waited for so long to get this flight. Last time I flew was February and it was the Area A evaluation. 9V-BOQ has been dogged with problems lately, engine starter needed replacing and last week the pilot seat backing fell backwards.

I spent at least 2 hrs of last night on Flight Sim X practicing circuits on RW 03.
Spent the morning mental flying before meeting TC for brunch at Dempsey.
Later, wouldn't you know it, but at 1530 the active runway was 21 not 03 as I had practiced for. Uh-oh.

Take-Off went smoothly. Felt a little rusty, after not flying for 3 months. The wind was quite strong today as I saw the windsock was more than 3/4 extended. The first circuit was low and I had to drag the plane in. No-go. Never mind, just the first try. I'll get it right next.

2nd approach wasn't so good. The height was right except that a sudden gust of wind blew me off course as i was touching down. I was using the crab technique and couldn't compensate in time. Not a very smooth landing as I touched down, lifted back into the air and touched down again. Luckily its not a bounce.
"Uh...You sure you've got a PPL?" Darshan says while grinning. Damn.

3rd Approach, I had it wired and so it was onto flapless. Pretty low for the 1st and the landing was also a 2 touch. I pulled back on the controls a tad too much and the plane lifted off and I was like "Whoa damn!" before letting OQ settle down again.
2nd Flapless was fine and then we switched to glide.

The wind was pretty strong at about 10-15 knots and Darshan made me cut the engine a little earlier. So I cut into final and then we were a little high so I put flaps to 20. Geez...still high and the nose is still not low enough. Maximum flaps!
Ok, so now we're going down fast and the wind's still strong.... Just nice enough! I was on glide slope and settled down towards the aiming point where I had aimed to land at 1500ft. Spot on landing! YES! Now onto low-level approach.

That was quite ok as well. Darshan said he had no complains after we landed.
Good to finally get back my solo priveleges. One interesting thing that happened during the flight was that on one downwind leg, an eagle flew head on towards the plane and pulled up and away in time to prevent a collision. But still close enough to see its eyes. Cool! I love those birds. As long as they don't foul up my engine or splatter onto the windscreen.

It really felt good to be back in the air after so long. I'm back! The aviator, adventuror, daredevil spirit. is still very much alive. And so am I.

With pride.

I guess SISPEC isn't so bad a number after all.

When my morale is low, all I want to do is to get out of being a trainee and be in unit like MP, signals or Air force. I guess I still want RSAF cause I can be an ATC. I have experience in that. And its a shift job so I can go home after my shift is done. I want that!

Then again, sometimes when morale is high, I want to chiong swah and go to Guards.
I want the pride of wearing the Khaki beret. But the thing is I don't think I'll relish the pain. A trade-off is required. No Pain, no gain.

So I guess I will express interest in the Air Force and MP, but I'll still do my best so I will have a chance at Guards. And where they post me, I'll accept it.

Freedom.

Flew my first sortie since March. I was solo after about 3 months of not flying. Boy did I feel rusty when I stepped into the 9V-BOQ cockpit. The moment you perceive the control panel, the brain starts cranking into gear and whirls. "Uh-oh what's this knob? Oh its the mixture control...and this is the throttle...ah the Master switch..." and so on and so on. It was like being reacquainted with a loved one you've not seen for a few months. Not to mention of the joy of seeing her when I stepped onto the tarmac.

Darshan was flying with another student in the other Cessna. I was right behind and then they rolled onto the runway and took off just before I did. Felt some sort of weird feeling watching my instructor taking another student up right before I did.
2 years ago I was in that position. Felt like a old hand now though I am not.

I was really rusty at first. Could not keep ahead of the aircraft. She was flying me instead of myself flying her as Darshan would say. I was actually furious at myself for flying so sloppily. You don't feel good flying bad. Slowly though, as the minutes past, what I've been taught about flying just comes back. I start to regain the instincts so familiar to me since I before I last sat on this seat.


The first landing was quite sloppy. But as I did more circuits they obviously got better. I even passed the no-power glide landing standards! Both times I tried it! Wow. That's instinct and skill. Luck may have something to do with it too. Can't explain the feeling that I felt while landing the aircraft. Only that feelings of excitement, fear and joy had crept over me each time I was on final approach all the way to touchdown.

I wonder why some pilots stop flying. Sure, while in NS I was detached from the aviation world with the exception of seeing airliners coming into to land at Changi. Yet, I somehow also felt connected to it by the action of keeping an eye on the aircraft as long as I can till it passes out of sight. Some pilots just stop flying after a period of time when they are separated from the flying club. Why? Its easy to forget the magic that the feeling of flight gives while you are away. But when one is at it again back at the controls of his airplane, it all comes back. The excitement, the stress, the fantastic feeling of controlling one's destiny even if maybe for just an hour.

7 weeks in.

7 weeks in the army now.
Life sucks in there.
No freedom.
Brain is deterioting.
I like the soldiering.
I hate the regimentation.
I hate the politics.
I wish I could be a civilian again.

I don't care where I'm gonna be posted. Infantry, Guards, MP or whatever.
Its boring in there. There's no excitement that I thought there might be.
I want more missions. Instead of freaking PTs and SOCs which I so hate. I tear my hands each time I do the monkey bar or climb the low rope. I so despise the chao keng assholes. Integrity mean nothing to them. I;m glad I'm not like them.
But then again, my enthusiasm is waning. I started out full of fire and now after just 7 weeks, the bonfire is now just a candle flame.

On a lighter note. I learnt that cough mixture and wine is the perfect combination to get drunk. I had cough and after taking the codeine which the MO gave one night during book out. Wenbiao came over and we had a bottle of Trentham Pinot. After like 2 or 3 glasses I conked out.

End of Civvie. Start of Army/

4 hours from enlisting.

Today, I will start serving my country. All I know is that I'll do my best.
Part of me is excited. Can't wait to face the challenges. Can't wait to learn and train to be a soldier. Yet, another part of me is scared that I'll screw up and be less than the man I think I am or hope to be.

I'll stand by my values. Honour, Courage, Responsibility and Loyalty.
As long as I adhere to these principles, I can't fail.

So help me God.

I gave my body more punishment today than the entire Jan and Feb combined. I think I did about a 100 push ups or more today.Pretty little I know. But still at least I tried. As I will in NS.

I've decided. I want to be a Guardsman. Army Guards. The Khaki Berets. The Chopper troops. I've decided. If I'm going to fight. I want to fight with the best. After Commandos, Guards are the elite.

I used to think I want to join the Infantry. But I guess I rather be a Guardsman and get to go offense and kick ass than sit on my ass and get kicked. The Infantry I hear always get their asses kicked by the Guards. Armour or Arty wouldn't be too bad I suppose. At least they're specialised and get to play with the big toys.

I watched a video on MINDEF website about the 1st 100 days in NS. I felt pretty patriotic after watching it. Its really good propaganda. But I do believe in what LKY said. "If you who are growing up do not understand that we've got to defend Singapore. In the end I say we lose."

I do believe I'm serving my country. Not wasting 2 years of my life.
I do believe I'll do my best. Not go in there to chao keng.
I do believe I'll make a good soldier. Not a slacker.
I do believe I've got what it takes to lead and to be lead.

3 more days. Gotta go get my stuff ready.

3 days left....

God... I'm feeling so freaking shitty. As far as I'm concerned. My holiday is over. I'm already in the army. I'm giving myself calisthenics everyday. I'm forcing myself to wake up early.

Got all my stuff I think. Gonna start packing up tonight. After that maybe tekan myself again. Or I ought to get Dad to do it to me. Nah. Bad Idea. I'd probably laugh.

Brandon's gone in today. TC, Sam and a few other's tmr. Dan and Elonn on the 12th. Next will be me. Hope I don't get shitbirds, non-hackers or ten-percenters in my section. Or if I do. Hope they don't get the whole section into trouble. Probably will though. Gotta do the best I can to keep me and my buddies in one piece.

3 more days. Gonna really workout. Working out later at 5pm