Haze

I thought i would be grounded when i reached the airport. The weather realli looked hazy and the visibility looked as if it was less than 2km. But hey, somehow i guess it worked out and I got to take off.

Then halfway doing landings...the weather deteriorated when i was doing runway change procedures. Couldn't see anything but grey at 1500 ft. Scary man...but the truth was that i felt really calm while flying as i had faith in God and my own flying abilities as well as Darshan. Amazing what a little thing like faith can do. (well maybe not so little.)

Now, accuracy in the circuit is the main focus. What I thought was right last time became wrong. I could not flare when i want or according to my own judgement but only by wat the AIP sayz is right. Oh well, fine. Accuracy leads to better, safer and more skilful flying anyway. haha.

In the end, Darshan told me to go for one more touch and go. But i called for landing during RT. Talk about disobedience. But the weather really went to shit and I knew we would have a hard time landing if we had to go around one more time. So...i called for landing. Darshan then tried to call the tower to amend it to T n G. But the tower told Darshan its better to make a landing. hehe. Guess my judgement is improving.

Man...O lvl results out tmr!!! and i gotta study for airlaw. exams on March 11.

This is the transcript for the radio transmissions between me and the ATC for the first solo.

" = ATC transcript
9OQ pronounced as Niner Oscar Quebec.

First Solo (ATC transcript)

"Seletar Ground, 9V-BOQ request taxi clearance for First solo, Detail 5 endurance 3 hours POB 3, Over."
"9OQ, confirm your POB 3?
"Uhh...correction POB 1. 9OQ. Sorry."
"Roger. Taxi to intermediate holding position Whiskey 3, Runway 03, QNH 1013."
"Whiskey 3, Zero-Three, 1013. 9OQ."
"Repeat, Intermediate holding position."
"Uhh..Roger, Intermediate holding position Whiskey 3. 9OQ."


"9OQ, clear to holding position Whiskey 3."
"Clear Whiskey 3, 9OQ"

"Niner-Oscar Quebec, changing to Tower."
"9OQ, Contact Seletar Tower at 118.45.
"118.45 Niner Oscar Quebec."

"Seletar Tower, Niner Victor Bravo Oscar Quebec request line-up Runway Zero Three."
"9OQ. Confirm you do not require backtrack?"
"Confirmed. Backtrack not required. 9OQ."
"Roger. Niner Oscar Quebec Line up and Hold."
"Line up and Hold. 9OQ."

"9OQ, Ready."
"9OQ, Hold position."
"Hold position 9OQ."

"9OQ Surface wind 040 10 knots. Clear for take-off."
"Clear take-off. 9OQ."

"Niner-Oscar Quebec. Downwind for Touch and Go."
"Niner-Oscar Quebec, confirm not full stop landing?"
"Negative...uhhh...correction 9OQ downwind to land."
"Roger, Niner-Oscar Quebec you are number 1."
"number 1. Niner-Oscar Quebec."

"Niner-Oscar Quebec, On Final."
"Niner-Oscar Quebec, surface wind 030 10 knots. Clear to Land."
"Clear to land.Niner-Oscar Quebec."

"Going Around! Niner Oscar Quebec. I am too high!."
"Roger, Go around Niner-Oscar Quebec."

"Niner Oscar Quebec turning left for early downwind."
"Niner-Oscar Quebec."
"Niner-Oscar Quebec Downwind to land."
"Niner-Oscar Quebec Number 1."
"Number 1 Niner Oscar Quebec."

"Niner-Oscar Quebec, On Final."
"Niner-Oscar Quebec, Surface wind 040 11 knots Clear to land."
"Clear to land. Niner-Oscar Quebec."

(After good landing on centreline.)

"Niner-Oscar Quebec, Whiskey 2 to vacate."
"Roger. Niner-Oscar Quebec, Whiskey 2."
"Whiskey 2 Niner-Oscar Quebec."
"Niner-Oscar Quebec changing to Ground."
"Niner-Oscar Quebec."

"Seletar Ground, Niner Victor Bravo Oscar Quebec request taxi to parking bay Bravo 8."
"Niner-Oscar Quebec Taxi Approved."
"Approved. Niner-Oscar Quebec."

(End)

Oww!

Lets just say today was not a good day. I suffered injuries both physical and ego.

It started off well actually. Flying with Loxo in his plane. THen there was this new female ATC controller i nv hear b4. Man...She has a very sexy voice. :P Lolz.. Too bad she was relieved after abt 10 mins tho. Hope she is on duty the next time I fly cuz her instructions also veri clear and easy to understand.

Loxo's touchdown wasn't too smooth. But i still think its pretty good considering his approach was veri veri smooth. Then, after landing, go for lunch and then do our RT practical. Man its gonna be a very difficult test to pass.

After that it was my turn to fly. And this is why i had a bad day. I was adjusting my sunglasses on my spare specs since the usual one was at the optician. Then...i didn;t see where i was going and the next thing i knew was that i had been knocked out for abt 5-10 seconds. Why? I had apparently walked into the flaps of a Beech Super King Air. I managed to stagger towards the Cessna to lean on it....Ouch...I think i may have gotten a concussion. That was when a laughing Zhi Cheng came up...telling me how funny it was how i crashed into the wing...how i lay down there...and how i staggered....grrrr...call it retribution since i laughed at him the other day for bumping his head against the Cessna's wing.

With the pain...i continued to fly tho. Luckily i didn't do too badly for the 1st few landings. Not the best but still ok. Then...during the flapless i did sth stupid. The wind blew me off the centreline. I reacted by pressing full right rudder and the plane went into a slip and i counteracted by full left rudder. Bad idea. The plane went off course and Darshan had to take over and we had to go around. Damn...Next time i know better.

Another time was cuz of my foolhardiness. (That bump must have affected my judgement.) I ballooned on purpose and decided to put power in like i saw Darshan did. Until i rmb that i forgot how much power to put. I put too much power and the plane went off course again. Diaoz....Call it "Ge Kiang".

Then we did radio failure procedures. That was fun...flying pass the tower and rocking the wings. My last landing was a pretty good one. Altho it was not on centreline. Still acceptable tho.

Feeling veri dizzy now...Must go put ice on the balaku.

Low Flying

I was late meeting Zhi Cheng and Darshan at the club. Luckily they hadn't left for the plane without me yet. So I did the pre-flight with Lox. He was flying first. So i sat behind in the back took some videos and pics plus i got to relax and enjoy the scenery and feeling of flight without being in control. Can say that I trust Lox with the plane already though he scared the hell out of me when he stalled on one of his low flight circuit landings. Yikes...BUMP! The plane fell all of 5 feet onto the tarmac. Lucky for the seatbelt.

After 1 hr. It was my turn. I accomplished the normal circuits easily (very familiar liaoz). The flapless in 2 attempts and the glide on my first attempt. Hahaha. Then,came the Low flight circuit. Boy o boy that was hard. flying realli low and slow. then landing with 60 kts speed with 30 deg flaps. Damn easy to stall. I bounced the plane on one approach. The short field take-off was ok. Pretty fun stepping full breaks with the plane on full power. Then u let go and the plane zooms away. WOooo!
Must improve my shortfield. out of 3 tries I onli did 1 good one. The other 2 were not so good. But hey, it is my first time doing that.

Next flight must wait till Sat. Wonder when will i be able get back to Area Alpha.

Glide and Flapless [Flying into the sunset]

The visibiliy was not good today. Pity though since Weber went for his joyride todae. I had to also wait for Darshan as he went flying with the RSFC's TB9.

When we were finally airborne, yikes, no reference point on the Malaysian side. Lousy visibility. I made both of my normal circuit landings well down tho. Then Darshan demonstrated the Flapless approach. Going in low just over the trees was frigging exciting. I did the flapless ok but i did balloon a bit b4 touchdown. Still relatively soft tho.

The Glide landing was hard. Its really all about judgement. I would have liked to have gone in high but, hey i thought of trying to go in low and slow so i extended the base leg a little. But hey ended up without enough altitude and airspeed. So if i had continued the glidem would have landed short of the runway. I knew that i wouldn't make it becoz we were skimming the tree tops. Oh well, next time I'll stick with my earlier judgement. Go in high and put 30 deg flaps if necessary. Then the visibility got even worse and we were forced to land.

Flying with Loxo on Monday. Ought to be fun.

Post-Solo Consolidation.

Argh today didn't go well at all. I think i have been jinxed... In school during PE i kept making mistakes during soccer...which led to 1 goal conceded to be my fault...then i tio 20 pumping for goofing off..... and a few other thing i dun feel like recalling....

Flying same...i had to rush to the airport with Darshan waiting in the acft...late...then the landings didn't go too well....the first landing was ok...but darshan sae i nv round up enuff...but hey it was on the centreline and wasn't too hard. True that i didn't flare enuff....the rest were not so good....oncei dragged the plane in cuz the plane couldn't lose the speed. Another few times were because the plane couldn't seem to descend even tho i flare damn hard.... But all the landings were considered safe tho.... Well the main prob is the seating...i accidentally lowered the seat and hitched it to some angle....which did not suit me and kept quite abt it...

Haiz...It did seem tt i was jinxed tho...but oh well i shall blame it on my complacency after the solo. Will do better the next time. I wanna go on to Steep turns..hehe

First Solo

After the 1st Solo.

Mixture Rich
Carb heat Cold
Magnetos BOTH
.....
My heart was thumping realli hard as i was doing these checks b4 taxiing to the runway. I was really nervous being alone in the cockpit for the first time. I made an error in transmission to the Seletar Ground as i read the old info and forgetting that the Persons on Board was 1 and not 3. (I read 3.)

After getting permission from Ground to taxi behind a Learjet to the holding position i had to wait and do my power checks. After watching the Lear take-off. I called tower to ask for line-up on runway 03. then...the tower asked me if i need to backtrack...I was like thinking "Huh? Only one person on board lah. Plane so light sure no need backtrack to the end to take off rite?" So i replied no need. I was however wondering if the tower was screwing around with a first solo trainee cause they never asked this qns b4. Loxo had warned me about this.

My suspicions were confirmed when i was made to wait for a damn long time on the runway. Think ATC was waiting for me to get impatient and shout at them. hahaha but nope it gave me time to pray. Well i already prayed while taxiing to the runway. Managed to say 1 Lord's prayer, 1 Hail Mary and a stanza from a Flyer's prayer.
Then came the clearance. I opened the throttle all the way to full power and soon AIRBORNE. A very big cheshire grin spread across my face. IT FEELS SOOO DAMN GOOD! This shit-eating grin lasted all the through shutdown.

I became extremely calm after the take-off. Yet, I was at the same time excited. So its a good thing cause i knew exactly what to do. However turning on downwind i gave an error in radio call haha...I tot it was touch and go when it was supposed to be landing. Made the correction quick and right tho. My approach was a little high and I was debating with myself whether i should make the 30 deg flaps landing or whether i should Go-Around. Well, I chose Go-around. hahaha why? gives me more solo air-time to enjoy :P

The 2nd Circuit was good. No errors whatsoever. I turned left for early downwind after the go-around. Then the approach was good. Steady as She goes. I said the 1st stanza of the Pilot's prayer during the 1st downwind and the 2nd(last) stanza during the Final of the 2nd approach. Everything was ok...then shucks...wind came in...i got blown a little off the centerline...NO WAY! i'm not settling for anything less than a good soft landing on the centreline.....

"C'mon baby.....Hold steady...C'mon girl...don't balloon..."
"C"MON! baby....YEAH!"

And yep i held her airborne long enough to maintain direction control enough to make a real soft touchdown on the centreline. Nothing is more satisfying in flying than a good landing.

After that...Taxied back to Bay Bravo 8...shut her down...said a silent prayer of thanks to God who was my co-pilot for my solo.....got down to receive congratulations from Dad and Darshan. My First solo was over. But there will be more Solos to come. I landed but my heart was still up there. I can't wait for more! My first solo flight will forever be etched in my memory. Truly this is a special day.

First Solo: 12/02/2005
Aircraft: Cessna 172N 9V-BOQ
Pilot: Colin Chu






There are many prayers for pilots. This prayer sort of came to me when i was reading the bible. I referred to Psalm 23 for help and sort of replaced words and added some. So perhaps its not too original. But it is comforting and soothing. This helped in my calmness during the first solo.

A Pilot's prayer.

Lord, Though I Fly through the valley of the shadow of Death.
I shall Fear no Evil. For You are with me.
Thou art my Co-pilot, thy guidance and thy love comfort me.

Lord, Even as I Fly through the stormiest skies,
I shall Fear no Evil. For You are with me.
In faith that Your guiding hands shall save me.
That You will lift me up on Eagle's wings.

Amen.

Pre-Solo

Ok...I knew this flight was the pre-solo..i had to perform well enough so Darshan could see i was ready. Dad came along for the ride haha. With Camera ready of course. Dad is a photography freak haha.

Take-off went fine...Everything went as per normal. I made a total of 2 touch and gos and 1 landing. The first was not so good...30 degrees flaps cuz i was high and i sorta landed to the left of the runway. Then...i tried to turn to the centerline. Should not have done that since the plane was still at a high speed. Might stress the tires. Lesson learnt. 2nd T and G was ok...the 3rd which was a landing was good..direct on centreline.

After vacating the runway...Darshan made some radio calls which asked us to go to Bay Alpha 1 instead of the usual Bravo 7 or 8. I knew that it was time for me to solo.

Heart pounding, Mind buzzing and Hands shaking I parked the plane and that's when Dad shook my hand and gave me an assuring look and Darshan who gave me the 'I know-you-can-do-it' look. With quick good lucks. They were out and heading to the tower with me alone in the Cessna 172N Skyhawk.

She will take care of me. She would feel good in my hands and do as I will her. She would respond so sweetly to my gentle touches on the throttle and yoke. That empty seat beside me is not quite so empty for...God will be my Co-Pilot. Amen

CCTS 7 [Early morning run]

Had to wake up really early todae and i forgot my pass. So had to go back and take. So I was a little late in meeting Darshan at the plane. Still he wasn't too bothered except he seemed in a hurry to take-off...it was only after the plane was lined up at the runway before i had control.

The RSFC's Tampico was up with us today doing circuits as well. I was still feeling the adrenaline rush from rushing to the plane. During the approach ...I did almost everything right. 65 kts airspeed, 20 deg flaps, centreline approach, rudder control. The landing was quite soft too...so yeah a good landing. The 2nd approach was even better! It was all perfect...my landing, although not exactly on centerline, was soooo soft that it could hardly be felt. A feather landing...Man that felt great. The other 2 landings i made were average i guess haha..prolly because a strong wind picked up...Still not bad tho.

Actually, i had made a total of abt 7 approaches but only 4 landings becasue i had to go around 3 times...once was no choice...got plane on runway...but the other 2 Darshan's instructions.

I was making another almost perfect approach with 30 deg flaps and I was already lined up with the centerline...it was gonna be another feather landing...then suddenly Darshan said "Go around". I was like pretty annoyed...I know its for practice for my going arounds. But i just can't help but feel I was screwed out of a good landing....TWICE!!! Oh well... The go around was fun tho.

Did a practice orbit and Darshan demonstrated a tight Orbit. Orbiting was fun...which meant doing a 360 level turn. the tight orbit was better...although it was darshan doing it. But! we went to like 60 deg bank thus the force of gravity was double 2Gs. hahaha i love the feeling of getting pressed into the seat by an invisible hand.

I have to salute the ATC. The airspace was quite clear the first 20 mins. But after that it was REALLY busy. 1 CASA, 1 Cessna 172(me),3 YFC piper Warriors. The radio chatter was very continuous. But it was fun to hear all the exchange which included mine.

Darshan was saying tt the plane may have to go into maintenance tmr...i was like NOO!! I was gonna solo tmr and the plane has to go maintenace...Well if that happens...haf to settle for RT Ground practical den...haiz. but please....let the plane be airworthy...so i can at least go for my solo b4 maintenance...

CCTS 6 [Route to Solo]

After 1 Whole week of not flying. This is like a liberation. Finally get to slip the surly bonds of Earth again. And Hey hey hey...I get to be the passenger this time. hahaha. I made arrangements with Loxo(zhi chen) and Darshan. i would be the passenger seating behind and when Loxo was flying and vice-versal. That lucky ass soloed liaoz. Well he's 3 hrs ahead of me anywayz...so its onli fair if i solo 3 hrs or less later.

Its pretty fun seating in the back snapping pics and being able to enjoy the sensation and scenery of flight. hahaha. Loxo's landings were ok i guess with a pretty hard landing with his last circuit. I actually bumped upwards, lucky for the safety belt tho. I must say that i was wishing that it wld be quickly my turn to fly tho. No pilot prefers to be in a plane piloted by another other than himself.

After landing, Loxo and I switched places. He took the pics and relaxed while its my turn to do circuits. Route for my solo. I had some compliments from Darshan for positive RT actions hehe. (i learnt my lesson.)

I made abt 4 landings todae (6 total landings, 2 by darshan.) Pretty strong wind todae. VERY windy...the little Cessna was blown easily of course. hahaha lucky i got positive control on the approach. I must say i did pretty well todae... the 1st 2 landings were pretty smooth altho not on centreline. Darshan said they were good tries. the 3rd was not so good but still a soft landing...but it was drifted quite some distance from the center. the 4th one i ballooned but managed to touch her down ok. Made a mistake in contacting ground tho. but haha minor error i guess..but will take not of that.

WEll..Route to Solo...1 more lesson for consolidation after CNY on fridae...then the next dae....shud be solo liaoz if i can keep up my performance now. Dad shud be going up with me for my pre-solo flight haha. hope he doesn't get airsick.