scrubs.

I think I'm going into depression.

My routine in the evening for the past 3 days has been the same.
-Drink Wine.
-Watch Scrubs and laugh till my gut hurts.
-Get in a lousy mood after scrubs ends.
-play another episode.
-Laugh some more
-Drink more wine.
-Brush my teeth after I get giddy.
-Laugh hysterically till I cry in bed.
-Pass out.

Yes. I think I'm going into depression.

Flight to tioman Part 2.: The circuits

Sut and Me after landing. Darshan's in e background. I'm looking the O-so-confident hotshot flyboy. That's so gonna change in a couple hours time.



After lunch in tioman on the 14th, We headed back to the airfield. Me, Darshan, Jon and Zhi Cheng (Sut). Time to do my mandatory 5 take-offs and landings there. Sut would do 2 for experience.

Tekek airport has a duty-free shop that has plenty of nice wine in there. Cheap since there was no duty paid. Too bad can't bring back to singapore. I told myself I'd stop by to get one when I come back next week for diving.

Ok now in the aircraft and after start-up. I taxi out to the runway and Darshan insists that we make use of every inch we got since its a short runway. Ok...I won't forget to lower flaps this time before take-off. Flaps ten. Full Power! and holding on the breaks. Release breaks!

The aircraft jumps forward and accelerates nicely. I stare at the airspeed as it increases. 50knots! Rotate! I pull back on the stick and she lifts off the ground and we get closer to that hill infront of us. Finally, at 200 feet up, turn left and retract flaps and gain more speed. Now we're flying!






If only the landings could be as fun. we did at 180 degree turn and immediately flew right base for runway 20. Low level technique slow to 65knots. Tioman Info tells us there's about 10 knots tailwind out there. This is certainly bad news. I want my speed up. 65 to 70 I figured should be enough.

As we turned final at about 300 feet. Oops I turned a little late and ARGH the damn hill on the left is getting closer and Darshan screams at me to stay in control! Then I turn the control to the right but she's reluctant to respond! DAMN! CROSSWIND AND TAILWIND!Darshan manhandles the plane to the right. Ok that's the way to do it now there's the runway... and I put her down rather rough on the runway. Atleast I'm down. We wave to some watching local kids as we taxied past them. Take-off again.

Now. This next approach was one of the scariest I've ever made in my life. Everything goes well until the turn to final when suddenly the airspeed jumps from 65 to about 45 knots... 'WEAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!" the stall warning snaps on! ARGH HOLY SHIT! I shout out loud. thoughts flash through my mind: "STALL!WINDSHEAR!GET THE NOSE DOWN!WE'RE DEAD!GET THE NOSE DOWN!" So I pushed the column and the plane noses over and now we're headed for the freaking ground at high speed. Darshan's presence and maybe God's saves our 2 collective asses. Darshan regains the control of the airplane jus in time for me to take over and land on the runway... OMG. I never breathed so hard or felt so scared in an airplane before, not even on that stormy landing in Senai. Sut and Jon must be getting good videos of this from the tarmac where i left them.

Somehow this sick thought goes through my mind which I don't forget: I wished that I was flying solo so if I somehow crash I'd just kill myself and not Darshan. And I could at least do my racetrack low-level approach instead of the right base approach.I hate the sight of flying towards those hills at such low speed. When you're fast you can turn on a dime. When ur slow the wind easily blows you towards the hill and you can't turn fast enough.

God I dunno how Darshan does it. Risking his life everyday flying with student pilots who could easily screw up. And he's been doing this for more than 20 years!
Now, with his experience. I should have realised that I'm as safe as could be. But I was having none of this epiphany at that time. Morbid thoughts start. "Hmm...those hills look real hungry today." "If I somehow make it through this alive I'm gonna have a cigar..." "Hmmm...I wonder which picture will be used in my funeral..." "Argh I don't wanna die on this damn island." Those random thoughts flashed through. Ridiculous I know. But they just did.

As a result, after the 3rd take-off I was breathing so hard and nearly hyperventilating. I was actually contemplating to give up flying the last 3 approach but the thought extinguished itself as quickly as it got there. Whatever I may be...I'm no coward. I'll die doing this if I have to.

"CAPTAIN COLIN CHU!" Darshan booms and chuckles, "You are finally working hard!"
I was initially furious when I saw him chuckling having fun at my expense.
Turns out it was a hidden compliment. Seems prior to this everything in flight training that was thrown at me I handled coolly. Which was true. But...man this tioman landing is one bitch of a task to master or even do.

BUMP! We hit a turbulance from the ridge lift. The plane ascends 100feet in 3 second and the plane shudders. I fight to get back to 500 feet and turn and look at Darshan with a frightened wide-eyed look. I must have looked really comical or funny because Darshan burst into laughter, which in turn, relaxed me as well cuz laughter is infectious. "Ok I'll show you one approach." Man...He's skilled. Cause the next approach was beautiful. I've got to come back here to tioman at least a few more times before I can even hope to make such a good approach.

4th approach. Wind still 10 knots tailwind and crosswind. This time, I got in control and managed not to overshoot final that much. The landing was ok. I was muttering "I think I got this wired...Ok Darshan I think I got this wired..."

The last and final approach...Hmm...I think I manhandled her a wee bit too much.
Now, one thing about airplanes that you have to understand is that they, just like girls, don't like being manhandled. I wrenched to prevent her from overshooting final and instead we were headed towards some coconut trees to the right of the runway so me and Darshan were both on the controls shouting "I HAVE CONTROL!" But anyway, we managed to get her lined up and I did a rather sloppy landing due to the lack of time to position. At least we're down.
Sut and Jon showed me the video and they were pretty shocked at my less than stellar touchdown and approach. I was too to be honest. That's it.

After I got off the airplane. I took Sut's camera and headed off to the grass patch where he took the pics and vids from. I saw a Berjaya Air pilot and went over to him immediately and shook his hand. "I dunno how you guys can do this approach every day man. Well done! You guys rock!"


Sut didn't do too bad from the view of the ground. but it seemed there was also chaos in the cockpit. Anyway, after his 2nd landing... I ran, still shaken mind you, to the airplane to embark on the final leg back home.

HOMEWARD BOUND!

Flight to tioman. Part One.

I knew this would be a memorable flight. But little did I know that the challenge of landing in tioman wld be more than what I bargained or hoped for.

I jumped out of bed and rushed off to seletar after breakfast with Mom and Dad. After clearing Customs and all with Zhi Cheng, Jon and Darshan we immediately went to the aircraft for pre-flight.

Here's a catch about flying overseas: We have to wear Lifejackets. Its not only uncomfortable but real hot as well. Anyway, we took off shortly using a shortfield technique. (I forgot to put flaps till Darshan reminded me. Uh-oh guess I was still sleepy.)

I have to improve my flight navigation. I forgot all about danger areas and plotted a route right thru one. Uh-oh! Darshan gave me flak for that. 7 out of 9 lives left he said. LOL! Anyway, we flew towards Kota Tinggi and then Kampong Sedili Besar. Darshan gave me all sorts of distractions to teach me how to calculate our posit. He also taught me how to use the VOR. Cool. One more insurance in case I ever get lost.

After reaching Mersing VOR, we turned 020 degrees heading direct for tioman. Wow. My first over water flight. The sea was beautiful...as was the clouds. As I was starting to get mesmerised, Darshan snapped me out of it by asking "What do you do if there is an engine failure now?" I was like.."huh? head for the island there!"....
then he said "Start looking out for ships! So you can fly alongside and ditch. For now that island with the beach will do."

You know...Christopher Columbus must have had this undescribable feeling when he saw land after many weeks sailing at sea. He must have had this feeling when he found the New World after many weeks at sea. Well, in my case...suddenly out of the clouds, the large island of Tioman came into sight and I felt the feeling I think Columbus felt so many years ago. Or maybe even like those like Amelia Earhart, or Charles Lindbergh

One thing about this flight was that I expected that I was supposed to be instructed. I thought this was an instructional flight. Instead, whenever I asked questions to clarify what i'm supposed to do. He would reply "You are the Captain. You are in command so you decide." I felt since this was my first time to tioman, I thought he'd explain how to do the approach and land here. But nooo... Samae answer.
Fine, I thought, be that way. I can handle this!

I started looking around for the runway. YES! Spotted it and then as the whole runway and airport came into view, I was suddenly not so confident anymore. HOLY COW! hills on all 3 sides and the sea is on the other 1 side. And the runway was sooo short! Oh wow. This is gonna be one hell of an approach. I was at 1500 feet so I descended to about 800 and made teh base turn to final. DAMN! Too high! I cursed and shouted "SHIT! GO AROUND!" Full Power, flaps up and climb away from those darn hills and that mountain in front of me. Ok I was too high then. So I'll go low this time. Whoa, 500 feet and then descend to 300 feet adjacent the runway and ok base turn to final...Good Lord! we're low! Yes! I can make it! There's the runway....touchdown! NOW BRAKE before you go through the mountain at the end of the runway! YES! made it. Oh Cripes. I forgot to retract flaps while braking. Darshan reams me out for that.



Whew! What a approach. I was sweating bullets all the way down man... Ok... We've made it. Zhi Cheng and Jon took some pics and vids of the landing as you can see. Then, we headed via jeepney to this restaurant at Berjaya beach for a scrumptious lunch of seafood. What a view of the beach. Beautiful scenery.

I'll continue next time.

Wine and Dine.

I had one of the best dinners in my life yesterday. My God! Good service. Good Ambience. Good Food and Wine. Best of all, good company. Life is good. Vida es Buenas!

16 goodwood avenue. Couo Bistro. Wenbiao, Brandon, TC and I went there after going to the Uni open house. First we went to this wine cellar for Biao to go pick his Riesling. Turns out there was only one type of Riesling there but I encouraged the buy cause its German and most German Rieslings are good stuff. I was really tempted to go buy a 1998 Chateau Laroze. But I decided I'll save up first before getting that.

We actually wanted to eat at this place called Sebastien's. But one look at the menu and corkage charges and the price of the in-house wine was enought to make us lose our appetites. Each bottle costs liked minimum 120 bucks! :(

Then we walked on in hope of going to a better (and less costly) place. But Biao and I had already sworn to each other we're gonna have wine with good food tonight. So we came to Couo Bistro and had a look. The head waiter was really friendly. (he later introduced himself as Rudy.) I saw several good wines and the prices were quite reasonable. Plus Rudy let us use the private table in the VIP room with a pond inside. WOW! All of us were for the place.

Basically, for the appetizer, we had tappas which was full of excellent seafood like escargots, soft shell crab and goose liver and calamari. To top it off, Rudy waived the corkage charge for Biao's Riesling so we had the wine to go with the seafood. Its the first time i've had Riesling and I must say I loved it! That's it man! Sauvignon Blanc has been ousted from its throne of my fave whites. Riesling is now the King of Whites for me. Brandon said he doesn't appreciate whites while Me and Biao were discussing the nose and palate of the wine.

Now the Entree. Brandon had Lamb rack, Biao:1 Medium Rare beef, TC: roasted chicken and Soft Shell crabs with spicy noodles for me. Then the best wine of the night. I ordered a Borthwick Pinot Noir. And WOW! Its one of the best wines I've had. The taste is so hedonistic. OMG! It goes even better with all the entree's we ordered. Each of us had a try of everything. The atmosphere was very relaxed. This is life.

After we finishted the main course, there was still a little Pinot left. And we took this picture. Guess who's tipsy?



Yes... TC! He got so comical and started playing with my camera pouch. LOL! Then, Wenbiao was saying..." Eh guys. This is not enough. We ought to have dessert wine."
I was enthusiastically agreeing and so was Brandon. Only TC was protesting cuz he feels drunk. ("nooo....I need to go home..") Brandon suggested we had dessert to go along and we ordered a Cheese platter.

Rudy brought the wine list. But....only Moscato dessert wine. Me and Biao had it at my house once and it was not that excellent. (We only wanted the best tonight.) So...we started looking through more wines. Then I spotted this Chilean Emiliana Merlot. I know Merlot goes very well with Cheese.Wen Biao started grousing that he didnt like Merlot...then
I said "Hey man...here's my chance to change your mind about Merlot."
And that settled it. MERLOT!

I seem to have very good taste for wine. The Merlot was excellent too. Although the Pinot Noir was still superior. The thing is that I had the best sip of the night with Merlot after eating one of the slices of cheese that had a rotten smell but lovely taste. After swallowin the cheese I had a sip of the Merlot and Dios Mio!! The Merlot's strawberry and grapey flavour was enhanced by the cheese. I'll remember this combination for life. After we finished dessert, we all talked a while and then all of us started feeling really drowzy and tipsy. The wine was kicking in. We actually had 3 bottles among the 4 of us! I never expected to have that much. In fact I was telling Biao that 1 bottle would be enough! But Noooo...the wine was excellent.

Rudy introduced us to Oliver who's the owner of the place. All of us agreed this is definitely the place to come to next time with that special someone next time. The wine and food was worth every dollar.
Although I'm probably gonna be flat broke next week. But...It was worth every dollar.

Hmm, to think I blogged about life being boring this afternoon. Sometimes, prayers do get answered. I've got adventures lined up the next week!

Darshan finally returned my call and booked me a navigation flight to tioman for next wednesday. Sierra HoteL!!! I'm way excited about this. Its gonna be my first over-water flight. Need to wear life jackets and stuff. Haha. Time to see if my navigation skills are good enough to find the island. I won't be using GPS. I can't wait to shoot the approach to land at Tioman. its like flying into a valley with 2 hills alongside. One of the most challenging approaches in south east asia for GA pilots. Its likened to being what Kai-Tak is for airline pilots. The more challenging it sounds the more i'm savouring the chance.

Next, at fencing lessons today. James said there's gonna be a intra-club team tournament on thursday. Its gonna be fun that's for sure. Thought after the way I fenced tonight, I think this tourny will be my first where i go home without medals. I totally sucked. My foot hurt and I felt so off balanced today. I hope my team members are good. Cause this is one tourny where its a team-effort. I don't know who's going to be in my team yet.

Alright! I can't frigging wait!

Life is getting real boring. I'm suddenly wishing I'd be going to the army soon. At least I'd learn or do something fun. Life is falling into a humdrum. I need to get scared shitless again.

What can I do before NS. Tioman. Scuba diving. Trouble is Dad won't let me go alone. Dan's gonna be in HK and Biao is in Army. TC is my only hope. Trouble is that his parents may not allow him. argh. Why can't i go alone?! I'm not gonna get kidnapped or eaten by a tiger hiking on tioman. Besides, I had a dream a couple nights ago that I was Wu Song. Maybe a good omen.

I'm getting a feeling of machismo. Just went to this web on shark diving. Not Cage diving. OPEN WATER diving with hammerhead, bull and tiger sharks. Whoa. Exotic locations like Fiji, the Bahamas and South Africa. Waaayy cool. But diving with these sharks face to face with no cage? Hmmmm....sounds real fun.
Its gotta be more exhilarating than that shark dive in the underwaterworld I did few years ago. These are the only few pics I have left. The rest were lost when i reformatted my comp last time.


Surrounded by the big ones. A White tip shark, Eagle Ray and a giant groupa.





I had no idea the sharks looked this mean. Can't believe I was in the same tank with it.

Amazing creatures. God I pray that you protect these awesome animals so that they may be around for future generations to see. Amen.

Oh wait, I also pray that i never would look like food to these buggers. :D Amen.

Quotes

I live for that exhilarating moment when I'm in an airplane rushing down the runway and pull on the stick and feel lift under its wings. It's a magical feeling to climb toward the heavens, seeing objects and people on the ground grow smaller and more insignificant. You have left that world beneath you. You are inside the sky.

— Gordon 'Gordo' Cooper


You can always tell when a man has lost his soul to flying. The poor bastard is hopelessly committed to stopping whatever he is doing long enough to look up and make sure the aircraft purring overhead continues on course and does not suddenly fall out of the sky. It is also his bound duty to watch every aircraft within view take off and land.

— Ernest K Gann

Couple of quotes I found. Strikes a chord in my heart. I guess i have lost my soul to flying. And I thank God for it. Amen.