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.