Baron!!!

After 10 months of flying the Cessna 172, finally i have come to the Baron(BE 58) phase..this is the final phase for my training in Jandakot (phew)..Well, it is a twin, same as cessna 172, 4 seaters generally. With the extra engine, i have to work double the pace of the cessna 172. So far, i find it more stable as compare to the cessna, and very comfortingly, easier to land due to its low wing configuration. All of the speeds config are different from the cessna, hence, i have to start adapting to this a/c right from the start. It is easier said than done, however, God is faithful and i believe HE will guide me till the end. Amen!

Red Bull Air Show...

Hihihi, its been a nong nong while since i last posted..phew, finally got the motivation back to start blogging..Perth recently just had one of its most exciting events, the Red Bull Air Race...It was a thrillng race where professional pilots from all over the world, gathered and raced against each other in a fix pattern with their 500 kg light aircrafts. Before the actual race, there was an air show where the pilots show off their wonderful aircrafts as well as their polished skills. I was there with my coursemates and we were excited to see all the beautiful aircrafts and people. Took some pictures for your viewing, hope you enjoy it:)

Margaret River

After Rottnesst island, i went to Margaret River a few days later (solo flight)...also, another exciting sortie because of good scenery. It was a fun and easy flight because of the wonderful technology called 'GPS'.Eventhough we are not supposed to use it because our college find it too expensive to keep it updated. But still it is there and most of us are tempted to use it. So, heck the visual tracking, and follow the GPS:) I brought apple as snack, and consumed it enroute when i find it safe and ok to take my focus off for a while. The weather starting to get bad while approaching Margaret River, a band of low cloud was sighted staring at me up ahead base at abt 2600'. Realising the conseqence of flying into cloud and lose reference to ground and water features, i quickly decended onto 2400' and avoided the cloud. It was like a canopy covering me from above when i fly beneath the huge band of cloud, barely avoided them. But after a while, i was able to feel the sunray once again as i fly past underneath the cloud. Due to time constraint, i did not take a closer look at the light house at Augusta. But i will definitely do that when i go to Albany next time:) The whole journey took me abt 3 hours including the time back to Jandakot. Overall, it was fun and relaxing.

Rottnesst island...

Hi, one of our sorties is to fly to Rottnesst island and practise holding pattern and letdown procedures. To me it is one of the best flights ever because of the scenery as well as the feeling of flying over water. Before take off, i was told by my instructor to wear life jacket due to the fact tt we will be flying over water. After putting on the jacket, both of us clumsily squeezed into the a/c and get ready for take off. It was a Standard instrument departure (SID) and all i had to do was to follow the departure chart on Mental 1 departure and depart accordingly. It was fun because for once i felt like real pilot flying with the aid of ATC just like what i saw on TV. " BZM, track direct PIY ,climb to 1500',make right turn visual,clear for take off"...cool!! Haha, just to fantasize a bit on what happened. Enroute was busy because we had to deal with intructions from ATC as well as doing our CLEAROFF checks and the most important part- FLY THE AICRAFT!! It was overwhelming but most seniors said we will get used to it.After arriving overhead at Rottnesst island we started our airwork training. The wind was 330/40kts, so my holding pattern was like crap and never get to fly within tolerance, not even once because after calculation the drift i had to apply was approx 60 degrees on outbound leg.Well, since it was supposed to be a demo-flight, my instructor just let me continue with crap holding pattern and proceed with let down and then back to Jandakot. Overall it was fun and enjoyable since my instructor took over control on the way back and allowed me to enjoy the scenery.

Would you marry a pilot???

hey guys, just doing some simple survey..pls do me a favor of voting for ur choice at the poll below and hopefully leave a comment on why u chose that..thnx:)

Western Xposure-The Pinnacles Trip!

Hey, 24th of July was my step-mom's bday..She came to visit me and my step-bro's family in Perth. On her bday, we hop on a tour to The Pinnacles which is situated 245km north of Perth. The journey to the place took about 4-5 hours. It was a fantastic trip, besides the main attraction which is the pinnacles,we went to Yanchep wild life park where we got to see some kangaroos and koalas, Hangover bay where we enjoyed the wonderful seabreeze and almost got blown away, and the most fun of all- sand-boarding and 4WD experience. At first i was afraid tt the sand-boarding might be dangerous, but after our tour guide demonstrated it once, it looked pretty easy and fun.So, i went ahead and ended up playing it non-stop. The 'truck' tt we were on was a 4WD, and the driver showed off his driving skills by skidding and drifting the truck like a roller-coaster along the sandy area where we played sand-boarding. We went up and down the steep sand curbs and the feeling was awesome. After the wonderful ride, the driver switched back to normal 2WD and we headed back home. The whole trip took about 11 hours, from 7:15am in the morning depart till 6:15pm back to Perth. It was a damn good day to celebrate someone's bday like tt:)

Life...

hey..life has not been ever smooth saliling here, working and living with different kinds of people, withnessing and personally experienced rejection as well as misunderstanding. When i was young, people always tell me the society is a different place altogether, playing a different type of ball game. Now as i starting to grow up and taking my first step into it i truly felt the difference and how irritating it can be sometimes. Since young i had been a lone ranger, doing things i wanted to do,not having a lot of good friends and don't like to socialise with strangers. But now i have to face a course of 'friends' everyday. Whether u like it or not, they r the closest ones u have ard here. So, no more mr lone ranger, and i start to step out of my comfort zone and try to mingle with them. Of course, not all my experince with them are pleasant but i do enjoy mingling with them and cracking jokes and stuff. But somehow deep within me i felt tt this is not enuh, so far the friendship tt i felt was very superficial, very fragile. One day it can be very good but the next day it can be very sad and filled with sorrow. I must admit i am not very good in expressing myself and making friends, but i never stop trying ! Just a few days ago a speaker in church was sharing abt her cry to us, and i can really identified with the things tt she deeply long for. She was longing for 3 things to happen in this society. Firstly, tt people will not be quick to judge, just because that guy acts arrogantly does not mean he is an evil and nasty guy. talk to him, get to know him and u might know smtg different abt tt person. Secondly, tt people will be ever willing to be generous. Always treat ppl with a generous heart, do not always look at the bad points of a person, try overlook their bad habits and love them. Thirdly, people will be sincere and transparent with each other. If i did something wrong i expect u to correct me and not to talk bad behind my back. If all these 3 things can be practised in this society, i believe the society will be a more enjoyable place to be in, and it is my dream tt this world will become like tt.

Dota nite!!

hey,life sometimes can be very boring here, especially when the weather is bad. When i am not flying, most of the time i will just idle ard doing nth. This is why entertainment is a big factor of my life . Recently we organised an event called 'dota nite' where we form teams to battle each other in dota. It was an exciting nite and my team emerged 4th out of the 4 participated teams:) We started off well playing against a team our standard, but due to lack of practise and unfamiliar heroes, we lost the battle. Second round we suffered an even more cruel and devastated lost:( But overall i think we had fun.

Navigation solo!!

hey guys..sorry again for not posting for such a long long time...well, after clearing my sortie 145 ( navigation solo check) with my instructor, i earned the privilegde of navigating ard perth all on my own:) During my sortie 146, the first navigation solo, i went to towns like Bunbury and Collie. It was not a pleasant flight because Bunbury was all covered up in fog and visibility was almost 0, hence flying visually there was not possible, therefore i decided to divert to Collie instead. However, prior to reaching Collie, i realised the cloud base was about 2500 feet, and the ground elevation was abt 1200 feet. Sandwich in between i felt very uncomfortable and risky too, hence, i divert again this time back to Jandakot airport. So, the whole sortie was like diverting here and there and reaching no where except where i came from,which is Jandakot airport. The whole journey took about 2:00 hours.However, during my sortie 147, which was scheduled to go to Brookton and Narrogin, everything worked out much better than the previous sortie. Some interesting events happened along the way though.Enroute to Brookton from Jandakot airport,I lost my way somewhere in the middle, apparently the forecast wind was not very accute.So this caused my heading to be in error and i was not heading the right direction. At that point of time i did not know what to do because my surrounding was all paddock and fields,and it was difficult to identify my position. So i just prayed that the Lord will guide me to a place i know. God is faithful, soon i saw a town ahead of me and i can identify it as Pingelly, a town to the south of Brookton. From there i tracked towards Narrogin for landing and then fly again back to Jandakot airport. The whole journey took about 3 hours. Hehe, a bit long winded huh..well, i am enjoying most of my life here other than those politics tt pop up once in a while.I guess this is life and i just have to go thru it. Till my next post, c u guys again.

*For most of our navigation, we fly visually, that means we fly with reference to the ground features and map.
* Sortie means a training flight.

Cynicism...

This comment is inspired by one of my friends' blog...
I do not know how you guys think about me, my character and my personality. But i have a few comments about the ppl ard me...First of all, I HATE:

1)People who keep calling someone a loser/lousy!!
2)People who think that they are very good and can step on some losers' head!!
3)People who always like to provoke others and make them angry!!

I have no idea what this society has become, i tried so hard trying to befriend with the ppl ard me but it just seemed impossible to find a true friend.A friend whom u can freely pour out ur troubles and hollowness within you with. A buddy whom u can always hang out with when u r lonely. A friend who is sensitive about ur personality and tried his best not to provoke you. Friends out there, if u have found a friend whom u think is ur true friend, i encourage you to cherish him/her.Right now, i have none, and i envy you...

Ps 64:
Hear me,O God,as i voice my complaint;
protect my life from the threat of the enemy.
Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked,
from that noisy crowd of evildoers.
They sharpen their tongues like swords
and aim their words like deadly arrows.
They shoot from ambush at the innocent man;
they shoot at him suddenly,without fear.
They encougare each other in evil plans,
they talk about hiding their snares;
they say," who will see them?"
they plot injustice and say,
"we have devised a perfect plan!"
Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning.

But God will shoot them with arrows;
suddenly they will be struck down.
He will turn their own tongues against them
and bring them to ruin;
all who see them will shake their heads in scorn.
All mankind will fear;
they will proclaim the works of God
and ponder what he has done.
Let the righteous rejoice in the LORD
and take refuge in him;
let all the upright in heart praise him!

PS: Think twice before you say something provoking to others, cheers.

Off the hook..

hey guys, phew, it has been a while since my last entry. The training here is not as easy as i thought, fell into the dungeon of review board and now finally managed to get myself out of it. For a moment i thought maybe its time for me to start packing my bag, but God is truly faithful and HE gave me the strength and wisdom to pull it through. Training goes on as per normal and i got myself a new instructor- Mr Clement Seah, ex-Airforce pilot who flew the hercules C-130. I wanna thank those who faithfully pray for me including my parents, my cell members, my friends and etc. After all the struggles i finally able to clear my first and second solo checks which enabled me to comtinue my training here in jandakot. Furthermore, it is the culture here that if u managed to clear ur first solo in Jandakot,u get to ring the bell! So, together with some of my friends who had cleared our solos, we rang the bell and got a magnificent ovation from the ppl ard us. I also took a picture of the aircraft i flew solo on:) It was a scary but exciting moment where u fly the plane without any instructor nagging at u. Summer is almost over and now its time for autumn.Day is getting shorter and shorter and night is getting colder and colder. It is an experince you cannot get in Singapore. However, the weather is getting more terrible and flight cancellation due to bad weather has become a norm. Haiz, that will mean more free time and longer stay here is Jandakot. Anyway, i should be grateful that i am still a cadet here, all praise to God. Well, so much for now, will try to post more entries in the future. C ya.

Learjet 45

hi guys, long time no see.Life here is kinda boring at times, so much free time until u dont know how to use it wisely. I spent much of my time recently watching prison break. Within 3 days i can finish watching season 1 until the latest episode of season 2. That's the amount of free time i have here. Besides tt. i also visited some of the beaches here..One of them is the famous cottesloe beach. The wave and wind there are very strong, hence we took the advantage of them to do some surfing but with our belly on the board instead. When the wave comes, we just hold on to the board and move with the wave. Quite fun if u managed to hop on at the right timing and let the wave push u. It is summer time in perth now and the sun sets at abt 8.30 pm. There was once during my course mate-soong ji's bday, we brought him to the south beach to have a good look at sunset. It was magnificent and the pictures we took are fantastic and beautiful. Well, something more exciting happened yesterday. One of the company's learjets came from maroochydore,Brisbane to our training college for some errands which allowed us to have a closer look at the plane tt we will fly in 10 months time. It was so motivating to see the plane, which only creates a desire to complete the training here ASAP:) We took a few pictures which simulate the one shown in "triumph in the sky", haha i hope it works. Hm, that's all for the updates on my stay in Perth for the moment. O ya, i uploaded some of the pics of my college, do have a great time viewing them.c ya.