Failure is not an option

Pictures from the Piper's cockpit

2008-08-06T01:03:00.004+08:00

Picture showing instrument panel, comms, avionics and engine controls. The feet shown below at the rudder pedals are not part of the aircraft. They belong to me.

Another picture, looking out the starboard (a.k.a right) side.

Going Solo

2008-08-06T00:46:00.006+08:00

Well, actually I have gone solo in the Piper, on Saturday 2/08/08. Which explains the above photo. Its was fun, but over before I knew it. Now I know I'm in control of the machine, and theres quite a good feeling of acheivement. Well, more's to come as I progress to the PPL course. Course 159 is turning out to be a pretty potent one. So far 11 people (including myself) from 159 have made it into PPL, hopefully with more to come. With luck, we'll all make it through.

Air to air refueling woes

2008-08-03T22:41:00.003+08:00

"Patience is required to successfully refuel. If you miss the fuel probe or start flailing about wildly, resist the urge to shoot the tanker. Instead, throttle back and slide back out for another attempt. The bottom line is to make small corrections, recognise the correct position under the tanker and one last thing...don't get frustrated, and DON'T shoot down the tanker!"
-From Falcon 4.0 Allied Force

The lure of the sky

2008-04-24T22:20:00.006+08:00

"...Parking brake ON...Flaps set to 10 degrees........" What came next?
I sighed and peered at the checklist for what seemed like the hundred time that day. I had forgotten the next step in the checklist again.
Desperation began to set in. My first flight was in an hour's time, and here I was, already slightly nervous, forgetting proceedures. There were 2 more pages of seemingly endless checks to memorise, to have at my fingertips. I had an hour to do it, or I wouldnt be flying much longer.
An hour passed, I was at the plane, instructor with me.
"Alright", said the instructor. "Show me your checks"
I proceeded to do the checks, and soon came the dreaded part.
"...All switches OFF...Parking brake ON...Flaps set to 10 degrees....." Here it was. The constant point where I kept having mental blocks while practising. Quick, what was that next step?!
"...Trimmer set to T/O...", I heard myself say after a long pregnant pause. Finally, I had remembered, and not a moment too soon. The rest of the checks proceeded like clockwork. I was happy. Looks like I'll be flying after all.
Minutes later, I had a great bird's eye view of sunny Singapore. Quite literally. And the rest is history, which on this occasion, I especially enjoyed.

The blog that almost never came to be

2008-03-29T23:47:00.003+08:00

Yup. I was seriously having second thoughts about doing this thing, especially during the registration process. Apparently, it seems like my previous failed attempt at blogging has come back to haunt me. I created an account for fun, not bothering to remember the details (password included) just to try things out. Then promptly forgot about it for two years. So...when trying to get a google account, my email was already in use. And the account could not be created/recovered despite my best efforts. For some odd reason, even the email that was supposed to be sent to me to help my get my password back never came.
Just as I was about to condemn blogging to the list of things I would never do again, my cousin rachel sent me a gmail invite. After ten minutes, I finally got this confounded thing up and running. Thanks rachel!
So thats it for introductions. Now the real blogging begins. Hope it'll be interesting in one way or another.

new to this game

2008-03-28T23:56:00.000+08:00

my blogging debut