RM37 A Tower!

random: NigelTheBrat reminds me of the airbus smell sometimes.


last night was crazy. met up with a few of the guys. night started slow, drinks were cheap, we had loads, then everything was just crazy. its one of those, you had to be there to understand wth i'm talking about, coz if i did explain it, you'd be wondering "is that it?!"

it involved a lot of lame jokes, and a helluva lotta laughter. it was crazy. hadn't laughed my ass off in ages. didn't think it would have gotten that friggin eventful. the old man in the jippa was an odd fit to the whole picture. i surprisingly pissed him off without knowing it. doesn't know we can multitask i guess.

fella underestimate my listening out. doesn't realize i've been trained quite a bit in that area. so wtf?! but at least i got him away from the table :D

topped up 15bucks of petrol for the kancil and the driver goes:

"we got full tank now, so why worry???"

he wanted to tour the whole johor bahru with a so-called full tank. and jb's not small...

the night certainly didn't die early. made it just in time to the mamak for sahur and when i landed on my bed, it was time to fast, or rest for me.

these guys are crazy. we need more mondays like these. eventful i say.

I’ve had a little bit too much,

All of the people start to rush.

-lady gaga "just dance"-

Aku & Buku

when i was in kl, my friend and i went to a dessert shop. as soon as i sat down, the waitress brought the menu, but held on to it tightly with her dear life. she asked:

"ermmm... nak tanya. you orang apa?"

gave her the truthful answer before she finally placed the menu down on the table. my friend thought the waitress was trying to flirt -.-''

few days later i was in burger king. the cashier there was more straight-forward.

she: are you muslim?

me: no.

she: that will be ten ringgit.

thankyou-ed her and walked off. i think she was more professional?


oh i did go book hunting. i held Switch Bitch in my hands, and so many other Roald Dahl books. but damn were they pricey.

why does money have to be such an arse of a restriction?!

but anyways, i bought Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird instead. been wanting to it read for a long time. it was much cheaper, and more worthied comparing the thickness of the 2 books. no matter, one day i'm gonna own those Roald Dahl books.

started reading it a bit, and it's not bad so far. don't wanna get so hooked on it though, else i won't stop. need to savour the value of the book. as i said money is a friggin arse of a restriction!

-outz-

Quizzical Choice

the stage lights shone,
brightly upon me in the center stage,
in this building with no one else,
the doors slammed shut silently long ago.

the stage lights shone,
luminescing footsteps left by someone,
all around; even where you used to hide,
i seeked; the footsteps were familiar.

the stage lights shone,
beaming upon an otherwise empty stage,
did you call out my name,
were the curtains just lapping others?

the stage lights shone,
i recall overlooking many on steps that rose,
taking turns being king of the world; you and me,
a world with two kings.

the stage lights shone,
brightly upon me in the center stage,
i wonder alone,
if i should leave too.

Navigating KL

did Nav 2 last week and this time the route was a bit more complicated and further. did everything i could to prepare, but there's always never enough preparation, you know what i mean?

this time i did 3 big and unforgettable mistakes:

1) set course wrong timing
2) took shortcut
3) got the wrong kampung

no 1 got my instructor really pissed. never seen him that pissed before. it was total stupidity by me. set course is when you actually start your navigation flight. and that day, when i was cleared to line up, two helicopters cut queue and got clearance to take off first before me. i didn't take note of it, and my timing was wrong. so when i made the radio call to tell them i'm setting course, that got him red. damn stupid i felt.

no 2 got my instructor laughing. he asked me where i was. i looked at the map, and though i should have been on the left, instead i was wayyy right of the river. soooo off course man. i told him, "sir, we're not on track. we should be the other side of the river". that got him laughing like mad. he told me, though i took a shortcut, and that would be very fuel efficient, but the point of navigation is to follow our route. which i wasn't. told me to correct myself. damn malu.

no 3 got my instructor looking puzzled. i was to overhead a little kampung which was damn ulu and it was not prominent. so i told him according to the river bend, the bridge, the hills, the position of the town relative to the other 3 nearby towns, and my VOR needle, that the kampung was my reporting point. he wasn't convinced. and when i turned the next heading, i realized he was right. again i was off course. he told me the reporting point was more to the left. i checked my track and indeed he was right. i was blurrr. what to do if the rivers and and bridge lookalike?

still learning. give me some time! we learn from mistakes, no?


yesterday i was out with my old friend in KL. so we were walking the streets at night, and this lady with a foreign accent comes up to us, asking us for directions to a hotel. my friend doesn't know KL very well. and i really had no clue where that hotel was coz i never heard of it, nor do i know KL well anyways. pity the lady, come ask for help, but ask 2 clueless people. might as well she go fishing.

but hope was not lost, she pulled out a map! i looked at it, and matched the map with the landmarks. marked where we are and alligned the map with our position, and guess-who showed her the way? yours truly of course.

see i've been learning something. i know i'm making such a big huu-haa over nothing :P

-outz-

Above Average

why do we push ourselves to the limit? bring us to the edge, make ourselves suffer the consequences? why do people want to over-achieve simple matters?

like playing a sport, or taking a run, out till you tire yourself completely of every single drop of energy. only to face the wrath of an inhumane whole body sore the next day. then beg for someone to relieve the pain of our very own doing.

that's just an example. but we tend to do this a lot in our work, assignments, everything we do in life on a daily basis. we go all out to reach the limit, then realize, "is that it?".

is that all its worth?

maybe indirectly it'll bring us closer to something else? maybe the pushing ourselves part itself releases some kind of adrenaline that we all hunger for? maybe by reaching the heights, we hope for some recognition to separate us from the ordinary rest?

whether it is worthied or not, i think its everyone for their own. we all fit in different places of this gigantic puzzle of life, so i guess our purposes serve differently from the person sitting next to you on the bus. and if our purposes serve differently, then obviously whatever we do, we do for different reasons. no?



maybe i'm wrong. maybe we all just do it to take our minds off the other mysteries and burdens of life? i think i would. its an easier option out.

and better than saying " i've got something on "... then again, there's nothing wrong being a perfectionist. although, daggers of envy come with it as a package you can't return.


-outz-

To Roald Dahl

yesterday, i was not informed, was Roald Dahl's Day. though i started reading his books at a rather late age, around 12/13, i do like his writings. his children's work, was amazing, and he's got to be the best original kid's book author i have ever known.

original kid's book meaning the imaginary world through the eyes of kids and simple english with a colourful dose of unimaginable characters.

i started out with Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, which was a double dosage including The Glass Elevator. later on, i got my hands on Matilda, The BFG, Boy and a few short stories. i enjoyed his writings a lot. quite odd though, i've not been tempted to read James & The Giant Peach, coz if i remember correctly, they made a movie out of it, and it didn't really appeal to me. maybe i should give it a go?

i quote and second The Star: "It is the theatrical flair characteristic of his works that captures the fancy of many, to the extent that embellishment is glossed over".

for now, i am very tempted to get my hands on Switch Bitch. anyone care to buy me? :P i think i may end up book hunting... it has been awhile since i last did that

-outz-

Maps N Watches

completed: IF2, GH8, Nav 1

had 3 days of early morning sorties straight. so that meant i had to wake up early. to top it off, the first day my sortie got cancelled coz of bad weather. what a bummer. wake up early for nuts...

so i did IF2 with 17, and it was good. starting was a bit rusty, but got a hang of it after some time. see, usually we fly visually, meaning we look outside the aircraft to judge our attitude, whether wings level, or if we're climbing or descending. we're not suppose to look at our instruments that provide us height change and aircraft attitude info. but its always easier to look at instruments to fly rather than looking outside.

then when we do IF(instrument flying), we wear a hood, and realize i'm trying to peek outside to see the attitude. i think i'm just a lil confused hahaha...

anyways, IF2 went well, and 17 was cool. what is nice about flying with him is, he's been in our place before. he just graduated a few years ago, so he knows what problems we face as a student. he's more understanding. and he's been through hell before reaching where he is today.

GH8 was a solo sortie, and everything was nice. except the part i had to hold. and hold and hold. for like 15mins. i wasted 15mins holding.

Navigation1 was a brief intro into navigation. the route was pretty much straight, but there's quite a bit to do. luckily i was flying with 17, as i said he's understanding, so he took time to teach which was good. half the time i was lost, not the route part, but the things i had to do hahaha

oh for nav i was suppose to carry a stopwatch, but there was not enough. so i ended up borrowing my friend's watch to use as a stopwatch, and my own watch as a UTC time reference. gosh, i look so stupid with 2 watches lol

mostly the taking off part is a bit troublesome, which i'm still blur about. i think i'll get it in time though. so its HAT at the holding point, set course, then CLEAR, and once in awhile FREDAH checks. and the same routine before, overhead, and after the waypoints on our route.

navigation is mostly map-to-ground reading, so that we constantly know where we are. for example, we make sure we're over a river at a certain time, or beside a hill at this time. its just constant reference to map to locate ourselves. which is not that hard, it just takes a lil time to read the map, while flying the plane, logging in your nav logs, and occasionally answering radio calls. i'm kinda intrigued with map reading actually. its quite fun picking out the features from above. and also finding deserted towns in between valleys faaarrr from civilization. what do they do with their lives?!

the irony, sharman was never a map guy. i was in the boys scout till standard 6, and never ventured it again after that. then again, i was never much of a badan beruniform guy as well :P

but looks like i'm stuck with uniforms though :D

As I was going up the stair,

I met a man who wasn't there.

He wasn't there again today,

I wish,

I wish he'd go away.

.

- variation of Hughes Mearns poem from the movie "Identity" -

Random

something funny: "we need to see the effort".

heard this line during briefing today. his english is fine. it's just that i realized, today, out of the blue, that effort, sounds a lot like "f word".

so yea. i was laughing to myself. again. as usual.

simple amusements in life. i think i easily amuse myself. what is wrong with me?! at least it's keeping me sane. i try to think so.


something not so funny: it's been a gloomy day. sortie got cancelled coz of weather. is the monsoon really coming in already? it seems like just yesterday the bad weather cleared up, and now it's back.

DAMN!

1st Week Of Sept

i flew GH4 with 16, and finally it was a good sortie with him. things went smoothly and at the end, he wrote "student progressing well" on my report form. after the disastrous screwed up circuit revision, i needed this to feel like i wasn't totally useless.

then flew GH7 with 04, and THANK GOD its fasting month. but it was my best flight with his thus far as well. he is satisfied so far with my performance, not good but satisfactory. will need to improve on accuracy and landings.

which brings me, yesterday i flew with 16 again for instrument flying 1 (IF1), all went well, till the landing. it. was. heavy. like THUMP!

damn malu man. came down from flight he said:

"you're flight today ok. but everytime come down from your flight... buntut sakit!"

damn. back to square one. though he meant it as a joke, and though the winds were kinda strong, but its demoralising laaa... NEED TO IMPROVE!

anyways i flew GH5 solo as well during mid week. everything was well, and 04 told me to do a touch & go if got time. so i came back early, did a touch & go and then landed.

went into flight ops, when i was filling my forms, kena marah: SIAPA SURUH BUAT TOUCH & GO?! terus land la etc etc

hehehe right timing, 04 entered flight ops and suddenly i was treated so nicely. don't play play with 04. his presence can silence you! (and not in a dota kinda way)

then yesterday as well flew my GH6 solo. my bad day:

1) checking aircraft, stall horn didn't have sound.
2) engine couldn't start. but both when engineer came, was solved.
3) request bachok, full. so request to go uban. taxiing to runway, advised uban not suitable for solo. so i change for circuit and landings initially.
4) doing circuits, winds damn strong man, didn't dare land the aircraft so just go around TWICE. didn't dare continue circuits so asked to proceed to bachok again.
5) bachok too many clouds, so stayed at 1500ft. doing turns till boring. because of the friggin clouds, keep gaining/losing height.
6) returning to airfield, reciprocating runway in use. omg.

usually we biasa with runway 10, sekali today changed to 28. i was like WTF! panic panic panic. so tried to continue everything, then they ask extend downwind some more, kena hold late downwind, my circuit pattern damn out man hahaha...

then finally proceed with finals, luckily for the strong headwind so it was quite stable, but i was like:

shyt. i'm gonna crash this aircraft. shyt i'm gonna crash. shyt i'm gonna crash.

but realized it wasn't so bad coz of headwind, then calmed myself down and went instead:

just land it safely. land it safely. you can do it. somehow.

managed to land the aircraft in one piece. note to self: if things don't start out right in the first place, prepare for a bumpy ride.

Linking Link

if you've noticed, i've added a new blog link, The AirAsia Blog. it just started less than 2 months ago, and its been fun reading posts from both the AirAsians and guests, good and bad.

one of the latest post was about this clip: http://blog.airasia.com/index.php/the-story-so-far

i had fun reading it, and it brought a lil smile to my face. there's always something about Yasmin Ahmad's clips and movies. did i fail to mention it was made by her? well, it is. and it was really simple and the message was clear. with a lil 'kritikan sinis', so Pilot Wong please don't get offended.

maybe you guys will think i'm just bias or lame. it just meant something to me. i know there's so much more to come, to expect, i'll accept it when it arrives. and hopefully with open arms :P


truly now everyone can fly,
sharman.