6 Points Of A Star

it was a sad xmas, think its gonna be a sadder cny. i decided to stay in kb with some hope and aspiration to do something worthwhile, though that hope and aspiration is diminishing fast. things are just not going my way.

on a brighter note on living in kb, i can be totally oblivious to everything around me. seriously. being here, if there were no outside communications, which usually is the case, i can go on like as if its a normal day, not knowing (let's say) its cny tomorrow. i see the same 200+ faces with the same hopelessness hopes. my world seems to end at the fences that surround the hostel. sometimes, it feels like a good thing.

i read the newspaper, and it feels like a book i pulled out from the fiction section in the library.

i read about barrack obama, thinking he could not be real. i read about the kuala terengganu by-election, thinking it was ancient history. i read about the double engine failure airbus ditching in the river, thinking it happened decades ago. i read about the gaza strip, thinking it was just a tale.

honestly speaking, this is how i feel. i am absolutely oblivious. you think i'm outdated? i don't pay attention to the world happenings?

maybe. but in a way, its also nicer. i am blocked from all the cruelty, fascinations, and hipocrisy. its a lil safe spot i found, which maybe you'd wish you had found one too.

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randomness flashback. when i was in form1, my arts teacher asked me to draw a star on a hard board. he wanted to show a style of painting or textile or something i can't remember.

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being the perfectionist that i sometimes am, i hated the fact i couldn't draw a perfectly even five point star. i drew, i erased, then i drew again.

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then i erased again. the cycle was never-ending.

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then i had the bright idea of drawing a 6 point star. i started with a triangle. then i drew an equally sized triangle over it, but opposite in direction.

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i had no idea what i was drawing back then. and i certainly had no idea of the israeli flag. it just was an easy yet perfect way to draw a star. albeit a 6 point star, but a star nonetheless!

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let me tell ya, mr artsy wasn't too pleased with the star. i got quite a earful for it :P

First KT Solo

i flew to kuala terengganu yesterday. solo. it was awesome!

though there was a lil incident. i forgot to latch my door properly. the piper warrior aircraft i fly, has two latches. one top and one bottom. unluckily, the top part of the door was open, a gap bout 3cm wide. i didn't realize till i was near kt. luckily i latched the bottom one properly cause that's the more stronger one.

the aerodynamics weren't affected that much coz the aircraft was flying at its normal speed at the normal power setting. hence i didn't realize it. except that it was unsually cold.

that's why i had to land in kt to latch my door *malu* but hey the aircraft manual says the aircraft has been designed to land even with the door unlatched. i'm so grateful i read the manual thoroughly.

on another note, the direction indicator (DI) which runs on gyro, kept swirling around. i had to fly by compass. i'll go into that another day. i'll take a pic so its easier to understand why its annoying to fly by compass.

on ANOTHER different note, as i was heading from tok bali to penarek, there was a sukhoi 30 heading from penarek to tok bali. i was cruising at 3000feet, while the sukhoi at 2000 feet. i eagerly kept a lookout, but sadly could not see it in the air.

i only heard it pass by. damn anti-climax i tell you. i thought i could see it zoom pass below me. at the end, only hear it -.-''

this is what it looks like:

the infamous SU30 MKM. pic taken from: www.abpic.co.uk

today flew another navigation solo and then general handling solo. my turns and stall recoveries damn fail man. so sad. so long never do already.

btw, the sukhoi's callsign was Bisa23. there's just something about the number 23. its not a coincidence! its a good number!

-outz-

Nav 5, Nav 7 & Backseat

on the 15th i flew navigation 5 with 16. flight was ok but visibility was rather bad. we did a simple diversion due to weather. big black clouds are really unfriendly. these days, they seem to appear yet after passing them, its pretty clear weather. i guess that's good.

anyways, i flew navigation 7 to kuala terengganu (kt), or supposedly to kt with 06. he's not local, and he's really nice. he always says stuff with a little humour. like when we were holding at kb town, he said we should be assertive like kids and the controllers are our parents. we want chocolate, and they're not gonna give us. we gotta keep keep asking! same thing with flying, we gotta keep asking to descend/rejoin or were not gonna get it.

clouds everywhere.

weather again wasn't too good. we had actually delayed our flight from morning to 1400hours. still, clouds were everywhere. we had to go inland first towards the thai border for our first waypoint. when we reached, he went right near the border, i could see straight into thailand! it was kinda like a warning lesson, if you see that big river and that road coz you don't have roads like those in kota baru, TURN BACK! well its happened before, students crossing the border.

more clouds.

we couldn't carry out our planned route due to the weather that was approaching, so we diverted back to pasir mas, then headed coastal. flying coastal was nice. our route continued along the coastline, so it was easy to maintain track coz we had the coast as a reference. if you can get lost along the coast, that's seriously something new. unfortunately for the bad visibility, we couldn't see the islands :(

that's pulau rhu off the coast. it looks like, well kena dipulaukan. but it looks absolutely awesome. its shaped like a cresent. i think there's a lil white building on the island. maybe its a private island??? i don't know. but it'd be awesome just to chill out there. the beach looks amazing.

about ten minutes before kt, we encountered really ugly looking black clouds. soon, we were caught in the rain. so friggin close yet so far! i needed to do a touch n go at kt before heading back to kb. we tried going inland, but it was raining as well. we tried going into the sea, but it was worse there. we waited for 5mins before deciding to head back. my instructor was not very pleased. i had to go solo to kt in a few days time, and he felt he couldn't prepare me enough. but it wasn't totally useless cause we managed to carry out diversions and dog-leg procedures.

that's kt's new funky new airport. btw, pics were taken today while backseating.
not while piloting the aircraft. see, i'm safe :P

today, i backseated a batchmate who was enroute to kt. i wanted to familiarize myself better with the kt airfield. luckily weather wasn't a total bitch and we made it there and back safely.

instructor: its such a shame we've got this mucky weather. or else we'd be able to see pulau rendang.









ermmm... i think he meant pulau redang. but its been awhile since i ate rendang :D

Still Awake

its been tiring. had a navigation flight yesterday morning, then briefing later in the evening, then they had a safety talk at night. as soon as the talk finished about 2230hours, i hurried back to my room, removed myself from my uniform and slept till 6am. i ended up straining my eyes to keep awake.

eh wait. 4.30am actually. coz i had to take a dump. that was such a spoiler to my sleep.

then another navigation today to kuala terengganu, which was really nice. visibility and weather was a bitch, but there were definitely more views and sights to see.

situation doesn't help that i've been waking up before 6am the past few days either. and tomorrow is another day to continue my marathon of waking up early, albeit a not so hectic tomorrow.

hopefully i will be enthusiastic to blog about it further tomorrow or anytime soon. coz i need to hit the nap sack now. oh and it was a pleasant surprise, that one of the high ranking instructor remembers me. i don't make myself known here.

on another note that contradicts the above said, the principal gave my face a c-minus grade. well at least that's a pass.

-hopefully to be continued-

Choc Med

i choose to believe that chocolates are some weird form of medication. or rejuvenating stuff. i have no concrete facts to substantiate this, but i think i have psycho-ed myself into thinking so. but don't blame me. blame Enid Blyton.

if i'm not wrong, it was she who wrote in her books that chocolates are alternate meds. i can't remember which book, but i think most of em had people giving kids chocolate when they were sick. this was suppose to make them feel better.

probably just temporary relief i guess. coz chocolate is filled with energy. probably?

i know, i know very random post. i just thought of it. i think that's why i always have some form of chocolate in my drawer. this month's pick is crispy. but i have to say, milo chocolates are kinda addictively good. they're light and small. just nice for a quickie.


random random stuff.


speaking of reminiscing, i'd like to quote one of my ex teachers. he once told me this proverb (he's a maths teacher but he sure got loadz of words to say):

Water,

Water everywhere,

But not a drop to drink.

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more or less appropriate here in kb. i do have water to drink btw.

Favouritism

don't see them sending the police to catch em and zooming em off to isa now. instead they can borrow em their loud speakers too. so friendly...

marching. sending memorandum also. not same???

maybe those days it was unGodly. but now it is heaven-bound. though in my eyes, both were for just and peace, no? am i missing something?



randomness again.

Sqawk 7600

today i went for my very first solo navigation flight. and it was eventful to say the least. maybe in a year, reading back this post will look miniscule, but it sure did not feel like it in the air. this is gonna be a rather long post, with a bit of technicalities, and sweaty palms too.

before i start, for navigation aka cross-country exercise (though its purely non-crossing nation border), you basically plan a route and fly it. overhead each checkpoint, or more professionally called waypoint (which are usually towns), you transmit to inform current position and ETA (estimate time of arrival) of the next waypoint. the aim of the whole exercise is to fly the route as accurately as possible to ensure you reach on time as what has been planned.

yesterday i flew my nav 3 exercise with my instructor early in the morning. there was carpet clouds all over and it was impossible to identify the ground features. at some point, i made some really bad turns that got me a little off on my orientation. we were a little late on time but we managed to reach back safely.

this was my second take at nav 3. i had to repeat it because when i flew with 18 bout 2 weeks back, he wasn't impressed with my knowledge of the procedures like radio failures, dog leg, drift correction, and 1 in 60 rule. so he did not clear me for solo.

however, after yesterday's flight with 17, i finally was cleared. you have no idea how weird it felt. i was thrilled to go solo yet scared about the clouds. i was katy perry's hot and cold.

so off i went airborne around 1455 local time. the destination was around 50miles away from the airfield. and problem arose when i was about 15miles from airfield. i requested to descend from 3000ft to 2500ft due to clouds but was not given a reply. i thought the tower was just busy. i tried again, but still no reply.

soon enough i was overhead my first waypoint, and i calculated my ETA for the next. i turned next heading and gave my call, but to no reply yet again. then i started to worry. i transmited again, but silence returned.

i started to worry. a lot.

so i switched radio, and tried my back up radio, but that wasn't getting any replies either. i switched it off and switched it on. i hooked up my headset to the instructor's port but to no avail. so i transmited blind.

transmit blind is when you transmit a call, not knowing if anyone can hear you. its like waving a flag and hoping someone would see you, regardless of who they were. see, if you transmit blind and if another aircraft nearby could hear you, they could help relay your message to tower. this would at least ensure you still got positive communication with tower in case if anything happens.

sadly, although there were 2 aircrafts also flying nearby, but none heard my call. so i continued my flight while still trying to contact tower every few minutes. why i did not return back to base? because for navigation exercise, the tower assumes i will be completing my navigation route. then i won't jumble up their schedules of arrivals.

finally i sqawked 7600.

each aircraft has this device that can be set to a 4 digit code called a transponder. initially, i had to set mine to 5400. the guys at the tower, using radar, will be able to see on their monitoring screens a dot noting my aircraft as 5400. certain 4digit numbers mean something. like 7500 means an aircraft has been hijacked. and 7600 means an aircraft has radio failure.

so now officially i had lashed out to tower that i was having a radio failure and finally they could forgive me for being a rude and ignorant pilot, for not answering their calls.

from waypoint 1 to waypoint 2, i could hear nil on my radio. i got nervous but continued flight. after sometimes, i noticed there was bad weather ahead and i could not proceed. i had to return back. i had no choice.

i made two orbits in the air. i just needed to orientate myself to confirm position, and make sure my nerves weren't getting the better of me. it'd be disastrous if i got lost AND had no way of contacting base. so i took my map and made sure where i was. did my checks. made sure fuel was sufficient and engine was fine. then i headed back.

again i transmited blind, not knowing that actually nobody could hear me then (my batchmate told me once i landed). i thought i just couldn't receive. so i kept harping on the radio every few minutes to check if tower could hear me. no harm trying either eh?

about 25miles from airfield, i could hear transmissions from other aircraft, but no one could hear me. this was still worrying. i maintained on course and kept reciting the radio failure procedures in my head. i was rather unsure about it. you know when you're nervous you tend to jumble things up? about 18miles from airfield i descended to 800ft as per radio failure procedures and flew over the river just west of kb town. at that point i heard my instructor 17 who just took off.

i suddenly had hope again. so i tried to contact tower yet again. airfield was in sight. so very close. my heart was thumping as i pressed the transmit button.

but they gave a reply to a scheduled arrival instead and that sent me back to frenzy mode. it went something like this:

" ... cleared to enter control zone bla bla bla bla... break break APAC 1168 cleared to join right hand circuit, runway 10, right base"

i gleamed i tell you. APAC1168 was me! they could finally hear me in between transmission with an airline's call. i was so happy that i replied:

"cleared to rejoin righ hand...runway 10... say again sir???"

the controller was nice. he repeated it slower. i think he could hear how tense i was intially. first nav solo and radio problems are not pleasant. i was worried if my radio still had problems then once i was overhead the airfield i might crash into another aircraft taking off. i know its kinda far-fetched but it was really one of those REALLY unexpected things.

i'm thankful i flew with 18 and he made me a fool for not knowing enough. he didn't dare send me solo for my lack of knowledge and drilled me with procedures. kind of an irony how his drillings came crazily from books to reality. coincidence? or higher power?

so that was today. pretty shaking for me. although the tower was always monitoring me, but i couldn't just do whatever i wanted to make sure I alone landed safely and disregarded the rest. its my part to make sure of the safety of others as well. without procedures, things could turn out mortifying.

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-please be advised APAC 1168 has divirginized sqawking 7600-

To See

They call me sexy,

And I don't care what they say...

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tomorrow, will see what happens. no, not about calling me sexy. that's just random. and probably i know its true. heh. tak erti malu. anyway, hopefully i will be able to see. unlike today.

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to be continued.

Time To Change

i've been thinking. its the new year. this year i decided not to make any more promises and resolutions coz we all know the obvious outcome.

its not gonna happen.

so this is it. this year, we change. we look for an alternate direction.

instead of me changing, i want the things around me to change. i want a revolution, not a resolution.


WE NEED A REVOLUTION!

i'm just plain lazy. i think a fool can figure that out.

2-0-0-9!

started with a blur, cause the DJ didn't know the countdown. he started his counts a few mins late and a lil rushed, so when 2009 actually began at GMT+8, we thought we were still in 2008 although my watch kept doubting me. suddenly, 2009 leaped into my life while i scurried for my glass and confetti.

oh well. maybe its just preparing me for the rush ahead. and the unexpectedness that beholds.

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i hope one day i won't have to be in your shoes, though i think it is inevitable. and inevitably soon as well. i wonder what will they say? gives me the goosebumps. things won't always be the same. and things wont always be synthetic nor just me and you. situations will always change. the dynamics are countless, unpredictable and beyond control.

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i'm 3days late to wish, but HAPPY NEW YEAR. 2009 just began, seriously its gonna be one heck of a journey! may we all get through it...somehow.

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cheers with rain drops anyone??? kb's still raining.