Pre-exposure to flying = Pure fun!

There is this one of my future buddy (his name is Ted) going for the same training batch with me for the coming 1st October. He's a really realy nice guy and to my surprise, turned out to be a PPL(Private Pilot's License) holder for about 5 years already at the JFC(Johore Flying Club) and he has been flying through and flow mainly from Singapore to Malaysia ever since, ferrying countless of people accross, some for official purposes and some of it were simply for leisure or you may call joyrides. Keep in mind though, these rides were not normally free because the fuel cost could be as high as RM 300 per hour on any trips and hence, the passengers will usually fork out their shares as well depending on situation.

Overview of the Airstrip used by JFC, shared by Senai Airport Cargo Terminal

Not-so-organized Senai's hangar, but it does its job :)

However, I was one of the luckier passenger earlier today as he allowed me not only join the ride at no cost, but also teached me a lot about the handling of the particular aircraft he's handling, even though i could only understand 10% of what he's saying, but... well, thanks a lot of the explanation, really. That made me realize that there were really a lot of stuff to be learned in the future and it seems to be very exciting. If fact, i was allowed to actually feel how does piloting a light aircraft feels like by letting me handle the control yoke for a while on air since i was in the co-pilot (right) seats and the plane is operatable by 2 persons at any time. The feelings is, well...unstable..due of the size and weight of the aircraft, it really wobbles a lot and the challenge is to keep the aircraft level and stable at all time, or in another word, keep it flying straight because a wind gush will easily throw your airplane off the stability scale even though you are flying on a fine day. At least, that's how i felt. The lucky plane chosen today was a TB-9 with the registration number of 9M-BIG (just like any car plate's number).

Walking to the aircraft and part of pre-flight inspection (done by Pilot :))


Hmm.. It says BIG!! Nah..it's not that big, really! :P

Keep in mind that, to keep the plane flying is one thing, but the procedure to take off is completely another. This little baby has to be checked thorougly for her health before every flight, namely to check that all parts of the plane are functioning properly, for example the rudder, flaps, brakes, fuel level, etc. There's a complete checklist on board in which you have to refer to during the inspection and it's rather long. And of course, you need to declare yourself and the passenger of whom you are travelling with in the passenger manifest with the local authority as well as submitting your flight plans to them before taking off. It's quite a lot of paperworks i assure you, for such a short distance flight. So much hassle eh? So for those who thought that you can fly any plane you want, carrying anyone you want, and fly to wherever you want without any pre-flight planning is wrong :P

Overall cockpit view and the captain(left) seat

Our flight route is from Senai Airport, Johore to Seletar Airport, Singapore, yes the place in which i will be having my training next month onward. So it's a good thing to have a look around beforehand isn't it? Hehe. The whole flight took only about 15mins and the bad thing is that, there is no air-condition in the plane, and we have to get our air from the natural environment instead. If you want cooler, fly higher. That's it. However, in our case, our altitude is limited to 2000 feets (650 metres) according to the control tower and therefore, the temperature drop is hardly felt at all, maybe 1 or 2 degree celcius. So it's still very warm inside around 11.30am. So off we went! On air, we were cruising at about 80knots (about 160km/h). Not very fast i know, but it's fast enough considering we are taking direct route to destination instead of going through winding roads and traffic on the ground. Together with me were the pilot Ted of course, and his friend Cooper (is that how it's spelled?) from JFC as well. Oh, the communication with the control tower was a mess by the way, at least that's how i interpreted it because i can hardly understand what are they talking about during the entire flight permission clearance. It was just too fast for me catch any phrase out of it. Haha! I guess i will grow accustomed to it eventually with training :).

Random picture taken on the way to Seletar and Dancin' Cooper (right)

Reached Seletar Airport after about 15 minutes and after immigration procedure, the sun was directly over my head already. Took a cab hastily to Serangoon Road because Ted was supposed to have a lunch appointment with his friends at 12pm and he was late for it. (Sorry, i hijacked your lunch appointment :/) After we had our lunch, it's time for us to go back to Senai at about 2.30pm because he has to pickup a friend of his on the way back as well. So it was quite a short trip but i found it really enlightening and fun, and i definitely could not wait to learn more about it.

Seletar 'mini' Airport.....

....and its 'mini' Departure cum Immigration hall

While waiting for clearance to take off at 2.30pm, i have taken the opportunity to snap pictures from the surrounding including some aircraft i could not identify and a AirAsia plane that seems to lost its way back to somewhere :P As usual, there were more inspection done (again) before the plane engine is started and the usual checklist has to be scrutinized carefully again whether you like it or not. That's the entire story for now!

Random aircraft pictures in Seletar!

Looking on one of the AirAsia's 'sesat-ed' cargo plane

More inspection before flight home!

Communication with control tower to obtain clearance to fly

Before i conclude, here are some pictures i snapped wildly on the way home simply because i could not resist it, and at the end a short video of the pilot doing pre-flight inspection. Enjoy! :D

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