Taming 600 Wild Horses

Been quite busy with the Baron conversion flights recently after my transition from the Cessna. From riding on the puny 160 horses, now I have a whopping 600 horsepower; 300 on each engine at my disposal. Taming the beast is not an easy task, considering the big jump in power and speed adaptation. I was literally stunned by it's speed on my first flight. On the Cessna, I cruise at 120kts (222kmh) and land at 65kts (120kmh). Now on the Baron, I cruise up to 195kts (360kmh) and land at 95kts (175kmh)! My old cranky car can't even cruise past 140kmh and now I'm landing the plane at 175kmh. The engines are so powerful that it can still fly safely with the loss of one engine. But it loses 80% of the performance. Therefore, one needs to arrest and fix the problem quickly or else the plane will spin out of control. The plane is heavy and sometimes I find myself with 2 hands on the column. It's time for me to go to the gym more often to work out the muscles.

P3 Check: The Day Murphy's Law Strikes

10.00am, 20th Nov, 2007: Ring...Ring...Ring...Damn! Who would have call me at this time early in the morning. "Hello, this is the planner speaking. You have been bumped off again for P-check tomorrow". What the hell? I have already waited 10 days for P-check and still couldn't get it done. How much longer should I wait and be stuck with the Cessna 172? Feeling grumpy, I threw down all the charts and maps. Bah! Another unproductive day ahead. Might as well just relax for now and prepare my flight another time.

1.30PM: Ring...Ring...Ring..."Hello, this is the planner again. You're up for P-check." "Oh, that's great. When will it be?" "It is 1 hour from now." I nearly fell from my chair. WTF? How on earth can one be prepared when the flight normally needs 2 hour planning ahead and also some revisions the day before? "Who will be the instructor?" "It's Andrew Spencer." Hmm...wait a minute. Now that changed the whole scenario. I did my P2 check with him as well. It was great and fun to fly with him. "OK! I take it."

When I got over to the ops room, I only had another 30 minutes. Oh no, this is getting bad. In a rushed and unprepared state, this where Murphy's Law comes to strike. Started the engine of VH-YXZ, but the ADF was found not working. Crap! More delays. Managed to change to another aircraft of VH-BZI. But by this time, my departure time was already 30 minutes behind schedule. Everything seemed fine after I took off. But Murphy visited us again. Unknowingly, the DGI had precessed more than 10deg from the compass. I was darn sure of it being set correctly as I had synchronized it just before entering the runway. Also on a climb, it was still showing 240 and I was aligned with the runway. I was flying all over the place trying to figure out what went wrong. There was no way to tell the problem as I was in a climb and cannot synchronize the DGI yet. Perth Radar started to call in to inquire about the erratic movement of my aircraft. Only when I reached the top of climb, I was able to find out the problem and quickly rectified it. By this time, I have already lost half the confidence. Add in the bad turbulence, my concentration was thrown off further.

On the way back, I had already lost all hope on this flight and was prepared to repeat it. Andrew broke the silence and said overall the sortie was a pass. I couldn't believe what I just heard. I wished I could have done better and I felt so bad at that moment. He said he will not pass a student without any reason. That lifted up my spirit. I kept thinking about the bad things and never see the good points in my flight. He was right when he advised me to correct the mistake found and then move ahead, don't dwell on the past. Thanks Andrew, for your advice and the flight.

So, that was my last flight on a single engine Cessna172. Till now, I have already completed 3 phases and will be entering the final phase. Baron, here I come!

First solo

The day was Friday 13th. Many superstitious people are afraid of this unlucky day. However for me, being born on the 13th, I have always considered the number 13 as my lucky one. And it was in this year as well. It was the day I cleared my very first solo flying after some unfortunate 'events' and the long wait months ago. Taking off on the Cessna 172 marked VH-LTM, everything went perfectly well and the instructor seemed pleased. I was cleared to go solo on the 5th run and it was really unexpected. Taking off again this time being alone, the feeling was different as there was no instructor on the next seat to talk with and to take over control in case of actual emergency. The sudden quietness can be quite eerie at times. I kept my cool and flew the plane the way I was taught and normally fly. I brought the plane back for a perfect landing with a soft touch on the main wheels and then slowly bringing down the nose wheel. It was a great relieve and joy as well. Soon after, congratulation calls were heard on the radio coming from the control tower and fellow cadets on another plane following behind. Thank god it was Friday and there was a welcoming party for juniors back in the hostel. What a perfect set up for me to celebrate the long awaited solo clearance. Off I go, back to the hostel to grab a couple of beer. Whatever happened next, I could not recall anymore. Haha!