Taufiq Zainal

Lesson 10

Today’s lesson proved that I seriously need to get into shape. I couldn’t even swing the plane around (which is kinda sad).

Other than that, I think I’m generally improving in my flying. Just need to work on my confidence in radio calls and flying the circuit itself.

Lesson 9

Flying today was awesome. My new instructor, Nicola, was caring and understanding about the situation that I was in. She was always helping me out, talking me though the things that I needed to do.

Because I hadn’t been flying for quite some time, I was a little rusty in some areas. Especially in radio communication. I hate talking on the radio… it gets my heart pumping!! She gave me a few pointers and hints, and we practiced them before saying it “live”, but there are some one or two odd occasions where I completely stumbled over.

We were doing circuits again and my absense from the cockpit previously reflected on my performance. Nonetheless, it got better and better after each touch and go. Still need to work on my landings though.

Everything was conducted in a clam, yet professional environment. But other than thoes little quirks here and there, today’s flying session was (dare I say) one of the best.

Really looking forward to next week’s lesson!

Resuming

Finally, after a three (or was it four?) week ‘break’, I’m flying again tomorrow afternoon. Oh and with a new instructor too! Hopefully, unlike this one, she’ll be as good, or maybe even better than Clinton.

What if I forget everything after such a long break? What if I don’t what to do! Ahhh! I’m thinking too much again.

Lesson 8

I can only hope for the best in future right?

That was how I ended off last week’s post. I guess I was wrong… or maybe I didn’t hope hard enough. Clinton left RACWA. Yup, he left. I was assigned to a new instructor, Adam. I haven’t met him before, but I was hoping (real hard this time) that he would be as good as Clinton.

Because I didn’t fly two weeks before this lesson (due to bad weather), I wasn’t as alert as I normally am. Add in the nervousness of meeting someone new, and you’re in for trouble. We were doing circuits again, and he let me off to do the pre flight checks. Everything went smoothly so far… but that’s where it stopped. From then on, everything was a disaster (literally).

Adam and I both hopped on. Then, there was a moment of silence. I looked at him, while he looked out the window. He turned around and said, Well, what are you waiting for. Do what you normally do. He then turned back to look out the window again. And there I was, freaking out.

Usually, Clinton would prompt me to do something. Now I was by myself. From the back of my mind, I remembered that we did the pre start checks first. So I started doing that. When I reached the end of the checklist, I gave out a sigh of relief. I started the engines and begun my after start checks. About half way through, I started freaking out again. I couldn’t regain my composure, so I stopped. I looked at him again, and I asked, “What do I do now?”. “What do you do now?!” He was stunned. Without a word, he picked off where I stopped. After fiddling with all the dials and switches, he said, “Bring me to runway 24 Left”. I put I foot off the breaks and off we went. Again, it was silence all the way.

As we were rolling down the runway, the only thing I could think off was the circuit itself. Everything was alright so far, until we reached finals. We were too low during the approach. Adam asked, “What’s happening?”. “We’re too low”, I replied. “So what should you do?”. I know that thrust control the rate of decent, so naturally, we should be increasing power. But I couldn’t come around to say it. “Increase power”, he said. I pushed in the throttle, and we were back on track. The landing wasn’t too bad. In all, we did four touch-and go’s before coming in for a full stop.

As soon as we were back on the ground at our parking bay, he went straight back inside, while I tied down the aircraft.

Bed Flying

Clinton taught me this really cool ‘game’. Whenever you have loads of spare time (like today)…

• go to your room
• shut the door
• sit on your bed
• close your eyes
• pretend you’re on a plane, and fly

Lesson 7

Circuits were the order of the day, and it’s my first time doing it too! Clinton and I quickly did the pre-flight checks, and then we were on our way.

Clinton demonstrated the first circuit. All I had to do was watch and pay attention. I was really focused today, making sure I knew what I was doing. As we were approaching the downwind phase of the circuit, something familiar caught my attention. I know this place! We were flying over my house!

A few short moments later and we were back on the ground… But not for long. Applied full power and we were back in the air. I seriously thought the circuits would last longer than that. Overall I managed to get everything in, but I reckon the the base and final phase of the circuit would take me awhile to get used to.

It was time for me to do my first circuit. Clinton handed control over to me. He talked through it, giving me pointers and making sure I correct mistakes. Before I knew it we were already approaching finals. This was when things got a little bit tricky. Somehow, we managed to pull through. When we touched down, I wanted to give off sigh of relief, but we had to take to the skies again. And that was it, my first completed circuit, and Touch-and-Go!

In total, we did another three more circuits before coming in for a full stop. Out of all five circuits, I liked the third one best… the plane was on the centerline most of the time and it ran pretty smoothly. I think over time, I’ll get better at keeping on that centerline.

Oh and guess what. My application for an ARN, SPL and ASIC got returned today. Apparently, the photograph I sent in does not meet official standards. I guess I couldn’t blame them for that… I sent in a home made passport photograph. :D I actually did took a professional passport photograph at the post office, but I hated that picture so much, I refused to send that in.

Also, it says that my proof of identity documents are not valid… Why must the Civil Aviation Authority be so strict!!! It took them almost a month to send back a reply, and now I must go through all of that again.

I can only hope for the best in future right?

Lesson 6

Today was one of those days. Student in holiday mood, trying to fly a plane… not a good pair at all. We went straight into our air exercises today. Basically it’s a revision / follow up / recap of what we were doing last week. Right from the start, everything wasn’t falling into place. My mind was drifting off somewhere over ‘lala land’, while I’m here trying to fly a plane. Plus, I didn’t do any revision the day before. I don’t want to go into the specifics of what happened, just know that it was a horrible experience.

When we were back on the ground, we had a debrief and an introduction to the circuits. I’m sure every pilot has their ups and downs, and I shouldn’t let that bother me too much (Yes, I’m the sensitive type. Once, I cried because I was late for school -.-). Anyways, Clinton started talking to me about how everything was generally ok, but there are some fine-tuning adjustments that need to be made. He goes on to say,

“You’ve got to put in that extra bit of effort because I want you to be the perfect pilot”

Perfect pilot? That was probably the highest expectation of me from a teacher/instructor. Somehow, that didn’t make me think twice about what I’ve gotten myself into, but it sort of made me strive harder to reach that goal. As Clinton continued talking, I started thinking about my current priorities. I already have a heavy load in school, family and personal issues, my social life, and now flying. Then it lead into how the things that I’m doing right now, would help shape what I want to do in the future. This ‘issue’ deserves it’s own post, so more on this next time.

Right now, we’ve basically hit the pause button. We have done all the basic principals of flight, and it’s time to jump over the first hurdle… The pre-solo exam and the actual solo flight. For the next few lessons, we’d be refining these principals, doing the actual circuits over and over again, radio calls and some theory revision.

In preparation for that first hurdle, I’ve gotten myself the Student Pilot Kit, which contains more in-depth information than the manuals that were provided by RACWA. I’m also going to do up flash cards to help me memorise, and generally putting in more time and effort into flying.

Lesson 4

Due to last week’s disruptions, we had to make adjustments to our lesson plans.

Since we’ve already done the theory but not the air exercises for climbing and descending last week, we decided to do those air exercises today. We still continued on with the theory lesson for medium turns though. Clinton booked in an extra lesson the next day to finish off the air exercises for medium turns.

Flying for two days straight was just awesome. I could easily pick up from where I left off previously to refine my skills. Unlike last week, the weather for both days were perfect for flying. Up in the air, we were able to see for miles!

Clinton won’t be in next week! :( He’s off for a holiday in Bali. damn you… just kidding! I’ll be working on stalls (an abrupt loss of lift due to excessive angle of attack) next; Let’s hope I don’t freak out while I’m in the air.

Lesson 3

I woke up in anticipation for my lesson this morning, only to be disappointed by the weather. It was raining, and that means no flying! We still did the theory bit though.

Today’s lesson covered the principals of climbing and descending, which went for about and hour, and that was pretty much it.

Let’s hope the weather for next week doesn’t disappoint!

RACWA... on Facebook?

From the RACWA website:

RACWA launched its Facebook page today, reflecting the changing communication trends of the younger demographic, which makes up a significant proportion of the RACWA membership …

… Facebook and its clever applications will provide the facility for RACWA members to participate in blogs, upload their own images and videos, and provide feedback for other members to view.

I somehow find this really amusing.

Lesson 2

The aim for today’s lesson was to accurately fly the aircraft straight and level, and in balance. Easier said than done! After doing the theory and pre-flight briefing bit, we headed out to the aircraft and did our pre-flight checks. My instructor found a defect in the door for the oil thing (I’m not sure what’s it called) and for safety reasons, we couldn’t fly it. So we had to change to another aircraft and that caused a bit of a delay.

When we got to our new aircraft (apparently it’s owned by Kent Street Senior High School), the weather kept us on the ground. Winds were strong and conducting the lesson would be difficult in such turbulent weather. Canceling the flight would mean wasting my money, but continuing could prove to be a challenge. Eventually we decided to continue on. Today’s air exercises however, in my opinion were terrible for some reason. I think it was because I was too worried about remembering all the information that I went through earlier during the theory bit of the lesson, up to the point where my mind just went blank. This was apparent when I made silly mistakes when it was time to apply that information into practice, like increasing thrust when I was meant to decrease it, applying right rudder when I was meant to do the opposite and not setting the trim properly. These mistakes happened over and over again, so I felt really unhappy about my performance.

I however, should accept and learn from these mistakes as they are part of the learning process, and try to avoid them in the future. I should also RELAX! I’m guessing that was also one of the factors for the terrible flight today. Flying is fun and I should be enjoying it, not the other way around. Also, like what Clinton said, I shouldn’t take it too hard on myself, as other students from his experience couldn’t handle the aircraft as well as I could. He also said that there’s this “inner instinct” in me for flying… that must be good, right?

Looking forward to the next lesson!

Update: After doing some self reflection (yes, I do loads of self reflection), I think that a lack of self confidence also played an important part in my “poor performance”. So again, it all comes down to relaxing and enjoying every moment (not forgetting to work hard at the same time too!).

Lesson 1

Unbelievable sights
Indescribable feeling
Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling
Through an endless diamond sky

Those are lyrics from Alladin’s A Whole New World, and it was exactly what I felt like in the skies today. Today’s lesson covered the effects of the primary and ancillary controls on the flight path of the aircraft. I went through it pretty well thanks to Clinton, my flight instructor. His relaxed, bubbly attitude made me feel more comfortable in the cockpit.

Despite the slight turbulent weather today, which made the lesson a bit hard to conduct, the views from today’s flight were as always, amazing.

Tomorrow’s my first ‘proper’ flight training lesson, and I’m looking forward to it! About a week ago, I went for my trial flight where I actually took controls of an aircraft, and I have a certificate to prove it too.

I’ve always been fascinated by airplanes and in 2006 I made the decision that I wanted to become a commercial pilot. I’m training at the Royal Aero Club of WA, one of Australia’s largest flying training organisations. These weekly lessons would bring me a step closer to my dream job. No doubt I’m quite nervous though, wish me good luck!