Sortie 5: Completed:)

Done my sortie 5: Climbing and Descending today!
Plane: 9V-YFM
Date: 27 Sept 2012
The weather was awesome and the visibility was amazing! I can see the planes landing at Changi Airport from Area Charlie!
The sortie was good! Well.. got a 5.5 score which is the highest in my course so far:)

So i did everything on my own, from checks to R/T to T/O to departure!

Well... The exercise was excellent.... Mostly

I almost lost control of the plane in the cruise descent as i was turning the plane to remain in area while R/T Establish in Area while doing Filer Checks and it started to rain at that time. So i was distracted and the plane started to sink at around 1800feet per minute.
Fortunately i spotted the error and corrected it!
Landing was smooth although i think i should have gone around as my bank angle exceeded 30 degrees while turning for final. But i was established n the extended centreline and decided to continue the approach.!

Overall got quite a good score!

Sortie 6..... Bring it on!!! :)

Sortie 4 : DCO

Weather: Initially good but the fog came in after 30 minutes.

Plane: DA40, 9V-YFE

Date: 25 September 2012

Brief recap

Flown the whole sortie from take off to landing

Almost had a birdstrike while landing and taking off.

Sortie exercise: Straight & Level at different power settings.

I was a little impatient during the exercise, often changing pitch angle too soon.

Did 1 major mistake when i called overhead instead of rejoin.... I was too far in front of the plane i guess..

And my situation awareness doesnt seem very good today...

Overall quite a good flight with 2 mistakes. Looking forward to my next flight tomorrow at 0340Z

Sortie 3: Completed

Weather: 8km visibility, Few clouds at 1800 feet and 4000 feet. Light turbulence
20 Sept 2012
T/O time: 1130 . Delayed by 2hours, 45 mins.
Sortie 3.
9V-YFF
Instructor: Toh BH
Flight time: 1hour
 My sortie was delayed into the 2nd wave due to poor visibility at 0845(1.5km).

Checks were excellent and the taxy today was good too!! :)

Soon after takeoff, there was turbulence until we land. We operated in Area Alpha low at 1500 feet due to clouds at 2000 feet. The winds were around 7-8 knots. Exercise started- Straight and level.

The exercise was good, considering that it was done in turbulent conditions. I managed to keep flying to a reference point despite the wind. (I was using the ailerons to keep the plane flying straight)
The level part of the exercise was tricky. This was due to the fact that the plane is always moving up and down- leading to me having to keep on constantly trimming the plane. The plane also sinked to 1200 feet after catching a downdraft.

When i was rejoining Seletar, 9V_YFL suddenly appeared in front and below my plane. I pulled back on the stick to increase the rate of climb to 2500 feet for the rejoin. Flew  the plane onto base nicely and Mr Toh took controls for the landing. Taxying back was good. Exited runway via W3.

Overall, the sortie was done quite well.... except for the minor fact that due to turbulence, I really cannot maintain level flight, i.e. Vertical Speed: 0 feet/min.


.

Sortie 2 : Completed

Plane flown: 9V-YFL, Diamond DA40.

Weather: Poor visibility, Light turbulence. Moderate wind speed. Lots of Clouds In training area Bravo , Charlie.

Pre flight brief was ok... except that i did not espect his question: Will the fuel flow be affected if Power Setting is changed?

I did my checks well. Although Mr Chee PS keep on telling me to do it faster! Even though i have done it damn fast already. 

Take off was turbulent and the climb speed was slow Even though the SOP was followed.

Departed to Bravo, Charlie via Alpha. Upon entering Area Bravo and Charlie, there were a lot of clouds in the area and we were in instrument flying rules. After a circuit in the area, weaving in between the clouds, I descended for Area Alpha to for the flying exercise. 

The sortie exercise was simple and i aced it. I think that i had good situation awareness at that point.

We were put on a holding pattern over pierce reservoir for around 0.3 hours while waiting for clearance to rejoin Seletar. Did an early left for downwind and extended the downwind a little to give the aircraft in front more room. 

Overall R/T was excellent! Could not remember 1 or 2 checks though. Overall, fortunate to score well for the sortie!

Sortie 1: DCO!! 9V-YFL

So i finally got to fly on the 14th September 2012. Weather was quite good- Winds were calm and there were no rain. But it was quite hazy and cloudy.
So, i went to Singapore Youth Flying Club slightly earlier to prepare. My callsign was skylark 99 and I was cleared to go out and carry out the aircraft external checks which i did and waited for my flight instructor, MR Toh BH to arrive.
The plane had only 16/17 gallons of fuel left from the previous day. Maintenance also did not clean the plane properly and i had to run there and get someone to finish their job. Starting up was ok. Although i didnt set mixture to rich long enough and thus have to redo the starting checks. Checks were quickly done by me:) R/T with ops and seletar ground was good. Although i did not really catch what strength the radio was due to some static, i still managed to say the correct taxy sequence. I was given clearance to taxy to W3 holding point at yankee. Almost screw up when i readback lineup runway 21 when it was backtrack runway 21. Fortunately i managed to correct my error. So at 0855, i was given takeoff clearance n was soon airborne.

Te surface winds were small and there were not a lot of clouds below 7000 feet. But still, there was a lot of haze n i can only make out marina bay sands from area alpha. At area alpha, we did the sortie exercise. Afterwards, i ask for clearance to enter area bravo and charlie. Up there, we moved to the boundaries to familiarize with the airspace boundaries.

Did some steep turns, and one stall too. I had control to travel around within the boundaries. Due to the haze, i cant really see any other planes even though there were around 4 in the area alpha bravo charlie.. Then i asked for clearance to recover back to seletar via area alpha. Was put on a circuit over pierce reservoir while waiting for clearance. It was just another routine rejoining procedure.

II had trouble locating other planes due to low visibility. Also, skylark 92 was always on my tail. In the end, I figured out the locations of the other planes in the circuit. Skylark 89 was in front of me. On downwind, i noticed that we were quite close to the plane in front. On final, with the approach stabilised, i had to go around at around 100 feet because the plane before me had not vacated the runway.. So i entered the circuit pattern again and landed on the next circuit. But i could not vacate the runway at the whiskey 2 exit as there was a plane in front blocking me. I think the plane behind me had to go around.

After exiting the runway, I contacted seletar ground.. Accidentally 'ks-ing' another guy. I apologized and waited until that guy was done. Was taxying on W3 when i was suddenly told to hold at whiskey 3 intermediate holding point due to another plane that had vacated runway via W3.
While taxying, i was looking out at the left wing to make sure the wing would not hit the fence and my instructor said Eh where got girl in hokkien. In the end, i taxyed to the shed and shut down the engine..

Conclusion: The sortie was quite excellent and was rewarded with a good score. But i think my checks could have been done faster and situation awareness could be even sharper. R/T was good, despite my 'style' :)

Sortie #1. Sept 11 2012. Status: Cancelled

Sortie number 1.
Plane: 9V-YFG
Date: 11/09/2012
Status: Cancelled
Went SYFC like2 hours early to prep. As i was going to contact seletar ground, there was a thunderstorm warning alert...  -.- 

The day started when i saw meng yang on the bus to yfc. We reached there at 0940. Checked the weather radar and it looked ok. Was hoping to complete sortie 1 before it rains. 
After taking my SPL and file we went to the canteen to prep. Practiced radio telephoney n checks. Then 1015 went to prepare for flight. Checked fuel n aircraft status. quite ok. With a rejected takeoff last month because propeller RPM while taking off was 300 rpm which was too low

Went back ops room after keeping my belongings n met Toh BH. I updated my file and he asked me a few questions. Wat runway was in use, wat is vmc, current weather. Answers were good.  only slip was that he was pointing at my SPL and I was like wat?  Then we went to briefing room while meng yang was running around finding Tan SL. 
In the briefing room, we went through the sortie objectives. He asked some questions like. What are the training areas, lateral vertical boundaries, which EOC are we doing and at what speed. Departure rejoin procedures. Then went to take headset, life vest. Met him n walked out to the plane.
Talked some things . Like why i go poly instead of jc. Then i said cos of flying. N he said. Wa good sia. 1step closer to be fighter pilot. Said the same thing when he saw i was wearing transitions specs.

The wind was like 1-2 knots then n the clouds looked quite far away. Started external checks. He asked the questions like wat is this for n that. Answered quite well:D (almost forgot to connect headset though. only rmb when i was adjusting rudder pedals.) External checks was good. Except that he suggests to take off the covers n drain fuel when doing d checks. N check gps 1,2 when entering cockpit.
Pre start checks was good except for d step whereby i forgot alternate air valve. Then called power on n switched d master switch on. Note 9V-YFG controls were a bit screwed up. The headset was not very responsive n had to check a few times. Cant pull d mixture fully back. Starting d engine was good. Managed to start the engine quickly enough. And the plane started vibrating like mad. Adjusting throttle to 1500 rpm, and when i thought the rpm had stabilised, it increased further. Had to reset back. Deadcut check was ok but the rpm drop was above maximum n had to lean the mixture. 

After that was normal. Pre taxy n instrument checks.
For engine run up checks we juz drove straght n parked 45degrees. While taxying heard meng yang radio call ops when i was in front of his plane. He was number 6, i was number 4. Did engine runup n before take off checks.

As i was going to contact seletar ground to request taxy for area alpha. Suddenly ops radioed. Thunderstorms approaching frm south south west .... Didnt catch d rest. Looked at toh bh n cfm taxy back. I was like wth. Took controls  n taxied back..
D taxy back was difficult. D wind keep on causing d plane to drift off centre line. Had to keep on correcting it. Anticipated d turn a tad to late. But managed to correct it. He did d engine shut down checks.aftwards i did a quick aircraft check n walked back to yfc. He asked me so u happy? I didnt reply cos dunno wat to say. He say. Of course not luh. Never get to fly! At maintenance he forgot d hobbs counter reading n i had to run back to take d reading. Post flight brief was fast. Checks were excellent n would have gotten a six if only d flight wasnt cancelled. Obviously he didnt notice my mistakes. Lol.

Airbus Future Concept

Keeping in mind that a landing on an aircraft carrier is one in which you stop but your eyeballs and the last meal you ate might not, this is definitely something to think about if you feel that contemporary air travel has already crammed itself into an intolerably uncomfortable experience.Airbus is proposing (in the distant future) that airliners could be launched and landed aircraft carrier catapult style from a whole new generation of green and clean airports.

It is however, a vision that Airbus, as part of its Future by Airbus proposals, has been careful to describe in soothing terms, and with some very interesting additional details.

Think about Aircraft launched through assisted take-offs using renewably powered, propelled acceleration, allowing steeper climb from airports to minimise noise and reach efficient cruise altitudes quicker.

Space becomes a premium and mega-cities become a reality, this approach could also minimise land use, as shorter runways could be utilised.

Welcome aboard flight 2050.

Take your seat and prepare to be propelled to optimum cruising altitude in a continuous ‘eco-climb’.

Listen to the changing sound of the engines during flight and it’s obvious: an aircraft draws on its reserves of power more during take-off than at any other time.

The power needed to take off is determined based on a number of factors.  These include runway length, wind speed, temperature, and the weight of the aircraft itself.

But this take-off power is only required for a very brief part of the total flight.  Once cruising in the sky overhead, an aircraft doesn’t need as much to maintain altitude.

So why not source the energy required at take-off from an innovation installed on the ground?  Can the burden (and weight) be removed from the aircraft itself?

An assisted take-off – using some form of propelled acceleration – would mean aircraft could be lighter, with smaller engines consuming less fuel.

All of which means an optimised aircraft could climb to its most efficient cruising altitude more quickly.  A continuous ‘eco-climb’ would further cut noise and CO2 emissions, especially if renewable fuels were used, making the process even more eco-efficient.

This would be in sharp contrast to today.  Aircraft currently climb in a series of incremental – and inefficient – stages.  These ‘step climb intervals’ require more fuel.

With less time and distance required for take-off, the runways could be shortened – by up to 1/3rd.  This would minimise land use, enabling airport capacity to increase or new micro-airports to emerge.

These could be located close to city centres – or the mega-cities that will become a reality – with space becoming even more of a premium.

How will it work?

Aircraft could be manoeuvred onto a track system and accelerated using either electro-magnetic motors built into the track or an inductive circuit within the aircraft itself.

Acceptable acceleration and deceleration limits of passengers would need to be determined.  But the experience would be more akin to a comfortable children’s funfair ride rather than a high-octane white knuckle theme park.

The ultimate, albeit it very extreme, concept is to have a system that not only launches but also captures the aircraft, removing the need for landing gear.  This would require all airports to have the same system, to accommodate all routes along with alternative/diversion airports, and is probably a little beyond 2050.

This takes us into a  future where there would be fleets of aircraft limited by design to fly between assisted launch and capture airports, and would never have the installed power of today’s airliners in terms of being able to climb away from an airport after an engine failure too close to the end of the runway to stop, and have enough thrust available on the remaining engine to clear obstacles and safety maneuver back to the airport, not only in hot weather, but at high altitude locations.

The proposal also raises formidable challenges in designing such airliners to cope with any critical moment power failures by the rail gun, or whatever the launch mechanism used.

But it is about a future in which somewhere between half and two thirds of those who regularly fly today will be dead, as distinct from being alive but wishing they were dead, or at least somewhere else, on a bad hair day at airports or in airline operations.

A free flight constellation of like minded Concept Airbuses: Graphic by Airbus

The Future by Airbus concepts, which are billed for stardom at this year’s ILA Berlin Air Show  (11-16 September) are also again graced by the intriguing form of the Airbus Concept Airliner design, which has appeared as the shape of things to come in sizes ranging from an A320 to an A380 replacement in Airbus discussion papers for the past three years.

At this year’s show flocks of Concept Airbuses are seen in flying formations like those of migrating geese, following ‘free flight’ routes independent of air traffic control as we know it today, yet keeping themselves automatically safely apart within such clusters where like minded jets freely and independently determine where the most favourable winds and conditions apply to their various tasks.

Depending on your point of view, this could be considered an exciting or ‘gripping’ concept, not unlike the near subliminal capability of a crowd of people to swirl through a busy place, like a railway or airport terminal, without running into each other. Except occasionally.

Another view of the Airbus Shape of things to come: Airbus graphic

Singapore's 2 New Pandas!

On the 6th of September 2012, A Singapore Airlines Cargo B747 touched down at Singapore Changi airport.
Its passengers- 2 giant Pandas from Sichuan, China!

At precisely 3.20pm on Wednesday, Kai Kai and Jia Jia were driven out of the Ya'an panda base - a place they had called home all their lives.

Kai Kai's Chinese name is Wujue and Jia Jia's original name was hubao, the pandas are on a ten year loan to Singapore. 

Wujie is a 5 year old male and Hubao is a 4 year old female, the pandas will be available to be viewed by the public in December once they have adapted to their new environment. and Hubao will be renamed Jia Jia, the pandas are on a ten year loan to Singapore. 

Home for them for the next 10 years will be the River Safari attraction in Singapore, and they arrived at Changi Airport today after a flight of about 4 1/2 hours.

The freighter used to transport the pandas

Before they embarked on a new phase of their lives here, Kai Kai, aged five, and Jia Jia, aged four, received a send-off yesterday, with song and dance performances put up by the residents of the city of Ya'an in China's Sichuan province, where the pandas are from. Confetti was fired into the air and some 500 guests lined the road leading out of the base to bid the pandas a warm farewell.

Jia Jia

Among them were Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry Lee Yi Shyan, chairman of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) Claire Chiang and Chinese government officials, including the Communist Party secretary in Ya'an, Mr Xu Meng Jia.

Kai Kai

60 guests which included Mr Teo Ser Luck, Minister of State (Trade & Industry), chairman of Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) Claire Chiang, and former President S.R. Nathan, chairman of CapitaLand Hope Foundation.

The pandas which were on board a chartered Singapore Airlines flight touched down at the Jet Quay CIP Terminal of the Changi Airport just after 8.20am.

About 30 minutes later, before the guests - which included government officials from MTI and corporate sponsors CapitaLand - two crates were lowered from the plane, and opened to unveil Kai Kai and Jia Jia.

Cr: Straits Times for the pictures

1st service to Australia on 787 will be on China Southern!

Now that Qantas has cancelled its order of Boeing 787 Dreamliners, China Southern is set to be the first airline to debut commercial flights of the revolutionary aircraft in Australia.

China Southern is due to get its 787s later this year. Qantas's were due to arrive mid-2013 but last week the airline announced it had exercised its right to walk away from its order of the long-delayed aircraft. The move will add millions to Qantas's bottom line, but pundits query the long-term growth implications of the cancellation.

China Southern recently confirmed it will fly the revolutionary aircraft on its Sydney-Guangzhou-London route.

The Dreamliner, Boeing's answer to Airbus's A380, is already in service on a small number of airlines including JAL and is garnering rave reviews for its spaciousness, vastly improved cabin environment and excellent turbulence management system.

The 787s also have the biggest overhead bins in the sky.

United Airlines showed off their first 787 earlier this month and will become the first North American airline to fly it commercially some time in the northern autumn.

Great expectations

With confirmation of talks between Qantas and Emirates regarding code-share arrangements between the two for European destinations, dedicated Qantas international customers used to flying to Europe via south-east Asia or Hong Kong to London, with maybe a British Airways code share, might be wondering what is potentially in store for them.

Sky Report has flown with Emirates several times to Europe, and flew with the airline to Paris and back recently.

The first clear advantage Emirates has is its reach. The airline flies to more than 30 European destinations from Dubai.

We find another advantage in flying to Europe with Emirates, or any of the Middle Eastern carriers for that matter, is the division of time between legs of the journey.

The first leg from the Australian east coast to Dubai is long, about 14 hours from Sydney. If on a night flight, that gives passengers time to eat dinner, watch a movie and get a decent number of hours' sleep - especially if they are in business class (or beyond), as Sky Report was.

From Dubai, the trip to Europe is the short leg. It took seven hours to get to Paris and when Sky Report flew Emirates from Sydney to Rome a while back, we were delighted that the second leg only took six hours.

It's Sky Report's opinion that the time division, going both ways, is better for keeping some sense of normalcy in sleeping patterns because of the one longer flight.

Once in Dubai, connections to Europe are usually less than four hours, which is fine if you have access to the lounge, where there are showers, free wi-fi and comfy seating.

But despite expansion and renovations, Dubai International Airport continues to be a crowded mall-like area that lacks facilities for weary travellers, according to punters.

On the Skytrax review site, travellers still complain about toilet queues and lack of seating at Dubai. Another gripe is the long bus trips often required to get to the terminal after disembarkation. (Our recent one was more than half an hour and we were dying for a loo.) Singapore's Changi and Bangkok's airport have it all over Dubai in this regard.

But the on-board Emirates experience is terrific. In the past few years, the international crews have lifted their already good game to be more friendly. The food - in business class, anyway - was excellent on our flights.

And throughout all cabins, the entertainment system screens are the biggest in the sky. The system was recently voted world's best airline inflight entertainment in the Skytrax World Airline Awards for the eighth consecutive year.

The Skytrax awards also anointed Air Canada best North American airline and Cathay won the gong for best business-class cabin.

Beemer me up

Designers at BMW's subsidiary DesignworksUSA are turning their talents skywards. They're hard at work creating fresh cabins for Singapore Airlines (SIA), to be introduced in both new aircraft and via refits of existing planes.

SIA, the foreign carrier with the largest presence in Australia, last upgraded its cabins six years ago, about the time it was the first airline to fly the A380.

The new offerings, including seats, interiors and entertainment systems, will be introduced in the second half of next year.

Case in point

Sky Report's favourite suitcase has seen better days. In fact, it would probably qualify as biohazard. But as long as it still zips up over our unreasonable overpacking and doesn't pop open on the carousel, we see no reason to replace it - other than the shame we feel every time it pops out the luggage chute.

Fortunately, it appears we are not alone in our attachment to the grubby old faithful.

In a survey conducted by Virgin Atlantic, one in five air travellers couldn't remember the last time they bought new luggage, while 55 per cent said they would only upgrade their suitcase if it were broken.

Conversely, Virgin Atlantic has also noted an increase in posh designer cases such as monogrammed Louis Vuitton.

The survey revealed one in 10 of the owners of these items bought the nice luggage to impress or outdo their travel companions, while air travellers aged from 16 to 24 said they bought fancy suitcases in order to copy celebrities.

So if grunge comes back, Sky Report's luggage might actually become covetable.

Route watch

Qantas is reintroducing daily services between the Gold Coast and Sydney, a route it currently only services via Jetstar. From late October, there will be three daily return Qantas services. The Gold Coast Jetstar passenger lounge will be transformed into a Qantas Club by the end of the year.

Virgin Atlantic is to fly its first domestic service, between Heathrow and Manchester. The move is seen as the beginning of a foray into regional services by the British-based international carrier.