Relief

I am pleased to announce that I have cleared all 8 papers of my exams with an average score of 90%. Thank God!

It was pure bliss and happiness when the instructor read out my name, followed by a pause, and then "All cleared". Shiok!

With the exception of one last paper to clear (we are now awaiting the results), we could be on our way to JDK as soon as this Friday!

Time is thus spent with family, family, family as I won't be seeing them for months on end. I will definitely be homesick, and I hope that the companionship of friends will keep me going till I complete the training.

I am very afraid for my final paper. I made so many careless mistakes due to my recklessness again and fell prey to several tricky boogey questions. I just hope that I did enough to pass. I don't care whether it is 95% or 75% as long as I pass. The stakes are high and I am terribly afraid of failure.

I also had the pleasure of flying on the 747 simulator at the company HQ, albeit in the wee hours of 4am to 6am on Sunday morning. It was like a dream come true to sit in your future office (though mine may not be 747, most likely 777 or A330), really manoevering the aircraft using the actual controls. Though we were not trained to fly using purely instruments, I am proud that I did well for the takeoff and landings. I am now affirmative that this is something I had been looking forward to for my entire life and I am keener than ever to finish my training and get the show on the road.

Just as long as I pass the last paper....

It's just... a routine takeoff

You are cooped up in the aircraft, holding behind the white line on the taxiway. Temperature's almost 35 degrees C in the cockpit and sweat runs down your brow. Despite the wash from the propellers blowing in violently through the open windows, you still feel hot. Your shirt sticks to your back against the cushion. Despite the discomfort, you perservere and stay focussed, looking ahead at the converging sides of the taxiway.

You are awaiting clearance from ATC to proceed to line up or backtrack the runway. Mic jammed between your lips and its cushion partnering with your teeth, the earphones covering your entire ears and making it unbearably hot and itchy. You could hardly hear the following words amid the multiple correspondences on the air:

"XXX, backtrack runway 03."

You acknowledge the exact words back to ATC. Time to go.

Legs on brakes, left hand on steering column, right hand on throttle. Your right hand pulls back the throttle from min running speed to free, your legs simultaneously stepping to release the brakes and instinctively, your right hand pushes the throttle just a little forward to add some power. The engine guns loud and you check that the mix is rich and oil temperature isn't too high.

The aircraft starts to move slowly. You need to clear the taxiway and the runway fast as all the aircraft circling in the circuit above you and along the paralleling taxiways are waiting to use the runway. You control the drift of the aircraft using your rudders. You are moving too quickly, you feel. Your right hand eases off the throttle just a little and your legs apply a bit of brakes. Prior to entering the runway, you scan left and right, sounding out "Left and right clear!". Then you scan the skies left and right briefly for aircraft landing, sounding out "Approach clear, all clear!". Good to go.

You move out onto the runway, doing a quick teardrop (U-turn). Applying brakes, you stop along the centreline. Whole runway ahead of you is clear and in a distance, you can see shimmering heat waves from the talmac.

"XXX, cleared for takeoff." You repeat the same back.

Your right hand pushes forward all the way to apply full throttle. While the engine guns to its maximum, your legs jump off the brakes. The aircraft leaps to life, you are slightly thrown back in your seat as the aircraft throws itself forward, nose pitching up slightly. 20 knots, 30 knots, 35.... you do a quick glance at the instruments to check that the mix is rich and oil temperature is still green. You see the needle hit 50 knots and you pull the steering column back gently upon 55 knots. Suddenly the runway is now below you, getting further and further and the world's perspective changes as you rise higher into the skies. Your heart does a leap of excitement and pumps as hard as the engine.

Viva forever. Live forever for this moment.

Top Ten Insults Heard In Ground School

Insults are a common thing in everyday life. Some are meant to shake you up and improve your performance, others are simply to jibe at your ego or to hit under the belt.

I present.... the top ten insults heard in my past six months in ground school. With practice you can soon tell which insults belong to the same instructor. Of course, it wasn't pleasant for the poor guy being torched at that instant but it provides a laugh for us here. Hence in no particular merit, here we go:

1. "There's a thing on your shoulders called a head and you are definitely not using it, goddammit!"

2. "I think you have reached the level of incompetence whereby you should just kill yourself."

3. "Some of you are beyond hope. A number of the others are simply beyond economic repair." *walks out of class*

4. "Let them continue talking, nevermind. When this question comes out in the exams, they will suffer and fail."

5. "So you punched in the wrong figures in your calculator? You are now blaming your calculator? Tell you what, next time you go for your sortie, when you are over the *** reservoir, you should just open the window and throw yourself and that calculator out."

6. "Some of you are really good at the charts. But you get complacent like *****. Yesterday he could get the figures right but this morning his figures are slightly off and now its totally wrong. What have you been doing ah, *****?"

7. "I think you do better when you don't study because when you say you do, your results prove otherwise. Why don't you leave it at that and don't study and have a good night out?"

8. "You can't even remember the colours correctly. Do you drive, *****? You do right? Then you better kill yourself first before you endanger the lives of others, you idiot."

9. "Good runup, good lift off. Hey what are you doing? You aiming for the moon ah? Push the nose down!"

(This one was told to me)
10. "Your flying is so horrible, I am going to fail you when we get back. I HAVE CONTROL! Fuck off!" *wrenches control over*

Happy Times!

The episode that has been hanging over my head for the past 2 months has finally been cleared. I get to keep my job!!!

I can't tell you how relieved I am. The Lord works miracles!

Now what's left are the results... that one would take a miracle as well but nothing is impossible :)

Last paper next Friday is a tough one but I shall work hard at it and pass it on first attempt!

Food cravings: Salt-baked snow crab at Hooters. Woot!

Soccer Binge!

To top up the morale, I played two matches over these two days.

Last evening, I joined my ex-colleagues at the clubhouse for a game. It has been so long since I played with them! Of course, my fitness which has hit rock-bottom could not sustain me for the entire match and I finished the game as a walking passenger.

It wasn't a good comeback for me. Apart from a few assists to WK and CP as well as a long range goal, I did nothing much to contribute to my team. I even ended up scoring an own goal. Terrible! The fact that the opponents were made up of all commandos (friends of Jack) didn't help and they ran rings around us old men. But we still took the game comfortably, to WK and CP's credit.

Today's game with my coursemates was much better. I netted a hat-trick and put two assists to Ronaldong to tap in. We were pretty amused when Abba Wee and S.Ming started arguing (they were on the same team and are room-mates what more). We took the game 6-4 in the end and we all got a good workout.

A little update... my results is expected to be out either tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday. I am praying for the best, especially for the three papers I don't feel good about (Nav, Radio and Met P). And the verdict on my disciplinary incident will be out on Thursday - will know on that day if I get to keep my job. Praying very hard in the meantime...

A big shoutout to Pixie and a big thank you for the post. Will keep my spirits up no matter what happens! The shoot awaits... zoo? Time for me to bring out the beloved 70-200! And I am yearning to try the 35!