My 2nd SOLO!!!

Clear weather in Singapore, Heavy storm in Johor in the early morning.

Luckily for me, my lesson is the 12 – 2pm slottie. After grabbing a ¼ foot Turkey Breast/Ham Sub for breakfast, I had to rush down to Senai Airport in Johor cos I was running late.

Cleared the customs and almost reaching Senai, Guess what I saw in the sky? Its just like it has been splitted into half. On my left its dark clouds, on my right its clear white sunny sky. Regretted never stop by the road side to take a picture of it. Since time is really not a constraint today. You will know why later.

Not soon enough, I reached the club. The place is wet all over with big puddles of water. Parked my bike and went in. As I have expected, the morning slotties were delay due to bad weather, the other student who is in front of me had the earlier slot of 9am have not flew yet. Thus he went first and I waited for another 2 hours for my turn.

After he landed, he was saying that the crosswinds are strong and the weather does not look so good. I was discouraged by his information and felt like just returning back to Singapore without flying. But today might be my last day of flight before I leave for Australia as I might not be able to fork out time later to go for lessons. I Hesitated for a while. When I have decided to tell my instructors that I am planning to head back to Singapore, the bad weather and the heavy winds suddenly cleared up and the scenario is just perfect for flying!

Shaking my head, amused by my own silliness, I took my kneeboard and the flight bag and head towards the plane to carry on my lessons. I timed my pre-flight checks. Wah! 10 mins only leh! Cannot imagine my first pre-flight check I took more than 30 mins to complete. But it delayed to 30 mins in the end, Why? Cos the instructor took his own sweet time to walk from the club to the plane, think he is busy with some last min paper work.

Boarded the place, took off and perform 4 circuits of “touch & go” accompanied by my instructor and after that he left me alone to complete the rest of the 3 solo circuits flight.

My first solo was about 1 month back. Was shaky for a while, but told myself, “be steady, you can do it. Already done all the basic radio calls on your own, you can do it”. Radioed the ATC for lining up onto the runway, rev the throttle and here I go!

The feeling is great! I almost stalled on my first takeoff, the angle of elevation is too much and the speed is not enough. Shucks! Fortunately I recovered the speed and carry on the climb. Finished the 3 circuits, landed for a full stop and began a short flight de-brief by my instructor. Took down his advice and headed back to Singapore! I want to visit the Comex as I won’t want to go down on the family packed Sunday.

In the beginning, I took the flying course as a stepping stone for a career change in the airlines. But today, while I was alone in the skies, I really enjoyed flying. The feeling of so high up there, looking down onto the scenery, it’s just FABULOUS!