When Things Go Wrong

It is always nice to sit at the airport listening to the roar of the jet engines when a commercial liner takes off or when one lands. It is always so graceful!

There is a saying that always goes “Taking off is optional but landing is mandatory!”. I couldn’t agree more! Taking off is kinda easy compared to landing. Landing is very very tricky! You have to watch your speed, careful not to stall your aircraft. Watch your descent rate, so to make sure you are on the correct glide path and also take into account the wind factor. Done correctly, it will be a silky smooth landing. Do a mistake and you will come slamming onto the ground!

Let me show you a what happens when a landing goes terribly wrong!

This here is what happened when you landed the plane wrong. The propeller hits the ground a.k.a propeller strike! Notice that the aircraft is supported by a blue jack? Most probably the aircraft came down on its nose wheel first instead of the main wheels. But because of the tremendous force, the nose wheel broke and there goes the propeller slamming onto the ground!

See how the propeller is bended? Bad shape! Anyway guess how much the propeller cost? The propeller is manufactured by Hartzell and it came all the way from the United States! The price is a staggering RM44k!

The engine is also damaged from the propeller strike, so it has to be replaced as well from what I understand. For this it will cost another RM100k! Total now is RM144k. And we still haven’t add the cost of the nose-wheel yet!

Because of this incident, we now only have 3 aircraft serviceable. Bad shape! I seriously do not know how much that fella needs to pay for this but I am certainly sure it will burn a massive hole in the pocket!

This is my first time seeing a prop-striked airplane! Couldn’t imagine the propeller is bended till this way! And the best thing is, it still still in one piece! It did not break from the impact!

Classes

First week of DCAT is over. 6 more weeks to go before our finals. Did my first Theory of Flight progress today. I guess this is roughly what happens this whole week. Just exam and studies and more studying.

Here’s some picture of us during the breaks in between classes :

From left to right : Daniel, Dev, me, Alonque

Bad boy pilots. LOL. I hope nobody sees this. Oppss >.<

Chilling out after breakfast waiting for the morning roll call. Can anyone identify me?

Thats all for this week. Photo treat for this week is limited due to the fact that I need to study, so no time to lay my hands on those shutter. Will try to snap more photos to share. ^^,

Anyway this week is also a gloomy week for our flight school because 2 of our trainees are involved in an air crash accident which resulted in the death of one of the trainee.

Trainee Pilot Killed And Another Badly Injured In Light-plane Crash

SETIU, Aug 21 (Bernama) — A trainee pilot was killed and another seriously injured when the light-plane they were in for a training exercise crashed into the jungle at Lembah Bidong near here Wednesday evening.

Terengganu acting police chief Datuk Jalaluddin Abdul Rahman said the trainee killed in the 4.40pm oncident was Mohd Arif Ahmad Fuad, 20, from Subang Jaya, Selangor while his companion was Mohd Farid Abdullah, 21, from Sungai Buloh, Selangor.

Speaking to reporters near the crash scene, Jalaluddin said a search and rescue team that began operations yesterday evening found the wreckage at about 7.15am Thursday.

He said when found Mohd Arif was dead in his seat while Mohd Farid wass found about eight meters from the Diamond 40 MAHA 443 aircraft belonging to HM AeroSpace Flight Training School.

The two-seater plane had taken-off from the Sultan Mahmud Airport in Kuala Terengganu Wednesday evening before losing contact with the control tower about 11km out.

Jalaluddin said police received a call about the missing plane at about 4.40pm and a search and rescue team was formed headed by Kuala Terengganu police district chief ACP Zamri Shamsuddin.

Jalaluddin said the team of 14 officers and 118 policemen was aided by the General Operations Force, the Civil Defence Department and villagers and began the search at 6pm.

The team, he said, split into four groups and proceeded based on information from Malaysia Airports Berhad and local villagers.

Several villagers of Kampung Lembah Bidong who witnessed the incident said the plane was flying low and and seemed to be having problems before disappearing.

A contractor, Wong Kok Lay, 45, who was building a road in the road said every evening there would be similar planes flying in the area.

“However, yesterday evening my workers said the light-plane was too low and spurting thick smoke before disappearing,” he said.

— BERNAMA

Picture source : sinchew

It is an awful piece of news and I am really shocked when I learn about it. We were told during our daily morning roll call.

Flags at our school

I pray that this kind of accidents never happen again and may Mohd Arif rest in peace and may there be a speedy recovery for Mohd Farid. Hope we can all learn something from this accident. *God Bless*