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When The Propellers
engaged the park brake for my last flight before setting course to pursue
landing, I helped him pulled the power lever quickly into reverse and
Once the aircraft stopped, I took over control, firmly pushing the
power lever, monitoring the auto ignition lights went off once passing 400
ft-lb torque (which we refered to as ‘4Tq’), auto feather lights ‘on’ once
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passing 90 percent N1 and propeller governing at 2000 rpm, planning to
The aircraft reaching 110 knots around 3000 feet before threshold
retracting back into their bay quite reassuring. I adjusted the climb angle
to 100 allowing the airspeed accelerated towards 140 knots. “Above 200
feet, above 126 knots, flaps up”. Thereafter almost by reflex the
attitude was adjusted and trimmed for 140 knots. I retarded the power
retarding the propeller lever to 1900rpm, and at the same time adjusting
for synchronization. “After Take-off Checks!” The copilot did his part
again. “Landing gears up, lights off. Flaps up, indicating up. Yaw damper on.
Climb power set. Engine instrument check. Prop sync on. AutoFeather off.
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the upwind leg, flying was done on instrument to avoid succumbing to the
Somatogravic illusion.
downwind leg and leveling off at 1500 feet. Bank angle was maintained
1500ft, retarding the power lever to around 10Tq and called “Cruise
power!”. Again the copilot will adjust the propeller lever to 1700rpm so
that I could easily trimmed the aircraft for 160 knots on level cruise.
Turning into downwind the runway lights were barely visible in the
329 degrees on heading, 160 knots with the Air force insignia visually
flying on the runway centerline so that a constant parallel track with the
runway is flown over the ground. (It was an easy flying at night since the
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their jobs once the ground started cooling down. Losing energy, they felt
sleepy and will resume their job once sun shining again tomorrow.) The
cocking into wind or flying parallel to the runway), the precise airspeed
procedure (SOP).
Once abeam the threshold, the drill will be “Time (where I will start
the stopwatch for 30 seconds), below 200, Flaps 40 percent, below 181
for 1500 ft, normally in a way by pushing the nose down a little bit to
elevator back once landing gears were firmly deployed. Airspeed will
power to 8 Tq, lowering the attitude to around 3 degrees nose down and
initiating around 15 degrees bank angle turning into baseleg, adjusting for
700 ft/min rate of decent. Base technique came into play: Power control
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rate of descent, attitude control airspeed. Anticipating for turning final,
clear to land, wind is calm”. 45 degrees inwards, I started to look for the
Today, more than a year after that final landing, taking a break
grasp again with the feeling of handling the aircraft boring holes through
the skies, days and nights. In the Air Force, I logged 3162.7 hours total
flying time where 528.3 hours were at nights. Command time was 2289.4
hours. I remember most of those nights flying were the night operations
conducted from forward operating base (FOB) where I was positioned for
ten to twelve days in rotation with other crews. Our 007 missions were to
conduct night operations over the waters that were littered with fishing
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boats, merchant vessels, navy patrol crafts plus islands and reefs. We
again at distant airfield to refuel after flying for four hours and
subsequently took off for another sortie. Basically we would fly until
job when we were at the school. Is there any kids out there who can
imagine that one day he will fly in the middle of the night, low over the
sea, at the farthest eastern boundary of his country trying to figure out
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what the ship down there is doing on the murky water. On those countless
before joining the Air Force. At those hours, we need to keep talking;
that was about forty minutes at 240 knots TAS. Approaching the area we
requested the descent clearance for 3000 feet and below operating
under special VFR for “special military operation”. Familiarized with the
to 1500 feet and below, calling “feet wet!” Normally I was comfortable at
1000 feet over the water, at night. In the meantime we did the various
nav and observer. By the time we established in the area, it was closed to
the midnight.
of cockpit lights shot through our eyes and our minds were divided
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between the thought of faraway family and figuring out the outputs
ten miles.” I strained my eyes trying to look for the contact visually while
the copilot played with the nite stabiscope trying to figure out the
target. The nav had all the wonderful gadgets at his disposal and
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With experience, we knew that the vessels with the brightest light
were the boats catching squids: “bot sotong”. We figure out the MLA of
merchant ships by its navigation lights and the far distance lights of the
movement was the prudence action to be taken since it will avoid spatial
preferred to stay at 500 feet, checking the contact one after the other.
Each individual pilot practices his own tactics in achieving the task.
Some prefer to stay high and rely on the million-dollar gadgets. Some
prefer to stay low, pumping the adrenalin at high rate. The unpublished
rule was “whatever you do, make sure you come back in one piece”. The
most important thing that I stressed to the new aircraft commander was,
“make sure you are thoroughly familiarized with the area: where was the
2000 ft Gaya Island with respect to your track? Three nautical miles to
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the left on northward track? If it had been a while that you did not flying
in the area, make sure your first flight is at daylight, figuring out all the
You felt satisfied and proud when the aircraft commanders that you
trained accomplished the task, flew safely and passed the knowledge to
others. But when a slack happened you found yourself faced the board of
inquiry. O.K. They asked you nicely. How do you find the pilot. Your
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to Allah), the pilot and the crew were safe. Aircraft damaged because it
swerved out from the runway on landing under the condition of heavy rain
and gusty wind at 0300 o’clock in the darkness of the morning, with the
fatigueness flying back from the area. I did a standard check on the pilot
mental stress since we could go home after flight. And the night was
calm, no rain and was still early. I could not simulate the heavy rain, the
gusty wind, and the wet runway. Those residents who bought their home
close to the runway were not very happy if you pen down your training
take off time and landing time around three o’clock in the morning. They
just can’t equate the sound of turboprop engine with sentimental music. I
pity them. On the part of the pilot, I liked his confidence, his firmness in
lives. Life moves on. Even when the propellers finally stop.
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