Flight Summary

Engine Time	11h 51m
Landings	7
Fuel total	85 Gallons
Fuel per hour	approx. 7.2 Gallons (28 Liters)
Hotel cost	approx. RM 240 (SGD 100)
Pictures	Click here

The flight safari has been postponed, so I had free time on my hand and decided to jump into the club piper to see where the wind would carry me.

13 October 2012, 14:00 LT, Malacca Airport

Well, as it turns out the wind decided to carry me exactly 100 nm before putting a full stop on my plans with thunderstorms over Subang. Now I am sitting in an empty airport terminal in Malacca and hope I will later make it to Penang and Langkawi.

Another slight inconvenience is the lack of food within the Malacca airport as well as many miles around it. I have lots of good intention to lose weight, but not so soon and not so fast. More reason to refresh the weather radar image in browser every 5 seconds hoping something will change for the better.

Captain Singh used to preach that we bring something to drink and to eat for cross-country flights – advise which I, in my 200 hour wisdom, chose to ignore. And now I have been without food and drink since breakfast.

I was ready to turn the ignition key when ATC told me to stop. Apparently Subang didn’t think they can accept me in marginal VMC. I didn’t have it in me to argue and packed up. Captain Singh called me to give some good advise, but I decided to try my luck tomorrow morning. The best advise anybody can give you in light aircraft VFR flying: Don’t make decisions because you think you need to be somewhere at a certain time. I think the unpredictability makes some of the charm of leisure flying.

13 October 2012, 17:00 LT

Now I have to stay in Malacca over night. I was careless enough to tell the taxi driver that I need a small budget hotel. Sure enough, he found me one for SGD 25. Toilette and shower on the floor and the room is roughly my height squared. The staff is super friendly and I am experiencing the real kampung flair. The night market is supposed to be around the corner and I am starving.

14 October 2012, 11:45 LT
Very pleasant flight from Malacca to Subang. Petronas said the would be here by 11:30 and indeed they showed up exactly half past. Very satisfying when everything works.

I managed to have a Coke and a chicken burger at the McDonalds (with a view at my aircraft). Nurul has already faxed my flight plans. So I hope to get to Langkawi by 4 pm or so.

Subang refuel was very fast too. The arrived 10 minutes after touch down.

On my way to Langkawi now. The flight was nice and cool. I manages to stay at 4,000 or 3,000 feet, but I had to dodge some clouds to stay within the VFR.

14 October 2012, 17:30 LT

The weather held and the flight from Penang to Langkawi was as enjoyable as ever. Because the visibility was good, I tracked directly from Kuala Kedah to Pulau Paya and I used my own VFR map (see this blog entry). There was no delay in Langkawi, where the controllers are really on the ball. When I arrived at Kuah I expected to circle for a while, because there was lots of traffic, but the controller let me down to 1000 feet directly into the downwind of 03 right with no holding. There was a FireFly aircraft on the runway waiting for a Malaysian Airlines plane to climb out of the way. Since the FireFly was just starting to roll when I got to late downwind, I was asked to do one orbit. (a bit tricky, because of the hills, which takes you very close to the trees when orbiting away from the runway) And then it was my turn already. The controller warned me of wake turbulence and I was close to turning base, while watching the FireFly climbing out of what was to become my Final for 03. No drama. The landing was ok and I taxied to bay 10 via exit Charlie.

Now I am at the AB Motel in Pantai Cenang Beach. They have rooms on both sides of the road. The rooms on the beach side are more expensive. I am staying on the other side for RM 80, but I could have gone for a room without warm water for RM 60. I ended up switching off the warm water anyway, so I should have done that.

Greetings and consider to join me next time!

15 October 2012, 13:50 LT
Woke up this morning to the soothing sound of rain and the occasional disturbing thunder. I had already resigned to another day on Langkawi when the radar image started to show signs of improvement. So I went into action using my new setup of sending flight plans directly from my computer. It worked beautifully.

9M FRR

made a new friend over night

Now stopping over in Penang on my way from Langkawi to Subang. Light rain, but visibility and cloud base VMC.

I have learned from my mistakes and have something to drink with me.

16 October 2012, 09:00 LT

9M-FRR was parked next to a Saba Airlines King Air 200.  Other than that the GA apron at the Skypark terminal was empty.  I wonder where all the Cessna, Cirrus and Piper fly this week.  On weekends the Skypark apron is usually full.

Spent the night for RM80 in a budget hotel in Subang Jaya.  There is no shortage of such hotels, but you have to get used to rooms with no windows, air condition that shuts down every 20 minutes and WiFi that doesn’t let you connect to the Internet.

I had dinner at an Indonesian restaurant.  The food fell into the “not so bad” category.

Today, Singtel tested my patience by disabling my data roaming, even so I had signed up to the SGD 15 BridgeData roam option.  Singtel customer service says they have enabled it again, but I assume it will take time for Maxis to open my connection again.  Very annoying, especially  when you rely on your Internet connection for weather, METAR and flight plan submission.