Day 50 in Maldives

As the title above suggests, it means that my instructor course is about to end. I am left with about 6 flying hours and a flight test so that I would be certified. It is so close that I can smell it coming! Other than that, everything is once again smooth sailing, the duration of my course have probably been a little faster than scheduled as I am flying almost everyday. The weather here is very good, you can have clear skies all day long. It hardly rains here, and when it does, it will last for days. Well, thats what I was told, but we'll see. The clear weather has been advantageous for me as it helps to complete my course faster.

On this very day, I finally received a parcel from my mom! I would have never thought that it made it through as she did not include my school address on the box. But somehow she managed to call the post office to re direct the parcel. The thing is, it is not delivered at my doorstep. It was being sent to the custom which was about a 10 minutes walk from here. Having walked through the scorching sun, carrying a 10kg box, yes it is freaking 10kg! and the locals giving me that stare as I walked past. As I have finally reached my room perspiring from the earlier walk, with my arms sore as I did not properly stretched, I immediately turned on the air conditioning and drank a glass of cold apple juice from the fridge to keep myself cool before opening the parcel. As I felt more comfortable, I peeled off the tape that held the box together wondering what was inside, like a child opening a Christmas present. With excitement by a glance, there was muesli bars, crispy seaweed, instant noodles, packets of milo, instant campbell soup, packets of oreos and crispy rice cakes!!! I never felt so relieved and it just felt that I was on the TV Show Survivor and I won food!

And then I realised that I had a class to teach in 2 minutes!


Cheers!
RH

Mercy Relief xD

Day 38 in Maldives

The past few days has been quite hectic for me as I had to impart classes and flew almost everyday, everything is going great so far with ground classes and flying. My flying may not be very very precise but it should be decent enough for operations. Today was my first time flying solo in Maldives, it was very calming as there was no one around. Just me, the atmosphere and the Maldivian atolls. I should be at my halfway mark for myself to complete the whole instructor course and I really look forward to that.

Well tomorrow is the Lunar New Year and I am still here missing out on the holidays and yearly visits to my Chinese relatives which I really enjoyed when I was younger, which also reminded me of my late grandmother. She was just awesome, I still remember getting lots of ang baos back then, it's just one of those things that I will cherish.

Entertainment here? close to NONE. On this whole atoll, there is no cinema and no shopping malls. So basically there is close to no connection to the outside world. I won't have the chance to watch the latest movies or maybe buy new clothes for that matter. I guess people are just living the simple life here and you just gotta respect that. It is just similar to the kampongs I should say, you can see people selling fruits on a pushcart and all. The resort on this island is fenced up here because they don't want the locals to enter for reasons unknown to me, they also sell alcoholic drinks which is prohibited in the whole of this country. So, boh pian lor, have to wait till I come back home.


RH

Day 27 in Maldives

As the above title reads, I can't help but feel grateful for everything that is happening around me so far. I just love every minute of the dreamy scenery that I get here although it is not as glorious as flying big jets in the airlines, its just contentment. First few weeks of training was pretty tough especially I had to adjust with flying a high wing aircraft and the fact that I have not flown for quite some time. But everything is going well, the instructors here are very kind and helpful in getting me back on track although there is some negative input in the flight report such as not landing proper and what not. Teaching the students here felt really great because I am imparting my knowledge and experience towards them which may lead them to success.

Being a vegetarian here is not as difficult as i thought it would be because I would just think that fish is a staple food here. Restaurants here are really vegetarian friendly, one of which actually served a veggie burger and fries! How awesome is that? I have many other choices like fried rice, vegetable curry, pastas and sandwiches. But I guess the variety here is not as much as back home where I would be literally spoilt for choice. Indian vegetarian is a MUST when I get back. Speaking of which, I do not even know when I would be back because I bought a one way ticket here. It could be anytime soon or it could be as far as October, so who knows what the future holds.

Being away from home is really difficult especially, when communicating with others which I have to  adapt because "singlish" does not apply here which I kept inputing and getting blank faces as a result. It is good to have social media in a way so that I can keep track of what is going on at home or within my circle of friends. FaceTime is a life saver because it uses data or wifi and I can call home or my friends for free. I am also grateful for having such awesome friends, like Mira who gave me a mug before I left which was so very very useful for my everyday use. And of course my girlfriend who is just there when I needed the most :)

RH

The view from my office :)

veggie patty burger! 

She's awesome :)

Start Up Approved Part 2

So I have given much thought and decided to leave for Maldives. Resigning from SATS is not an easy thing to do especially, you get to see big jets, visit cockpits and meet friendly cabin crews everyday. But I guess, it would be a dead end job if I were to stay. After resigning, I had to sell off my car which was my dream car when I was younger, a VW Beetle as I needed the money for Maldives. I packed my life in a suitcase leaving behind all the luxurious things that I can't get here. I also had to end the relationship with my girlfriend because of this which was very hard for me to do. 

As I safely landed in Malè I had to take a domestic flight to another island which is called "Gan" and the flight took about about an hour in a turboprop aircraft. Which was quite fun, as it was not as smooth as seating in a jet aircraft, you can literally see and feel the propellers! As I landed in Gan safely, the school van picked me up from the airport and brought me to the hostel which was quite cosy and nice at first, but, when you see cockroaches roaming around and then I started to think what have I got myself into? But I manage to make to most of it, cleaning this place up, thank god for having the stuff that my mom bought for me in Singapore like kettle, steam iron and vitamins. 

Basically, I have to complete a 2-3 months Instructor course for me to be certified to teach. The aircraft used here is a Cessna 150. A high wing aircraft which I had no experience flying, where as back in Malaysia I flew low wing aircrafts such as the PA28 and PA34. So I had my first flight after a week here and it was such a beautiful place to fly in, you get a view of the atolls and resorts such as Shangri La. It was just paradise. 

RH

My VW Beetle before selling it off

All packed and ready to go!

Sitting in a turboprop aircraft over Maldives

Start Up Approved.

So I have decided to write a Blog after 23 days in Maldives. I would know that i won't have much readers on this blog because its 2015, who writes blogs anymore when theres Instagram, Facebook and what not. I would just tend to keep this blog for keepsake, but if you are reading this, then you are just awesome!

My journey started when I was in Singapore of course. Holding a commercial pilot's license and don't have a job to fly is the most suckiest feeling ever. It felt like just yesterday that I have attained my CPL in Malaysia which I spent 2 years in and boy, I have had many awesome memories that one.  But, reality was that I last flew in Malaysia in August 2013 and ever since, I did not manage to get an airline job, the closest I had was an interview with Tigerair and did not pull through. And so I moved on being a Boeing 737-800 Flight Instructor for Flight Experience (a non motion simulator which I can't clock flying hours) guiding the public on how to fly which most of them just want to fly the simulator for a thrill.

Being with flight experience made me think that I wanted something with better salary while still being in the aviation industry, and the answer was, SATS ltd. In September 2014, I joined SATS as a Load Controller which involves calculating load and trim sheet to make sure the aircraft is not overweight, nose or tail heavy and present the load sheet to the captain. I mainly dealt with SilkAir and Malindo air which both have Boeing 737 fleet and A320s for SilkAir. I had a really enjoyable time, going in the cockpit and the apron, which opened my eyes wide open. Then one day, I just thought to myself, I am qualified to fly, what the hell am i doing here?

Browsing online for pilot jobs I came across a Flight Instructor job in Maldives, but the thing is that I don't have an instructor's rating. So I enquired about the post not having the necessary rating, and so, things were sorted out and I found myself leaving for Maldives for the first time to check the place out and I wasn't really quite impressed with the facilities and the really low salary. And so I went back to Singapore thinking that I could find something better but, after a few days. I just thought that I have gone too far to give up on this.

To be continued...

My time at Flight experience

Managed to meet my ex roommate who flew in with Malaysian Airlines in Singapore