This is a picture of a busy street in Taipei, just down from our hotel. It can be clicked on for more photos of my time in Taiwan. My first flight was down to Singapore and back, then the next day, I flew up to Taiwan and back. We only had a few short moments in Singapore, and when I stepped outside to take a few photos of the plane, my lens fogged up, and that was it — no photos. The next day, we had a seven hour layover in Taipei before we headed back to Hong Kong, so the company got us a hotel room. I used my time at the hotel to go exploring.
Just as an aside note, my little bit of extra money that I spent on my Nikon D40, instead of a cheap, worthless point and shoot has become worth it with the memories I’m able to capture. Sure, a little fancier camera will cost a bit more, but that money is paid back ten fold by being able to record memories that will then last a lifetime. Point and shoots just don’t have the capabilities to shoot in low light or have a large zoom range, that can make the difference in getting the shot or not. I want the shot. I want to remember the adventures I’ve embarked on, and so I’m glad I have my D40. If you are going on a trip where memories will be made, do yourself a favor and buy something that will actually do a good job recording the memories!
So, my first flight was to do a roundtrip from Hong Kong to Singapore. I was very nervous about what to expect and didn’t have any idea what that day would be like. Cathay puts a safety pilot in the cockpit with trainee copilots (me) for the first eight sectors (flights), just in case there is trouble on landings or whatever. My safety pilot was named Claudio and was really nice. The captain was even nicer, Martin Laver. He called me the night before and talked about what to expect. He chuckled and said to relax, don’t do any more studying and don’t worry about anything. He said that the first few flights are just to get oriented, so put the books away and enjoy yourself. Then he said, “So tonight, relax. If you drink, go for a drink. If you don’t drink, don’t start.” We both laughed out loud on that one.
The next morning, we passed through Cathay’s own security station in operations and got on a bus that took us directly to the plane we were to take to Singapore and back. Martin flew the first leg and I was the PM (Pilot monitoring), who works the radios, does the paperwork, and assists the PF (Pilot flying). As we pushed back from the gate and taxied out, it was surreal. I just couldn’t get my mind around the fact that we were a 747 with nearly 200 passengers (not nearly full) and were going to make a voyage to Singapore.
Once over the South China Sea, we passed off the coast of Danang, Vietnam and I told the crew that my dad had spent some time there in the late sixties. They knew that meant the Vietnam War. It was a smooth and uneventful flight and Martin and I discussed some training topics as we passed the time.
Working the radios was a different story. As an American and used to talking on the radio to American air traffic control, this was my first indoctrination of what foreign accents and poor radios sound like. Many poor countries in South Asia are run by military dictatorships, who take all the country’s money and put it into worthless things, like militaries and weapons, which leaves very little for radar and air traffic control services that are used by the airlines passing through that country’s airspace. Combine poor English, with poor radar coverage, with a radio that probably costs less than a new MacBook from Apple, with me, who is new to all of this, and you get a very confused pilot. Martin helped me out a few times and I was glad he was there because sometimes I had no clue what had just been said. Sometimes, I think the Cathay pilots just know what to expect as far as clearances on the radio, and that helps them “hear” the clearance.
When we landed at Singapore’s Changi airport, we had a short taxi to the gate. As the passengers deplaned, we worked on all the after flight routines and took care of paperwork. It was then that I could catch my breath and take it all in. I realized that I was farther from home than I’d ever been before since I left for Hong Kong. Currently, the longest flight in the world is operated by Singapore Airlines, with their amazing A340-500 that runs direct to New York. It’s in the neighborhood of 9,500 miles away. The second longest flight currently is also out of Singapore — to LAX. It skips just to the other side of the north pole that the JFK flight takes. JFK to Hong Kong is fifth longest and shorter than SIN-JFK because Hong Kong is farther north than Singapore. As all these flights head up over the north pole in what is called a great circle route, the farther south the departure airport is, the longer the flight will be.
I didn’t have much time to miss the family because then it was time to get going again. It was now my turn to fly, and that means that I also taxi the aircraft out for takeoff, too. Driving that beast around is amazing. We sit over 30 feet in the air, so the biggest issue is judging the taxi speed and making accurate turns around the corners. The taxi and takeoff were uneventful and once up at cruise, Martin and I once again discussed operational issues. Coming back into Hong Kong would be my first landing at night, and as I suspected, that proved to be a little bit of trouble. The landing was, shall we say, firm.
There are large stripes on the runway that serve as aiming points for touchdown, and the perfect touchdown would have the wheels touch down right on them. As we came in for landing, I was aiming for them, but because I am now in such a large plane, the out-the-window picture is so much different than what I am used to from my previous experience, I miss judged it a bit. The landing gear are 100 feet behind the cockpit, and because the airplane approaches the landing with about 3 degrees nose up, the landing gear are much lower than the front of the plane. As I was looking at the aiming points, we hit hard, with those blasted aim points still in front of us out the window — whoops! It wasn’t terrible, but much worse than I had done in my base training. Oh well, there’s always next time, right?
Martin and Claudio had a good chuckle about it, but it was no big deal. I taxied in and parked us on the gate. That is also a fun part of the flight. The airplanes are guided in with a radio wave guidance system. It detects the type of plane we are as we turn into the gate area and will show on a large screen: 747. We have to verify that it does indeed read the right plane, or it will give us incorrect guidance to park at the gate. It then shows us a visual representation of how to pull in straight to the gate. There is a vertical line that represents the yellow line we are taxing on up to the jetway. Below the vertical line is an arrow pointing up. When the arrow is directly below the vertical line, we are right on track. When the arrow slides to the right of the vertical line, we are off to the right and have to make a small correction to the left. The whole system is very accurate, and it can be a little frustrating when you move just a few inches off and it starts telling you to turn the other way. Finally, it reads off how many meters are left until we need to stop, and below 3 meters, it counts down in tenths of meters, until a large STOP is shown. Following that guidance correctly puts us right on the yellow line and the mark where we need to stop.
Once parked, we did all our after flight duties and debriefed the flight and we talked about how we thought it went. Overall, he said I did a good job, and I was just glad to try and keep up with him. Sometimes I felt like I was so far behind, that if we crashed, I wouldn’t have been hurt because I would have been about 100 miles back.
With the first flight complete, it felt really great. Things were making sense and I was looking forward to going to Taipei in the morning.
The next day, Martin and I had a different safety pilot, Brendan, but everything proceeded roughly the same. This time, I was going to fly both sectors — to Taipei and back. The flight up to Taipei was only a little more than an hour, so things were not as relaxed as Singapore, but we managed to get everything accomplished that we needed to. This landing, in the daylight, was much better than yesterday’s and my confidence was starting to improve.
We were going to land and have about seven hours before we left again. So we got a day room in a hotel to rest and pass the time away. Martin and Brendan took naps, but I was going to explore a little of the city. The hotel was okay, but it wasn’t in the best part of town. Taipei is a pretty area, but there are factories and industrialization everywhere. The part of town we were in was far from downtown, so there was not much English written or spoken and there was not the huge buildings and city feel that Hong Kong gives.
None of the signs along the streets were in English, and people I came across could not speak a lick of it. There were not too many sidewalks where I walked, and I almost got taken out several times by mopeds and motorcycles whizzing by me. Many of the cars parked on the streets had their driver side mirrors pulled in so as to not have them swiped off by passing cars and scooters. I walked about 45 minutes from the hotel in one direction looking around and scouting out a place to eat. I then turned around and headed back to the hotel to then headed about 30 minutes in the other direction.
It was then that I came across an outdoor market like so many in Hong Kong. I bought some fresh fruit and then saw a McDonalds and headed for it. I hate to eat fast food all the time, but in this part of town, it looked like the safest bet. Even in the McDonalds, I had to point to the things on the menu that I wanted, because English was out and gibberish was in. “May I have some BBQ sauce?” “Forget it, never mind.” After dinner and on the way back to the hotel, I stopped by a cart on the side of the road that was selling fresh doughnuts (and since I’m so skinny) I got myself one. Or was it two?
The flight back to Hong Kong went well but now it was evening and I was wondering how my night landing was going to fair. Approaching the runway, the winds were gusty and blowing in a cross wind (across the runway instead of down it) which is more of a challenge. I focused as hard as I could and managed to get us down quite smoothly and accurately, with the aiming markers passing out of sight this time before touching down. Ah, so I can learn! Both Martin and Brendan complimented this one and I felt a lot better about myself.
Flying this plane is amazing and even though it can be challenging, I know I can do it. It’s just a matter of gaining experience and practice to make everything line up just right. So as the flying part comes along, it’s now time to focus more on the head knowledge that has to accompany the flying skills. I’ll have to work on that next time. Now, it’s off to Bangkok, Mumbai, and Dubai and back again.
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