Saturday, August 30, 2014

Visiting an old flying pal ....Andrew Lian

I first get to know Andrew Lian in 1983. That was the time I was instructing on ultralights. He came in as one of the volunteer instructors and I gave him a check ride on the Quick Silver MX2 Ultralight. I found this uncle to be very well coordinated and can really fly the machine by the seat of his pants. We became instant friends and I got to know he was a Simulator instructor in Singapore Airlines. In the simulator he flies the Boeing 707 , 727 and B747.

In the early days he would fly up to KL to fly ultralights on the weekends and he stays with me quite a few times. Likewise whenever I am in Singapore his home was always open to me. At one point of time somewhere in 1987 Andrew was encouraging me to join SIA as an airline pilot. He arranged for me an informal chat with his nephew Gerald who was at that time a training captain on the 747 fleet (Today I was told he is the VP ops in SIA!). Well I could not agree on certain terms and stuck on to flying helicopters.

Andrew is almost 90 years old and when I visited him in Johore he is still very much alive when we talked about flying. His favourite is instrument flying and he had derived some short cuts to master instrument flying. To the younger pilots who had flown with me many of the short cuts that I talk about in flight are from this great man!


One of the ocassion that I remembered most was when Andrew was an instructor in Kuching in the 1980s. In those days the ultralights had no intercom so the students would have to be thoroughly briefed before the flight exercise. One of the ground handlers after listening to Andrew briefing his students many times decided that he can fly..so when Andrew went away for lunch this ground crew took off and bounced back (a hard one but he survived!)
Today Andrew is still trying to master flying the Bell 206 but on the Microsoft Flight simulator! Old pilots never die...
Of course his son Dennis is also a pilot but for a career he has chosen motor racing!

Friday, August 22, 2014

Fitting the Mast Beam

 The mast beam supports the mast when the boat is ready. There are three portions of the beam  It also holds the central cuddy in it's position. When the cuddy was being built the central portion of the beam was built together.
First of all the position of the holes to be cut on the cuddy had to be carefully drawn. One left and one right rectangular hole to fit the beam had to be cut. The left and right section of the beam had to be able to slide through the holes. The side of the hulls had to be trimmed so that there is a perfect fitting of the beam inside and out.


By now I get to understand why the plan calls for "fit when assembling". This section joins the mast beam and the cuddy (the unpainted portion of the cuddy)


Glass joints are applied both on the inside and outside.

 
Of course there is a lot of preparation work to make the glassing operation a smooth one.



Picture shows the left mast beam resting on the hull and being glassed.
More glassing later on..this time attaching the beam to the hull. When the left side is completed, work starts all over again on the other hull. the beauty of constructing a catamaran. Always got to work twice!

Saturday, August 9, 2014

100 plus Km of Cycling in Wintery Melbourne


 My mission was to see how my son is getting on in Monash Clayton . I took along my faithful Dahon Mu 8 folding bicycle along as I always develop "Cyclenintis " disease when I see nice trails and I don't have my bicycle.When I was in Melbourne I put up with my good friend Max Tan in Bundoora. The afternoon of my arrival was spent exploring Bundoora with my bike. i was specifically looking out for garden equipments and I was not disappointed.


The second day I decided to cycle from Bundoora to Clayton. Using the iphone app Cycle Lite I was navigated to Clayton via two very interesting trails. The distance is about 40 km through the Darebin Creek trail and the Gardenier Creek trail. This mean I actually spend about 95% of my time passing through various parks. Absolutely minimal traffic. This coupled with a cool 12C temperature makes it an interesting ride.

The trail was well marked and there is little chance of getting lost. I made numerous stops along the way to enjoy the good view.


 Somewhere near to Clayton (in Oakland) I saw a homebuilt boat. It looks like it is in the late stage of construction.
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The beauty of a folding bicycle is extreme flexibility. I do not have to ride back to Bundoora. Max came over and fetch me and my son back to his house. Plus we had a good dinner with some friends.
The next day I had my new recruit Alwin to come along for the ride to Arthur's Creek. We borrowed a seldom used bicycle from Max Tan

The ride to Arthur Creek from Bundoora started on riding along the highway. However we decided to use the pedestrian path instead as I saw trucks speeding along the highway. Poor Alwin's borrowed bike had a severely unbalanced rear wheel and was wobbling along.


 After an hour we met Max overtaking us so we hitched a ride on his van until we reach the secondary road going to Arthur's creek. Cheated about 5 km! Once we were on the country road it was good cycling again.

 At Arthur's Creek we met up with another Tan who stays in a hobby farm. We were given a tour of his farm and his wife cooked a good luch for us. Thank You...


Fire is a constant danger in this part of Australia but for today the risk is low.

Again we took the van back to Bundoora. I had a dinner appointment with some of my classmate in Melbourne. 


Day three... started with going to the CBD to meet up with my nephew Jun Wey. The bike was with me but we locked it and did a foot tour of the CBD. Later we took a train back to Clayton.


Over the ne4xt two days it was exploring the suburb of Clayton by bicycle. I went over to the airport and the coastal area near Clayton
Finally I surrendered the bike to my son Alwin.  Hope he takes good care of this bike. The total pedaling distance in Melbourne is about 120 km only. Not much but a lot of fun.