Fitting the Aft Decks

 The plan says Fit Aft Deck before fitting the cabin and cockpit otherwise access will be difficult! So before covering the deck I gave two coats of paint on the inside of the hull. I do not want to be squatting inside a confined space to do the paint job. Next 90 degrees metal joints are screwed on to the 2 by 1 stringers. This is to ensure good and strong joints.

 

This deck is made from a 6 mm marine ply. Several trial fittings were done to ensure perfect fit. Pieces of wood were added to the stringers to ensure perfect fit .

 

I had to crawl and "feel" any imperfections before glassing

 Biaxial matt and 600 gm CSM were used to join the deck to the side of the boat.

 Next a layer of 300 gm glass cloth was laminated with epoxy to the deck.

Celebrating my birthday in style...

 My birthday falls on 22 Feb. I had planned a two days hike at Gunong Cemerong somewhere in Ulu Dungun . I had trekked this trail several times and I enjoyed the terrain and the beautiful streams along the way. All my previous trips had been day trips but this trip I decided to camp at Langsir waterfall which is 2300 ft above sea level.

 The beauty of a overnight hike is you got to bring along all the essential camping equipments and food. Since this is not a survival trip we brought along most of the creature comforts.

Of course my hiking partner was non other than my brother in law Cheong. I am fortunate to have  him on most of my trips as he enjoys the outdoors tremendously too.

Crystal clear water flows along the streams by the side of the trail. Water is not a problem for this trail.

In fact we have too much water for it rained for most of the day!

Taman Bozai is just below the peak of Gunong Berumbun.

 

We reached Langsir waterfall by evening . Nowadays we don't sleep in tents anymore as we found the hammock to be more comfortable. No more worries about uneven grounds and snoring partner with smelly feet! We were inside our hammock by 1930 hrs. Cheong did not waterproof his bag so had to sleep with some wet clothes!. It was very cold and windy at night.

Next morning after a good meal of oats we broke camp and continued hiking towards Gunong Cemerong for the return trip home.

Even with his high tech winter gear, Cheong was having a sleepless night!

 

We had a meal of pasta in mushroom soup topped with tuna in olive oil for lunch.That makes a perfect birthday meal!

Work on Catamaran again!

 Today is the first day at work again after a lapse of about 3 months due to the monsoon, floods , holiday season and the Chinese New Year. I uncovered the port hull today and cleaned it up (only one hull!). For the assembly I need to draw the waterline and use that as a datum. As usual, I spent several hours pondering over the plans again.

 According to the plan, at Station "0" the waterline is 300 mm up the nose and at Station "10" it is 40 mm below the transom. Using these as a guide I used a string to draw a line. This was then recchecked with the bulkhead measurements.

Using a marker pen a line is drawn following the string that is joined between the two points.

 

 Then a leveller is used to check the level of the line..The ground which the hulls are sitting on is not perfectly flat.

Building a electric fence

 Of late the wild boars have been digging at my vegetable plot located behind my house.My Alsation dogs hates the sight and smell of the pigs. Usually the pigs come around mid night when I am sleeping soundly. Although I am licenced to shoot these pest I hate to do it in the middle of the night (illegal) and I do not want to loose a night's sleep slaughtering the animal.. A well learned friend was kind enough to teach me and loan to me a electric fence energiser to ward off the pigs.

 

A few kilos of 2 mm thick wires were used and these wires go through a PVC pipe which acts as an insulator. I fenced the whole perimeter of the backyard.

 Near the edge place where I hook up the fence energiser an iron pipe was driven about 2 ft into the ground and this acts as Grounding and Earth.

Ever since this perimeter wiring was built the pigs did not bother me anymore. The voltage from the wire is in the region is about 1000 Volts so the pigs must have been shocked!

Worst Flood in Kemaman

The year 2013 has a WET ending in Kemaman ,the town where I live. It was reported that more than 20 inches of rain fell between 1 Dec to 3 Dec in the interiors of Ulu Jabor(source infobanjir) and it was raining almost non stop for a couple of days. For me when I fly offshore we have to go through stretches of heavy rain.Have a look at this video to get an idea of the heavy rain.

The first sign of flooding was on the evening of 3 Dec. Coupled with the high tide (full moon) at around mid night and the abundance of rain water flowing down the Kemaman River and Chukai River water soon spilled the river banks.Very soon the roads in Kemaman town were flooded.

 

My printing shop located in Taman Chukai Utama was under 3 ft of water. We had been doing business in this place for more than 17 years and this is the first time it gets flooded. In fact during 1986 when there was a big flood this area was relatively unaffected.

  

Some of the houses across the road were flooded to the roof!

 

  

The Fire and Rescue services staion in Kemaman itself was under water. If there had been a fire at the same time, forget about the fire engines!

 

 The flood lasted 3 days and at the end of it it was a haert break to see the machines. This is my Polar 82 cutter..

 

Our business documentations and accounts for both my shops and business transactions were covered with flood water and mud. We tried to salvage as much records as possible but in the end had to throw it away as it starts to rot!

 Our Die Cutting machine..

and a 10 months old Hamada Offset machine were badly damaged. Most of the items in the shop are insured and I believe most of the machines would need to be written off so it is a bad day for the insurers too.

Building the mast beam and cockpit

It had been raining for the last wto months and we had the great floods in Kemaman. I startted building the mast beams and the cockpit for the Gypsy well before the rainy season.

There is a slight modification to the wood used. instead of 2 by 1 inch wood I elected to use 2 inch by 2 inch as I plan to use a long screw to hold the pieces together in addition to the epoxy used. On the centre between the 2 by 2 is a piece of 6 mm marine ply.

 

And on the outside on both sides the plan calls for 9 mm marine ply. Later a layer of epoxy and 300 gm cloth will be laminated on the beam

The cockpit module is built from 2 in by 1 inch frames and on top of it is 9 mm marine ply.

A layer of 300 gm cloth is laminated with epoxy on tyhe top of the cockpit. At the bottom it is painted with epoxy. Well the units are almost ready. I am still waiting for sunny days maybe in 3 week's time to take the units out to be assembled to the hulls and cuddy.

Achieving 20,000 hours of Flight Time

20,000 hours in the air.....now that is a long time!. I did my 20,000 hours flight on 12 Sept 2013. It was a co incidence that the flight was to perform a line proficiency check on the Chief Pilot Standards of the company. The route was from Kerteh to Tapis Delta platform and back and it was on a EC225 helicopter registration 9M SPI.

 

Looking back at my flying log books, I started my first flight as a student pilot at the RMAF Heli Flying Training School on 21 Feb 1977 at the age of 19 years (birthday on 22 Feb!). The flight was conducted on a Bell 47 G 5A helicopter (Airframe FM 2003). That makes it 37 years of flying !

 

After basic training I went to Advanced Training on the Alouette 3 turbine helicopters.

 

And then it was on to the Nuri helicopters until the end of my military flying career.

 

Just prior to becoming an offshore pilot, I was doing freelancing for Guthrie Estates and at the same time I was a bush pilot flying the Bell 206 for heliservices in Malaysia.

 I did a stint as an instructor on light aircraft in the Royal Selangor Flying club. Here I flew the Cessna 152, Cessna 172, Cessna 206, Piper Lance, piper Cherokee and Piper Dakota. I had great fun and made some extra money doing charters as well. It was also here that I got my Commercial pilots Licence for fixed wing machines (aeroplanes)

 In 1983 I started instructing on Ultralights for Para Aviation as is amongst the first Malaysian to fly microlights. My licence number is 004!. The following year, with friends Mejor Johnny Loo and Wong Kim Hoong we formed and operated a Ultralight Flying School. Of course we lost quite a fair bit of money here but it was here that I purchased an aircraft and it bears the registration of 9M WYF which is my initials. the last i heard about my aircraft is it is in Keningau.

I hope to achieve at least another 5000 hours before retiring from flying.