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EAA Malaysia’s Bernam River Fly In 2008 - A Report
EAA Malaysia’s Annual Fly-In and Competitions was held at the newly created Bernam River Airport in the lower Perak area from the 8th to 10th August 2008. Invitations were sent out to all Flying Clubs, Recreational Aviation enthusiasts and Aircraft owners throughout Malaysia and Singapore. The response was mostly positive. The Fly In was rather hurriedly planned and executed by the Committee of EAA Malaysia in the wake of the cancelled Fly In at Bulaleng, Bali, planned for the first weekend of August, which many of our members had planned to attend. Niel Liebenberg our member from Singapore had suggested that we might like to hold this Fly In in view of the cancelled Bulaleng one and we agreed. Thus, we had slightly over one month to plan and execute this Fly In, which was an outstanding success, from feedbacks received to date from all who had attended. Our sincere thanks and appreciation goes to a small group of highly dedicated volunteer members who epitomized the spirit of the EAA’s can do spirit and spent countless hours to make this first Fly In at Bernam River Airfield (hereafter called BRA) the great success that it turned out to be. It is appropriate we name these volunteers who made it happen and here they are : * Capt Siva Raman - ‘The Man’ at EAA Malaysia * Rani - ‘The Lady’ at EAA Malaysia , Hon Secretary * Lee Chong Yen - Member, Owner of CH 701 9M – EEL * Maniselvan - Member and trainee LSA Instructor * Siti Hawa - Member EAA M * Prakash - Member EAA M * ‘Joe’ Johari - Bernam River Airport Manager * Gavin Lim - Bernam River Airport Manager * Ridzuan - FAS Udara Flying Club, Technical support * Fatulah - FAS Udara Flying Club, Technical support
Of course all this would not have happened if not for our valued Sponsors who were : * Mr Surendrasingham ‘ Suren’ - Indomitable creator of Bernam River Airfield and EAA M member * Datuk Zul - Menara KL ( KL Tower ) * Mr H Sasidharan - Owner and Operator of FAS Udara Flying Club, Subang, SAS Airport The General Committee of EAA Malaysia conveys their Appreciation and THANKS to the above for their unlimited support for this Fly In.
Preparations Our Team of Volunteers located to BRA on Thursday 7th Aug, which incidentally was Rani’s Birthday, which she happily spent, driving a truck load of stuff to BRA and working in the blazing sun, then in pouring rain, preparing for the Fly In ! Where can we find a cheerful Secretary like her. Siva had the easy and pleasurable task of flying the Cessna 182 N118EH into BRA in the morning with Prakash, while Lee and Maniselvan flew the CH 701, 9M-EEL to arrive in the afternoon in the face of a Thunderstorm that suddenly cropped up, moving fast from West to East across the field right on their arrival. We went out in the chase car and talked them through to a safe landing after two go arounds and bit of holding. Talk about dedication…. And that lil’ CH701 Skyjeep handled a 15 knot cross wind with aplomb too. By the end of the weekend that lil’ yellow plane would win everyone’s hearts. Meantime, we had a call from Niel Liebenberg bravely flying up all the way from Johor in his aerial motorbike, the Cosmos Trike, 9M-UCN. Again, talk about a dedicated Ultralight pilot ! He was grounded at Senai airport, ALL day Thursday, with widespread weather precluding VFR flight. Sadly the weather did not give up its grip for the day so he’d have to stay at Senai and set out the next day, Friday. From Noon to six pm it rained at BRA and caused much delay in our preparations, so we collected several durians and gutted them. Fortunately we didn’t have to build an Ark the way it poured all afternoon ! The Runway markings for the Competitions were not painted as planned and many other planned chores went uncompleted this day. In the evening, the rain let up and we set up several screen tents for the happy volunteers. We went to bed to the accompaniment of The BRA Frog Symphony with Siva’s snores lending accompaniment to the nocturnal choir.
Friday 8th Aug – Arrival Day Friday dawned nice and bright albeit with a high overcast shielding the sun, that made our chores to prepare the field more tolerable. Our Sponsor, Datuk Zul of Menara KL dropped by and was taken for a ride over the field to see the preparations. The numerous chores to prepare the field were carried out in the morning. Then we went out to mark the field for the Spot landing Competitions and the sun came out in its midday fury. We completed that sweaty, thankless chore in three hours and soon received the good news that Niel was at last on his way to BRA and was expected to arrive at 1500hrs. Good. At 1400 hrs our first Fly In participants arrived, gasp…….by road ! But we were glad to see them, for they had come from afar. Our members from Kuching led by our stalwart Stanley Tiong made his loud presence clear to all as he entered the pearly gates of BRA, shouting ‘this is a great place!’. They had arrived at KLIA from Kuching, picked up a car and driven in to BRA. What a dedicated lot to behold. Stanley was accompanied by no less than four other members, all asking ‘where is the airport’? as they entered through the gates. BRA’s runway not being directly visible from the entrance and chalet areas, Siva had a field day fibbing them that the grass patch in front of the Bar was the runway ! Vaughan Paternoster’s jaw dropped in disappointment,………… or was it disgust ? Vaughan and Siva go a long way back, having been old Pelicans in Borneo in the seventies and it was good to see them reminiscing about old times. Vaughan had checked Siva out on F27’s in the 70’s ! Poh, our member building a first time CH 701 in Kuching, lit up as he saw Lee’s 9M –EEL parked out in the sun and immediately went over with his trusty camera. William, poor deprived guy, who is the sole enthusiast and owner of the Pelican 9M - EAP in Sibu, went “ Ahhh…..this is heaven” seeing no less than two recreational aeroplanes parked together, such being the state of aeronautical deprivation in Sibu ! Stanley spied the durian trees and he was in heaven, making a bee line for the nearest, looking for the stinkers. An EAA Fly In, any EAA Fly In, whether mighty Oshkosh, or the humblest five aeroplane Chapter Fly-In at any upriver boonie, is ALL about people, aeroplane people, and these were our people and we were glad as goats in a mountain pasture to see them come in that afternoon to BRA. More were on their way………………….. Graham Pritchard, he of the smoke and mirrors devices (Thales Simulators), turned up late afternoon sans his aeroplane which the Feds had decreed, ‘shall not fly until………..’ You know that saying of the Feds : “We’re not Happy until You’re not Happy” He will be a happy bear soon enough when the Feds are satisfied with more papers. Kuala Lumpur Flight Information Services had been thoroughly briefed about the Fly In and called us on the land line and advised us that Niel was within spitting distance of BRA at 1515 hrs. So we hurriedly set up our own ATC center with Mani manning the radios and decided to get airborne in 9M-EEL to escort our first aerial visitor in. What an Honour. Siva and Graham scrambled out and had a tally ho ( visual sighting) on Niel at 12 o clock inbound, bang on ETA. Then started a show and tell with Niel and Siva joining and formating and doing nice low speed passes along BRA’s runway for quickly assembled cameras. Niel landed on the ‘Jackpot’ (spot landing markings) and taxied in, while the CH701, dubbed the ‘Skyjeep’ continued to amaze everyone with its antics in Siva’s nimble hands. It’s a star on You Tube now, thanks to Poh’s delightful recordings. Siva gave flights to everyone whom we could accommodate, right up to a great red sunset over BRA. What was that the sailors say about sunsets…..Red Sky in the evening, expect a great morning ? We’ll see. We brought the two Ultralight babies in and bedded them for the night. Now we had three aeroplanes parked at BRA. A record …….. and William of Sibu was even happier ! The boys from Kuching were especially delighted to be able to see ‘this many’ airplanes up close. Stanley Tiong insisted that he host everyone for a grand Chinese Dinner at the best Restaurant that Slim River had to offer. We went out to a great little restaurant in small town Slim and the dinner and Company that night was a happy ending to our first day of the BRA Fly In. Thank You Stanley……………..
Saturday 9th August The Red Sky in the evening story was proving true as we were greeted by a misty dawn, through which we spied a blue sky through the thin misty overcast. 0700……Three guys emerged from a screen tent and began going over the Cessna 182, which sprang into life at 0735, with its throaty roar. No one else moved in the Camp. N118EH , got away stealthily and was gone before anyone knew what was happening. The Dawn patrol was on its way. Funny, it all looked surreal, like that scene out of the movie Flyboys. The misty silent dawn on the Western Front, Camp all asleep, three guys poking around an aeroplane and going about their mysterious way. When the Camp finally stirred awake, Niel, Graham and Siva were gone……….. Where they went, what they did, was anybody’s guess, but all would be revealed later that evening. 0845……The Cessna is back. It beat up the field, landed, parked and three broadly smiling Joes emerge, making a bee line towards the smell coffee under the durian trees. Coffee was up with the ever smiling Rani, wearing a tee shirt that proclaimed “I Love Flying” and organizing things. What a great lady. The sun was out in a blaze of glory. Red Sky in the evening……………. BRA tower was up and transmitting by 0900 and awaiting the day’s arrivals. Cessna 172 9M-RED , our vintage aeroplane, ( hey, that Cessna 172 is a ‘C’ model ok, so it is vintage by our standards ! ) was the first in with JFK ( Johan Farid Khairuddin ) and George Chapman from Australia. The Bar at BRA is named after George. The Kuching group of Stanley, William, Poh, and Vaughan accompanied today by no less a personality than from the Sarawak State Government arrived next, having spent the night at motels in Tanjong Malim. The Government Man was out to see how this could be re created in Sarawak. That ‘other parallel world of aviators’ in the form of a group of RC fliers from KL were in next, arriving by road with trunks full of Toys to show and impress the real fliers. Turbine powered F16’s, BAE Hawks and L39’s for heaven’s sake ! Jonathan Searcy and Dougie Roberts breezed in on the Socata TB20 9M-BEW at 1000 from Ipoh. We were running late as we wanted to get the Day’s Competitions going. The Briefing was held under the durian trees, with more arrivals on the way in. Talk about a rustic setting. Capt Siva held court at the Briefing, thorough and meticulous, as usual, with his insane and irreverant sense of humour demanding high standards of flying and safety from everyone. That man is a Slave Driver…………… Introducing everybody to everybody, he went on to outline and Brief the events for the day,
Saturday 9th Aug ……1000 hrs Competitions At the planning stage, it was decided to have a Fly In with a difference. Getting away from the ‘ fly in…….. gawk… talk ….eat… fly out’ thing usually seen at Malaysian Fly Ins, we wanted this to be an Aviator’s Fly In, in every sense of the word, so Siva had come up with this idea of an Air Race and other Competitions for participation by pilots flying in. So the Competitions were briefed in detail by Siva. And what Competitions they were. There was a one hundred nautical mile round robin, Precision Navigation Air Race with Teams of Pilots and Navigators required to Plot numerous waypoints from Navigational clues, plan a precise flight to take off and arrive back at Base within a given ETA, in flight spotting of targets, answering in flight questions and completing a precise Spot Landing on arrival to compete for a total of 590 points. And Teams were expected to arrive within thirty seconds of ETA for top points. Who the hell remembered variation East, West, Wind Drift, fly ten degrees of longitude etc and what not anymore, let alone fly to seconds of accuracy. Yikes……..this guy was insane. But knowing his stuff more than most, Siva explained his rational for the eXacting Competitions he’d set up this way with the help of that other smiling Pelican ‘Uncle’ Lee. He said that many of today’s Private and Recreational pilots had become complacent, lazy and depended too much on electronic aids in their aeroplanes including the now ubiquitous GPS, available to all and sundry, making aerial navigation an almost non event and lost art form. Thus he has noted a severe deterioration of Basic navigational skills as had been taught and drummed in to our grandfathers, so he was about to correct all these bad habits by demanding that pilots today fly his Air Race with nothing other than ¼ mill Map, Compass and stop watch. So he coined a new word RTFM. ( go figure) Like a scene out of the Dam Busters movie, Siva calls for a precise time check to the second, on his trusty Rolex ! The scene was surreal. Here were these guys sitting in the blazing tropical sun on a Saturday morning, under durian trees, listening intently to this guy, waxing lyrical about the lost art of aerial navigation …………….then synchronizing their watches, as if they were launching on a bombing raid in World War 2 ! Actually Siva did mention WW 2………………….. A great admirer of the Pilots and Navigators of RAF Bomber Command that were spawned during that conflict, Siva filled his Briefing with several anecdotes about the feats of navigation achieved by these past aerial warriors using just basic tools of aerial navigation. He recalled his meeting with WW2 RAF Master Bomber and Pathfinder pilot, the late Wing Commander Leornard Cheshire VC, who had explained that the RAF Pathfinders were expected to navigate at night for long hours at low levels ( like 100 feet agl at night!) to mark targets within 5 seconds, of the main force bombing on them from overhead. With NO electronic aids. Everyone depended on them and no one complained that they didn’t have GPS ! And these guys were in their twenties and regarded this as their everyday job. So, he who sits at altitude pushing buttons and navigating himself around the World at ease was demanding that we go back to Basics today………….. Charming. In the event, four Teams were formed as follows to rise up to the challenge : * Team ‘Arrow’ Pilot : Graham P Navigator : Ken Bywater Aircraft : C172 * Team ‘Good Guys’ Pilot : JFK Navigator : George Chapman Aircraft : C 72C * Team ‘ Slow Poke’ Pilot : Niel L Navigator : Prakash Aircraft : Cosmos Trike * Team ‘ The Young Ones’ Pilot : Jonathan Searcy Navigator : Dougie Roberts (young ones ?) Aircraft : Socata TB 20 These were the Brave ones………Other planes and Pilots present, chickened out from Capt. Siva’s Nightmare mission.
Spot Landing Competitions There was a Spot Landing Competition for individual entry by various categories of pilots. Student Pilots were to compete with Student Pilots, Private Pilots were grouped in two, based on overall experience and there was one for the Pelicans as well. Then a ‘final shoot out’ for top honors among the top three in each category. In what followed, many pilots either chickened out and didn’t take part or had urgent calls to return to ‘hearth and wife’, so the great Prizes we had for winners of the Spot Landing Competitions went unclaimed. Well, we’ll save it for the future. As the delayed Briefing progressed, more and more aeroplanes arrived : * Vikram Hora & Gregory Ang Cirrrus SR22 N158PG from Seletar * Hj Kong & Amin Cessna 172 9M – GPB from Subang * Raseef & Japanese Student Cessna 152 9M- BEJ from Subang * Roger Tan and Dawson Lee Cherokee 140 ZK – DIQ from Johor * Denis & his Dad , ‘Uncle’ Andrew Lian Jabiru J160 9M – EBR from Johor
William from Kuching just couldn’t contain his excitement at seeing SO many aeroplanes in one spot. He was jumping up and down. The Bernam River Airfield created by Suren had come into its own.
The Race is Launched One hour for Flight Planning was given the Teams and the next hour saw epic struggles as Navigators and Pilots desperately cleared mental cob webs, juggling long forgotten whizz wheels (E6B’s), plotters, Maps lying akimbo and so on. And The Pelicans who’d set the Race, jumped up and down with glee. RTFM…. RTFM, they kept shouting to the Teams as they struggled to plan their mission. GPS’s were of no real use in this Race and they were not banned either. It was down to accurate ¼ mill Map reading, Compass, Watch and MK2 eyeballs or getting lost and lose. The Pelicans had ensured that. It was an amazing piece of work by the Pelicans that even if you had carried your GPS, it would have been of little help in actually helping to solve the problems set or navigating accurately around the course, as the results would later show. Lunch followed and the ‘Bombers’ were ready to launch. The Launch was precise and timed to the second on wheel roll. Just prior to launch, a sealed ‘intelligence questionnaire’ was given to the Team to answer in flight. “ What did you see on the north bank of the river bend ?”…… huh? Vaughan Paternoster, roped in to be srutineer, was the official Timer, Siva was the flag waver, Rani the videographer and Mani and Lee the Time Keepers and ATC co ordinators. It was all so real time savvy and professional. Back track 60 years and you could almost imagine a bomber raid getting under way. ‘The Good Guys’ were up first, Slow Poke next, followed by the Young Ones and finally the Arrows. The Race was ON……………………. Now, the RC Fliers in their F16’s, Hawks, L39’s and others with real turbine engines burning Jet A1, took over the skies, patrolling the Base for the returning Bombers. They didn’t have the range to follow the Bombers ! Within twenty minutes, poor Slow Poke was back in the circuit and landed. The midday turbulence and winds were jut too much for the Cosmos Trike. Niel threw the towel in and called it a day.
The Race Finish Within the next hour, the rest were back : Team ‘Young Ones’, Jonathan and Dougie, screamed by the downwind leg, but had to circle to slow the aircraft down on Base leg. They were 8 minutes 47 seconds late on landing (!), but they landed spot on the landing boxes to get max points for the landing. Team ‘Good Guys’ were in next, late by 8 minutes 57 seconds, with two go arounds from botched approaches. Undercarriage trouble Sir ? They landed on the 30 points box. Team Arrow came in fast and furious on downwind, then we saw them sashaying in on Base and Finals, obviously trying to lose time. They made a great landing on the Jackpot and arrived within 14 seconds of ETA, the Best timing for the day. That was a great effort by Graham and Ken. Real Pathfinders, in the true tradition of their Grandfathers ! The Great Race was OVER…………………….Time for a Tiger !
Red Skies in the Evening…………Again It was a boiling hot day and everyone was scorched. But upwards of 1600 hrs the weather became cooler with a nice stiff wind down the runway and it was time for joy rides and the Spot Landing Competitions to get under way. But we had no Competitors left so that was called off. The Jabiru with Denis Lian and Uncle Andrew was inbound from the West and Siva was up in the C182 with Graham looking out to bring them in. A Jabiru and a Cessna 182 formatting ? Yep. It was done quite easily as that Jabiru is quite a Speedster on just 80 horsepower. With Flaps at ten, the 182 easily kept up with it and they made some formation passes down the runway before landing. ‘Speedster’ Denis (he’s a Race car driver!) is quite a pilot and shot a perfect Jackpot landing on his very first arrival at BRA ! As the late afternoon cooled down, several airplanes departed for ‘home and hearth’ and at the end of the evening we were left with five planes. As the evening turned out into a glorious sunset, Lee’s Skyjeep CH 701, Niel’s aerial motorbike, ( the Trike) and the Jabiru came out again to play in the sunset. A mock Race between the Skyjeep and a BMW Z4 of Suren’s kept everyone entertained. Then the Jabiru came out and flew in formation with the Skyjeep. Siva demo’ed the Skyjeep with terrific effect, amazing everyone with its STOL performance, scooting around trees, making real short work of take offs and landings. Meantime, Niel’s ‘motorbike’ was scooting in and out of the weeds with joyriders looking for ………..weeds? Asked later about the difference between flying ‘heavy iron’ and his boisterous handling of the CH701 Skyjeep, Siva would simply exclaim : “Well, the Skyjeep restoreth my aeronautical soul” Aptly put. The Man is a NUT…………….an unabashed Aviation Nut ! Niel said : “Today’s flying made that effort of flying such a long distance and the disappointments of yesterday completely worthwhile” JFK came out in 9M RED to enjoy the sunset, with his girlfriend. It was after all his Birthday today and what better way to spend a Birthday huh. JFK on the radio to all : “ I’ll remember this Birthday for a long time” Yeah…… we know what you did up there ! It was one the best sunsets we have seen at BRA and we have a picture of JFK flying in it………with his lady. Surely it doesn’t get better than that. Any attempts at obtaining a mile high qualification would have been perfectly excusable ! The Bar at BRA was open for Business………… Time for parched throats to be cooled
The Bar at BRA Here’s a secret : That yellow walled Bar at BRA was formerly (gasp) a GOAT SHED !! Ha, ha, ha………Baaa….. Baaa. You can sometimes hear them at night ! Suren had all of us thirsty goats there in his…………… goat shed ! Amidst a Fried Chicken and Satay dinner, the ales flowed freely and excited war stories were exchanged by one and all on the Day’s events.
Dawn Patrol Video Then, out came a video camera and plugged into the 42 inch wall TV. There unfolded an amazing clip revealing the goings on of the dawn patrol of this saturday morning. The clip showed the Cessna 182 with Graham, Niel and Siva, steadily climbing through the early morning mist at BRA to 8000feet. Shortly, after, mountains come into view, blue jagged mountains in the distance. All three are laughing gleefully. Then they swooped down to an airstrip on ( gasp!) on the steep top of a mountain. It was an unbelievable scene that got everyone’s attention. The next few minutes showed some pretty impressive flying as they made several approaches to that mountain top airstrip. The early morning light and scenery was breathtaking in its beauty. The wind on top of the mountain was a whipping crosswind and the Cessna crabbed in on the approach. The elevation is something like 5,500 feet. They chased their own shadow across the mountain top and flew into a breathtaking jungle clad valley. Then they flew back, descending through the mist and haze to land back at BRA. Everyone was Thunderstruck at the clip and then it was revealed. They’d been up to the Boh Tea Plantations Cameron Highlands airstrip. And it had been a perfect morning for it too. So, that’s where they’d been this morning and came back smiling and looking for coffee. What lucky devils. That’ll be one for the Ding Dang Do You Tube for sure.
The Air Race Results When everyone was well lubricated and sober, the pool table was cleared and it was time to tally up the Totals and declare the BRA Bombers’ results for the day. Amidst loud cheers and sometimes protestations, the BRA Bomber Force’s efforts for the day were recounted in detail, including their hoary maps, lost tracks etc. The Top Team in the Plots were ‘The Young Ones” The Top Team in precision timing of the Race were “Team Arrow” The Top Team in Spotting targets were “ Team Arrow” The Top team in answering the Aerial Intel Questions were “Team Arrow” The Top Spot landing Teams were tied between “Team Arrow” and “The Young Ones” The most persevering team was “Slow Poke” The most Sporting were “ The Good Guys”
So ALL the Teams were Winners. But we had to choose the TOP Team. With 465 points out of a possible 590 points, the Champion Air Race and Precision Navigation Team for 2008 was……………
TEAM ARROW !! The Final standings of EAA Malaysia’s First BRA Air Race were : Team Pilot Navigator 1st Team “Arrow” Graham Pritchard Ken Bywater 2nd Team “The Young Ones” Jonathan Searcy ‘Dougie’ Roberts 3rd Team “ Good Guys” JFK George Chapman Best Effort Team Slow Poke Niel Liebenberg Prakash
THREE CHEERS for the BRA Bomber Force HIP HIP HOORAY ! HIP HIP HOORAY ! HIP HIP HOORAY !
WELL DONE ALL YOU GUYS………………….
Sunday 10th August Today was a late start, as to be expected after the night’s festivities, so at 0830, the Rats came out smelling for coffee, which, thanks to Rani, is always available shortly after first light. Coffee was followed by a great gathering of like minds as we lounged under our durian trees and ‘talked’ shop. Maps and charts came out, far off plans for future adventures were made, all accompanied by more coffee and biscuits and conversation. There were no real plans for this morning, which had been reserved for the ‘final shoot out’ of the Spot Landing Competitions, which never took place. Traditionally, the Sunday morning final shoot out sometimes causes upsets such as a student pilot out-flying a Pelican, usually caused by a hung over and complacent Pelican, which we were hoping to see ! Never mind, we’ll hold it for the next time around. Then the presentations of Prizes were made. Everyone enjoyed receiving neat Certificates expounding their prowess. EAA Malaysia has had a long standing tradition of granting a special Badge to pilots who set minimum standards of operations, so an EAA PRECISION PILOT Badge was given to each pilot who had made a precision landing on the Jackpot or obtained a minimum score. Then it was time for photo shoots. Lazily, the Sunday morning passed with Denis Lian flying, giving demo rides to the Kuching Boys. Then at 1130, Siva took off quietly with Uncle Andrew Lian on some secret mission. Next thing the Jabiru with Denis and Niel and the Skyjeep were beating up the Camp in formation and then they flew off west. The Camp fell silent. The Jabiru soon came back with the Skyjeep still gone. After a while, the Skyjeep uncharacteristically returns quietly and taxies in to stop and Siva and Uncle Lian dismount bearing packages. Soon, where they’d been becomes clear. They’d been to Ulu Bernam to pick up a loot of ‘Murtabab’ from Mustafa Restaurant in Ulu Bernam. Now, if you haven’t had Murtabab from Mustafa’s restaurant at Ulu Bernam, you haven’t had Murtabab. Rani and company laid out a great Brunch of Murtabab and curry and everyone was amazed that one could get such good stuff in a remote place like Ulu Bernam, and air flown in to boot. What will these guys think of next ? Uncle Andrew Lian is a real gentleman and a Pelican. He had stoically sat out in the Jeep to Ulu Bernam and back. He was a long time pilot at historic Singapore Flying Club at Paya Lebar airport, had flown Tiger Moths, Chipmunks and such and retired from Singapore Airlines as a Simulator Instructor. Siva took him out on the flight to Ulu Bernam in the Skyjeep. He came back to tell the story of how Siva nonchalantly landed at Ulu Bernam and having left him to explore the Club House there, took off on a borrowed Motorbike to pick up the Murtabab. And when he’d come back, just as nonchalantly fired up the ‘Jeep’ and returned to BRA. The ‘Boy’ at the Club, stood and watched them with wide eyes and mouth agape. Uncle Andrew said he’d never had so much fun for a long time and looks forward to returning to BRA again. He is 83…………. After lunch it was time to say goodbyes and weep salty tears of parting………………… The Kuching Group just enjoyed themselves and wished for all of us to visit Sarawak to have a Fly In there. They left by road to make their way to KLIA and Kuching, no doubt their motivations being fired up by their weekend spent at BRA. The Cessna 182 was flown back by Teoh EH , who’d driven up to visit. The Jabiru with Denis took off with the Cessna for Subang. Niel also took off for Subang. BRA fell silent with only the venerable yellow Skyjeep left.
Wrapping it Up Well, someone had to stay behind to wrap things up, so the remaining volunteers, that is the same group, that came in on Thursday, set about fulfilling the famous Oshkosh Rules. This is a byword in EAA circles and every true EAA’er is very, very careful to observe it. That is, to leave everything spotlessly clean and tidy when we leave a flying site. Rani, Siva, Lee, and Mani stayed to go through the Camp to collect all our junk, clear the garbage, stack the tables, chairs and all, pack up the tents etc. We were eventually done by 1700. Lee and Mani took off for Sempang at 1730 in the Skyjeep. After a final drink with Suren, Siva and Rani with Uncle Andrew Lian in tow, left at 1830. It is always sad leaving friends, but the time will come to be together again at this great place. There was much to celebrate this weekend and we all look forward to it again. And we will look forward to greeting each one of you again at BRA in the timeless spirit of the EAA, sooner rather than later !!
The De- Brief - A Few days later In the same week of our return, the traditional De Brief and ‘Post Mortem’ on the Fly In was held with the original planners and doers. Everyone had a free say and copious notes taken. The idea here was to identify our shortcomings and plan for a better Fly In the next time around. The de brief is done immediately after the Fly-In when all the hoary details and failings are still fresh on everybody’s minds. Despite BRA’s shortcomings, we think everyone enjoyed it, but we resolved to have many improvements made before holding the next major Fly In there. Firstly, there were just not enough volunteers for the final preparations and during the Fly In to undertake the numerous chores. Volunteers are the heart and soul of all EAA activities and even at this little Fly In, it was no different. And there were too few…as old warhorse Churchill put it. Is it any wonder then that yearly, five thousand EAA members volunteer to make the greatest aviation show on earth at Oshkosh happen. All EAA M members are urged to take note of this and resolve to be participants in future……….not just gawkers. The weekend’s catering and F&B was quite unsatisfactory according to feedbacks and our own observations. We were just not set up for the realities of decent F & B in a rather remote and rural location and that, on our first effort. We had depended on local assistance for the F&B, and were disappointed. At least Sunday’s ‘air flown Murtabab lunch’ saved the day, thanks to Rani’s quick thinking, when she’d ordered the Murtabab by phone and sent Siva off on a mission to pick it up. We did not have a mains water supply. Water was from temporary tanks filled each day, so that was tough on everyone too. Toilets overflowed. Yikes. The Mains Electricity installation was only completed on Friday night at great expense ! To all those disappointed, we offer our apologies and promise to make amends in future. As explained, BRA is still very much a work in Progress and we hope that you might enjoy it better in the days to come with better facilities.
Participation in the Flying Competitions Despite massive preparations made at short notice and nice prizes lined up for many winners, the Participation in the Competitions at this Fly-In was disappointing. Perhaps this was due to the many years of ‘tame’ Fly-ins in Malaysia and the region where the regular thing to do was just to fly in, park, gawk, talk, eat and leave. The Flying Club atmosphere in the Sixties and Seventies was so different, filled with Annual Competitive aerial games such as this Precision Navigation Air Race which was fiercely competed for among the existing Clubs then, so we were disappointed that more Clubs and Private pilots did not take part in our Competitions despite Invitations being sent out and Prizes offered. These Competitions are designed to hone long forgotten pilot skills and establish camaraderie among pilots in the Sport Flying Community. And one unlucky day, these skills would serve any pilot well, when the chips are down. Thus the BRA Fly In was planned with a difference in mind and from the various positive comments we have received, it has given us motivation to plan more such Fly In Competitions, to get more Private and Recreational pilots from local and regional Clubs to take part and compete. Ambitious plans are afoot to have worthy and attractive Prizes to compete for in future, and we look forward to more Competitors from Clubs taking part in the future. How about a sunrise to sunset endurance Air Race………………..Tickle your minds and don’t forget your pee bags Freddie ole’ boy !
Aftermath Despite taking every precaution there comes a day in every pilot’s life when something goes wrong and so it was with Niel Liebenberg in his Cosmos Trike 9M- UCN in which he was forced to make a precautionary forced landing on his way home to Johor, losing his beautiful Trike and being injured in the process. Despite what has been described in the Press by various reporters, we are convinced that Niel did the best thing under the circumstances and through no fault of his, the Trike was lost in the ensuing forced landing. It happened like this, as told by Niel himself…………so, you all decide who you want to believe, when you hear this story from various ‘sources’. With the current South West Monsoon in progress, there had been a steady south westerly wind of anything from 10 to 25 knots sweeping across the West Coast of Peninsula Malaysia for the last week or more. It was fine when Niel was coming up as it was in his favour, but he’d been delayed by rainy thunderstorms. On the way back, the same forecast for south westerly winds held and he was understandably concerned. On the Sunday afternoon when he’d left BRA, his plan was to fly to Subang, overnight and start early the next morning.
Aftermath………contd. On Monday morning Siva had gone over to Subang to assist him in his preparations to depart and again found the winds unfavourable. A decision was taken to delay the flight further to Tuesday and Niel stayed with Siva and Rani in their home. Siva had to scoot off to Sydney that night and having prepared everything for the Tuesday early morning departure they left it at that. On Tuesday, Niel had made his way to Malacca successfully with an average of 10 -15 knots on the nose. At Malacca, he stopped, refuelled and checked the weather with other light aircraft flying around Johor and found that there was a Thunderstorm in progress. So, he stopped and waited out the storm in Malacca. The storm blew over and he took off for Johor. Enroute, the weather was beautifully clear with the best visibility he’d seen since departure on Thursday and according to Niel, he thought to himself that the flight up North though long and arduous, had been worth it as he was headed surely for home. Somewhere within fifteen to twenty miles from destination he found himself suddenly facing another incoming storm, which was fast moving. He attempted to skirt West clear of the storm, but couldn’t find a break. He was in control at all times and in Communication with ATC, so he wasn’t worried. However, the storm rapidly overtook him and he found himself being boxed in flying low, with power lines below him. That’s when his training kicked in and he’d decided to carry out a precautionary landing, which on the Trike is as common as apple pie. That thing is capable of landing just about anywhere. More and more, he found himself sandwiched and decided against landing on the North South Highway to avoid undue publicity and made a decision to land on an adjacent oil palm plantation road running uphill. He circled, checked and made a text book landing successfully uphill, but unfortunately found himself going rapidly up hill, crested the hill and then began rapidly going downhill. His drum brakes ( not the best even in ideal circumstances) failed then and the Trike ‘ran away’ with him it. The wing tipped and struck the ground and the Trike tipped over and landed on its side. Niel was injured in his foot and face. He retrieved his medical kit, dressed himself and made his painful way out to the Highway where he’d waited thirty minutes until a truck stopped to give him a lift to the nearest town’s aid center. The police were informed and someone apparently called the Press. ( typical in Malaysia where the Press pay ‘stringers’ to be informers of the hoary and gory in the country side ). Johor ATC was informed of the forced landing and a report was filed. Niel is an exemplary pilot, meticulous and very well prepared and cautious in his outlook ( after all he is a Lawyer ! ) and we were all truly relieved to see that he got out with only minor injuries. It could have been worse.
Aftermath………contd. The Trike was a loss but that is replaceable. There are many ‘what ifs’ one could contemplate on this incident, but you and I were NOT there, so we will not second guess the pilot who was there at the time and had to figure out a solution to his present predicament in a hurry. But of this we are convinced. That Niel did the right thing at the right time and that it could have been worse if he’d delayed what he had to do at the time, and pronto. Niel is a young man with a young family so, let’s all be thankful that our friend and fellow aviator survived to fly again. And we look forward to welcoming him again at BRA. Thank You Niel for taking the long route to BRA. Everyone enjoyed your Company and your ‘aerial motorbike’. In fact this Fly In would not have happened if it wasn’t for your original suggestion to hold it as a replacement for Bulaleng in Bali, so it was your idea in the first place, where otherwise we would not have had a Fly In. Send a kind word to Niel and see ya’ll soon at BRA in Suren’s goat shed…………
The Scribbler @ EAA Malaysia-Chapter 10
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