An intrepid newsman is thankful he didn't throw up as he dips and dives with the Krisakti aerobatics team
The
writer before the flight with Royal Malaysian Air Force pilot Major Goh
K.L. The writer experienced four times the force of gravity as the
plane looped across the skies.
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IT was something I had been waiting for, for a long, long time. This year was the sixth time I had covered the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace exhibition (Lima) and I had all the while wanted to be able to fly in one of the aircraft on aerial display. This year, I got my chance, thanks to a lucky draw during a media luncheon hosted by Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
I wouldn't be flying in a jet, as I had always dreamed about. Instead, it would be a little German-made prop plane, the Extra 300L, which has a top speed of 220 knots.
But this was something better, as that little German plane would be flown by a member of Malaysia's first aerial display, or aerobatics, team -- Krisakti. It was a chance of a lifetime.
We were scheduled to take off after the last airshow yesterday, but I was nervous long before that.
My heart rate was the highest of all four journalists who had won the chance to fly with Krisakti. Royal Malaysian Air Force medical officer Lt-Col Dr Rosli Kolob, who gave me a medical check-up before the flight, asked me if I was nervous. When I replied in the affirmative, he said I needn't worry and that the flight would be easy.
"That's not why I'm nervous. I'm nervous because I don't want to fail the medical check-up and be robbed of the chance to fly," I said, much to Dr Rosli's amusement.
Thankfully, I passed the test. I was ready to fly but would have to wait several hours. I was disappointed to learn later that the flight would only be what I call a "joy ride". There would be no rolls, no loops, no blades. Just a straightforward flight.
The day before I was warned by RMAF buddies not to eat too much but not to skip eating altogether. Any stunts performed by the pilots were liable to make me bring up whatever I had eaten, and then some. So, to learn I would not experience any sort of G-force was disappointing, made even more so by the fact I had eaten very little!
Still, I was excited. Little did I know just what I was in for.
About 4.30pm, I met the pilot, Major Goh K.L. He told me to relax and enjoy the flight. I fully intended to. Not long after takeoff, he made a relatively steep climb, then banked left suddenly.
It was a taste of things to come.
Flying towards Kuah town, Goh told me to take control of the aircraft for a little while. It was a thrill indeed!
When we reached the airspace over Kuah, he took back control and it was then that he began to push it. He made several tight turns, so I could get a feel of what Gs really were like.
It was after we left Kuah that things began to get interesting. Goh made several quick turns, banked left and right repeatedly and generally did what he could to give me a proper ride.
There was a time when I felt a tremendous weight on me, so I looked at the meter on the panel in front of me and saw the reading at close to 4Gs four times bodyweight or force of gravity.
It wasn't the Gs that did me in though. It was the sudden side-to-side and up-and-down motions. I nearly threw up several times and told the good major so.
His reply? "I can't hear you. Push the mic closer to your mouth", while repeatedly making the same manoeuvres with his aircraft.
I tried several more times to speak only to hear the same reply and I soon realised Goh could hear me perfectly well.
I told him I knew what he was up to, and he laughed.
I have always had a lot of respect for air force pilots, knowing that it was not an easy job. And before that little Extra aircraft touched down on the runway again, my respect had grown exponentially.
My prayer, as we taxied to a stop and as I dragged my sweat-drenched carcass out of the aircraft, was that I would not suddenly be overcome by a wave of nausea or have my knees collapse under me.
My prayer was answered, though it would take me some time before I fully recovered my senses.
So, to Major Goh and the other pilots of Krisakti, to all air force and aerial display team pilots everywhere, I salute you.
It was a ride of a lifetime. But I don't think I'll be doing it again!
