National Day!

Well, this was one of the more interesting weeks recently. Started off with myself and Bertrand staying at Jon Seow's house until 1am to finish off a video for the school National Day Celebrations. Turned out ok, but we could have done better. Still, it looked quite cool, though laggy. The 20 second clip at the end, of the 3 F-16Cs in formation was the most frustrating to film, took us 3 hours to get right. When we did get it right the first time, the video software failed... In the end took 4 hours to film that final scene. I wish more people would be able to appreciate the time and effort we put into the 2 videos, military and commercial aviation, though I fear most did not.

Interesting quote did surface from a random Sec 1 during the video though. When the caption "Singapore Airlines now operates the largest fleet of Boeing 777s in the world" appeared, someone was quoted to have said "There's a typo, should be 747." Just for reference:

747



777



Ok, maybe I am a bit picky, but these are my two favourite aircraft we're talking about! Anyway, after that went for some history makeup. Originally wanted to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 2, but was abandoned by certain people... So I just went home and slacked.

At night, I began a nice long flight. Since Bertrand and Xavier would be coming over the next day, I decided to fly from Singapore to Paris, on a Singapore Airlines 747.

Flight Number: SQ334
Aircraft: 747-412
Registration: 9V-SMS
Route: Changi Airport (WSSS) - Charles De Gaulle Airport (LFPG)
Departure Gate: F37
Departure Time: 2345 local
Arrival Gate: A4
Arrival Time: 0615 local

Surprisingly, even at night, with the Samsoft Changi scenery, PMDG 747-400 and tons of AI traffic, I got little or no lag. Anyway, taxiied to runway 20L, and was greeted by a long taxi queue, most of them my fellow SIA 747s. Took off after a short delay, and began the PMK12 departure. Flew over a nicely lit up CBD on the way out. Once the plane reached cruising altitude, I went to bed for the night.

Woke up the next morning to find the aircraft cruising slowly over central Russia. It was just before dawn. Dawn in Flight Sim is a very nice time of day, as you can see from the pic above. Also, a Lufthansa 747-400 flew parallel to the aircraft for a time, though we overtook it.

Bertrand and Xavier showed up quite late, though before we landed. We had lunch, then Bertrand landed the aircraft on runway 27L at Paris, while Xavier attempted to hijack it.

For the rest of the day, we spent time watching TV and doing some flying, then watched NDP. Why they used the song "Return of the King" from the LOTR soundtrack I will never know. We then went to Kallang to watch a VERY short fireworks display.

It was quite late by the time we got back, so Bertrand and Xavier stayed over. Xavier mainly talked to his friends (and Chester, for some reason) on MSN, while Bertrand flew traffic patterns (circles) around Seletar and various airports.

The next day, we got our hands on the Australian Simulations Piper Warrior III. The Piper Warrior III is a very nice, simple to fly basic trainer, which SYFC uses.

After Xavier and Bert left, I installed the Flight Simulator X demo. Runs ok, not as good as the final version's supposed to, but I can see it has potential. Water textures are sweet stuff.

Band the next day was immensely boring. I get about 4-6 bars of interesting stuff in the entire repertoire of 5 songs! Still, what can I do? I feel quite disappointed that the baritone sax seems to be a sort of afterthought in most music, but then I can't protest against a song just because it's boring for me, can I?

Yesterday went to the airport to see Xavier off. He would be flying the same flight I described earlier, SQ334. While most people wished him a safe trip, I told him I wouldn't need to, because he was flying a Boeing 747 and was guaranteed one. I wasn't joking either, I place full trust in that aircraft. Can't deny that I was a bit worried though, what with recent events. After that, I also went spotting with Bertrand. Qantas was surprisingly co-operative, sending a Boeing 747-438 and A330-302 within spotting distance. Pity Japan Airlines and KLM weren't.

All in all, I'd say this was an interesting week, had its ups and downs, more than usual. It was a nice end to the doom period, of July 9th - August 8th, and I got some flying done with the 2 new aircraft I got, the Piper Warrior and Carenado's Cessna 182Q Skylane II. All I need now is a yoke and rudder pedals, and I'll be quite nicely set up. Hope I get them in the future (hint to section in case they haven't decided what to get me for investiture).