Red Book
Last year on 30th of December, I sat for my Airframe written examination. After passing that, 3 weeks ago on Friday the 13th, I sat for my oral examination at the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia. 4 years of knowledge was evaluated in about 40 minutes. And today, I am pleased to say I have passed and have been issued the coveted "red book":
As you can see it is obvious why it's called a "red book".
The red book contains the license to maintain planes. However, having this book does not give me any certifying privileges, i.e. I still can't work on planes. I have to go through the company's Quality Assurance oral to get my company approval before I can start signing off planes. This is merely the first step in achieving that. It's a prerequisite for the company approval.
I have a lot of people to thank for this. Couldn't have done it without all the support, guidance and motivation. You all know who you are 
Next: QA. The last hurdle.
Landing at Kai Tak Airport
Ask any aviation enthusiast and they will tell you that Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong is famous for its crosswinds and dramatic landings. Here's one involving a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 747-400:
It's a pity they switched to a new airport while I was there a few years back. Would have loved a rollercoaster-like landing.
The reason for such a maneuver at the final approach is clearly shown on the approach chart above in the area circled in red. It was a modified ILS approach, named IGS 13 (Instrument Guidance System, Runway 13), or unofficially known as the Checkerboard Approach. This approach is known as the checkerboard approach because there is a checkerboard painted on the side of the hill to guide pilots in.
Basically planes will approach from the west (left of chart) at heading 088 and intercept the ILS. The ILS will then guide the plane to the checkerboard and right before the checkerboard the pilots will have to make a right turn to runway 13.
The video below is shot from the checkerboard, showing the approach of a Thai Airways Boeing 777:
This video was shot from the cockpit of a Boeing 747 during approach to Kai Tak Runway 13. From the video you can see the pilots flying towards the checkboard before turning sharply to the right to runway 13:
You can see the checkerboard if you go to the top of Kowloon Tsai Park. Here's a photo at the top: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/17944521. If you have Flight Simulator X you can purchase an add-on to fly the checkerboard approach: http://www.avsim.com/pages/0808/FlyTampa/KaiTak.htm.
Kuching August 2010
I was back during the Merdeka weekend and spent 5 days back in Kuching. It felt more like a holiday than just going home. My mum has kept the house neat and tidy (you should see my room in KL) and she also renovated my room while I was away!
A nice worktable and a floating bookshelf. Wikipedia made those books obsolete by the way. Not shown are 2 nicely made beds and a sliding door cupboard that hasn't arrived yet. Could be a subtle hint that I should come back home more often.
And of course, the cat is always around when you're busy with something. She should be 10 or 11 this year. Too fat to carry around. The other cat was sick when I got back. Lost so much weight that I could actually carry him around.
I'm not a hoarder but I do have large quantities of old stuff that I keep. I like to have spares around so I can get things fixed easily. But it clutters up the house so I had to throw almost 6 boxes of stuff away the other day. Brings back good memories as I sifted through the stuff.
Very old computer parts. I threw away a 286 too. It was older than me, given by a friend.
Used to be really into Lego sets. This was one of the more interesting sets because it had a programmable brick that allows you to use a computer to program it. It was primitive, to say the least, but it offered a quick and hassle-free introduction to programming.
Baby hamsters. No I did not have to throw these away. They're almost transparent. Less than a day old.
We drove up to Damai, Santubong and Buntal one day to see the new renovations at Damai Lagoon and also to have seafood at Buntal. Damai Lagoon looked more exclusive than before. There weren't a lot of people around at that time. But I suspect that it would be full during the Rainforest Music Festival. Normal rooms start at RM280 (promotional rate) and suites start at RM1.9k.
The newly renovated Damai Lagoon.
The pool looks so much nicer now. Some of the suites had a good view of the sea.
We stopped by Santubong Resort to have a look too. It was completely deserted, probably because most of the guests have checked out by then. We were the only people there. It looked like a ghost town!
Saw some people fishing at the shallow waters at Buntal. Buntal is famous for its seafood. It's somewhere before Santubong.
The weather in Kuching has been rather erratic lately. Sometimes it's blazing hot, at other times it is very nice and cloudy. There was once when I saw a cloudless Melbourne-like sky:
Right after the rain. I'm a sucker for clear blue skies. I've not seen such clear skies before in Kuching.
Had to go back to KL today. Flight back was uneventful. Not many people were flying around during the fasting month.
Speedbrakes were deployed during the descent to reduce speed.
As always, had a really relaxing time back in Kuching. Looking forward to my next trip home!
Happy Merdeka Malaysia!
Today our country Malaysia celebrates its 53rd Independence day. We've come a long way since 1957. And it's amazing that after so many years, we still stand united. I'm really honored to have so many friends from different races who tolerate each other's religion, who are very open about racial issues.
Sure, we may hear one or two cases of vandalism in places of worship, or the occasional racist remark, or sometimes the stereotyping of races. But those are isolated cases and they do not represent the majority of Malaysians who are generally very friendly. If you have friends of another race, you'll realize we are not so different after all. We share cultures, food and festive seasons. A little give and take will take us a long way.
So to all my Malaysian friends, have a happy Merdeka Day! Stick together and see what more we can achieve!
2010 Emmy’s Opening Number
This year's Emmy Opening Number includes the Glee cast! And also Jimmy Falon and Tina Fey and Hurley from Lost!
I would actually prefer it if they sang Don't Stop Believing.
Will most probably be flying back to KL tomorrow. Will continue with some more of my Kuching posts then.
Bad Idling Problem
My brother's car had a bad idling problem. In neutral, the RPM would hunt around 600-800. It'll rev to 800 then drop down to 600 and the cycle repeats ever second. In drive it's even worse, going from 600-1200 and sometimes stalling. Revving the engine made it worse. The RPM would jump and after letting go of the pedal, it takes a few seconds before stabilizing at 600-800RPM. All the time the engine felt like it was going to stall.
The car hasn't been started for a month because he was at Perth for that duration. The mechanic suspected that it was due to fouled plugs but couldn't look at it till next week because his appointment was full. Since I had plenty of time to kill I decided to troubleshoot
Bad idling can be caused by the following:
- Bad spark plugs
- Bad idle control valve
- ECU malfunction
- Damaged spark plug cables
- Damaged ignition coils
- Damaged ECU wiring harness in the engine
- O2 sensor damage
- MAF sensor damage
- Vacuum leaks
I didn't have a fault code reader so I had to go through each and every item on the list to isolate the problem.
MAF Sensor
The first thing I checked was the MAF (Mass Air Flow) sensor. A dirty or faulty MAF sensor could cause a slow response to the ECU, resulting in overcompensation by the ECU and the engine to idle badly.
This is the Bosch Hot Film MAF sensor. If you look into the tube you can see a thin film. This film is heated up to a certain constant temperature. As air flows through it, the film is cooled, therefore more power is required to keep the film at the predetermined temperature. The ECU then uses this information to calculate how much air is flowing through to the engine. There are two other types of MAF sensors, namely the hot wire type and the spring-loaded vane type.
I reasoned that if the film has been covered in dust, it would be effectively insulated from the flowing air and thus give out erroneous readings. Cleaned it with some sensor-safe carb cleaner. Installed it back. Same results. So it wasn't the problem with the MAF sensor.
Spark Plugs
Fouled or mis-gapped spark plugs can also cause bad idling problems because the mis-gap will affect the ignition timing. I took out the spark plugs and also checked the condition of the wiring and coil packs but they were in good condition. The plugs were in exceptional condition, the ceramic portion showing perfect combustion (slightly brown deposits on the white ceramic). I didn't take any photos of the plugs but the following diagram will help you in determining your plug condition:
So I had to rule out the ignition system. Wiring were all good. Engine harness was still in good condition.
Vacuum Leaks
In most cars, vacuum from the intake manifold is tapped for the usage of other systems. One common vacuum user is the master brake cylinder. The vacuum is used to assist the driver in applying brakes. That's why when your engine is off, it's very hard to push down on the brake pedal.
Since idling is somewhat affected by the airflow into the manifold, any vacuum leaks will introduce extra air into the engine, thus messing up the fuel scheduling by the ECU. The ECU thinks that there is that much air going in, but in fact there is more because of the vacuum leak.
The problem was caused by a disconnected vacuum line to ABS module (shown by the red arrow). I'm not sure why I didn't notice that before. Could have saved me one afternoon.
The engine idled perfectly after reconnecting that vacuum line. No hunting at all, RPM stabilizes instantly once the gas pedal is released after revving the engine.
Sometimes the simplest of solution solves the problem. So the next time before you go check your plugs or idle control valve, check that all the vacuum lines are connected properly. Might just save you a lot of time troubleshooting.
And I love working on this car because it comes with it's own set of tools!
Mobile Mouse for Apple iPad
I'm back in Kuching right now so stay tuned for updates soon.
The Apple iPad is a versatile device. With thousands of Apps in the App Store, there is almost always an App that does exactly what you want. And developers have really been pushing the possibilities on the iPad with creative and innovative Apps. One App that caught my attention was the Mobile Mouse.
Mobile Mouse is an App that turns your iPad into a giant multitouch trackpad. It uses WiFi to connect to your computer so your iPad and PC/Mac must be on the same WiFi network. You must install the App on your iPad and a server software that can be downloaded from their website on your PC/Mac. Setup takes about 5 minutes only and it is very straight-forward and easy.
Installing the server software.
Running the server. There are a few parameters that you can play around with in the other tabs and they are basically self-explanatory. The only thing you need to make sure here is that the IP address is correct and that it is on the same network as your iPad.
Launch the Mobile Mouse App and you will be able to detect the server computer and connect to it. Your oversized trackpad is now ready for use.
The whole surface can be used to move the mouse pointer. You can even pinch to zoom. On PCs, it will launch the Magnifier and zoom into your screen. Two buttons below are used for clicking. There are regions on both sides for scrolling. On the lower region, there is a dock-like interface, similar to the one found in MacOS X. This allows you to switch between applications quickly. For example, if you tap on "Firefox", the Firefox window will come into focus.
There are also special buttons on the top region that you can activate. The set shown above allows you to control Firefox with ease. You can go back, reload or favorite a page, stop page loading, and so on.
You can even turn your iPad into a giant remote control for your home PC. Pause or fast forward through a movie, change the volume, skip video clips and so on. This is indeed turning your iPad into a very expensive remote control.
If you need to type, it comes with a fully-featured keyboard as well.
Mobile Mouse is suitable for users who want to use their iPad as a trackpad because they do not want to lug a mouse around with their laptops. Or for those rare occassions when they need a bigger touchpad. Also for users who wish to control their home PCs. Instead of getting a wireless keyboard and mouse, the iPad is a more elegant solution. Mice and keyboards don't belong in the living room.
DIY Apple iPad Stand
There will be times when you want to prop up your iPad on your desk to watch a movie, or to use it as a second screen, or to show your Twitter updates. It is times like these that you'll need an iPad stand. However if you're like me who refuse to be a sucker for overpriced Apple accessories, you can make one for yourself for free in under 5 minutes.
You will need the following tools and materials:
- A piece of cardboard the size of an A4 paper.
- Scissors.
- Ruler.
- Pencil.
- PDF template (taken from the Pizza Box iPad Stand)
You can either print out the template or draw it out yourself on the piece of cardboard. Once you have transferred the template over to the cardboard, proceed to cut out the stand.
If you cut it out properly you'll have a piece that looks like the one shown above. Finally, you'll need to fold along the dotted lines. Your iPad stand is now ready for use.
The stand is quite sturdy if you use a stiff cardboard. You'll notice that I did not use the rectangular brace. It works well without it.
Now that you have a stand for your iPad, go ahead and try these Apps out:
- Air Display
- iDisplay
- Mobile Mouse
- Touch LCD (clock)
First FPV Flight
I've talked about FPV (first person view) flights on RC before this on my old blog post. My housemate Tan recently bought a very small and light keychain video camera and we strapped it to a RC plane and took off to the skies. Here's what happened.
This is the small keychain camera. Velcro-ed and taped to the front of the plane. This was the first setup and there was a very obvious problem. The camera was right behind the propeller so when the propeller was turning, it interfered with the view.
This was how it was mounted. RC plane is a Cessna 172. Very light. Perhaps a bit too light to survive the strong winds that we encountered today.
Pilot for today is Tan.
Doing a few low passes so we will be seen in the video. This was the closest I could get to the plane as I only had my 28mm wide angle lens with me.
We landed and changed the mounting of the camera to the side to get a bird's eye view. This will give us a view similar to ones in Google Earth.
Weather was pretty hot and windy. The plane was too light so it porpoised when flying, making the video very jerky. A bigger, heavier, more powerful plane is under construction and it should provide for a more steady and exciting (aerobatics) video.
After we went home and discovered that the propeller was affecting the videos, we devised a mount to clear the propeller from the view of the camera.
It's basically just 2 foam blocks glued together and velcro-ed to the top of the wing. You might think that this large object will disturb the airflow on the wing, but that wasn't the case. Or it wasn't obvious enough to be felt.
Preparing for a video of flying into the sunset.
Taxiing for a take-off.
Unfortunately the last flight didn't go so well. Resulted in a crash with a broken motor mount, which luckily can be easily replaced. It was due to a strong wind blowing the plane sideways right after take-off, causing it to go into a death spiral.
Here are 2 videos from the few flights we made. This was from the first flight:
This was from the 2nd flight at another field:
Below are some screen shots from the fly bys. The plane wasn't stable enough under strong winds so lower altitudes weren't attempted.
Hope to get another plane up in the air soon!
Lamborghini Reventon Dash
I tweeted about this a while ago but I'll put it here for the record. The Lamborghini Reventon probably has the best digital cluster around. There are 2 modes available.
This is the more traditional styled design, emulating analog meters that we find in most cars. Easy to read and understand. Instead of using moving needles, the circular scale will get filled up.
The second mode mimics the cockpit of a fighter jet. And rightfully so because the Reventon itself is designed with fighter jets in mind.
Here's a video of it in action. There are however some errors in the display in the video. The RPM is supposed to be shown in steps of 10, not 1000:
Here's another video showing the cluster:
Building such a dash should be quite straightforward given the proper graphics engine. A small computer will be needed to run the graphics software and also accept inputs from the car's ECU. Modern cars with OBDII ECU interface will be really easy to setup as OBDII readers are very cheap now. Older cars will have to manually tap their analog signals from the ECU.
Unfortunately for me I don't have a car with an OBDII interface so if I ever want to build something like that I would need to get the inputs from the current dash and convert them to digital for the computer. But seeing how cool it is, it will probably be attempted sometime in the future. Perhaps by salvaging a netbook with a decent screen.
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