Simple note

Been some time since i posted something on my blog. The irony of this is that i'm suppose to have more time now, but i guess i'm just too lazy. Alright, so what has happened for the whole of my last week?

Since Monday, the day i reported to Air Force School, i'm basically labelled as "slacker". The reason is simple. For that the whole of the week, what i have to do is, be there by 0730hrs, do role-call(accounting of strength), attend briefings on Tuesday and Thurdays, slack from 0830hrs till 0930hrs and go for teabreak, wait for 1150hrs and go for lunch, start doing some sports like tennis, soccer and jogging from 1400hrs till around 1700hrs and by 1730hrs, we will be at the bus stop waiting to go back home.

Discipline wise, because of the fact that now we are Officer Cadets(OCT), carrying the 2nd worse rank in SAF(fyi, recruit is the lowest form of life in SAF); the single white stripe on our shoulders, we have to make sure we greet all the high ranking personnel(Sergeants and above). And that we were told that, pilot trainees often get complains for rudeness and such, primarily due to the fact that we are the most slack Officer Cadets, and we became the jealousy of many others.

Other than that, we are allowed to do whatever we want, go wherever we are permited to, simply at our own convenience. Applying the 8th core value in SAF - Do and don't get caught.

So why in the whole world we get to do all these and not doing anything that's constructive, at least to justify the pay we get and the money of the taxpayers which goes down to the training and planes we will be having?

Well, right now, my course including me has 13 cadets waiting for our shot at the 02/06 Air-Grading Course(AGC) over at Tamworth(Australia), which starts early Feb. Before we go over, there will be another last round of medical checkup and IPPT. And of course to get our deeds sign by our sureties.

As for what are the benefits we will get to enjoy, what we will be doing over there, what are the hazards we might face, i think i'll not mention them here, in case i go over the line and spill out what considered classified unintentionally. So, if you're interested to know more, probably you have to come to me personally.

Just an overview, after 5-6 weeks of air-grading, we will be going to Officer Cadet School(OCS) for 9 weeks. After which, we will be coming back to Air Force School, for few weeks of ground school, and then proceed to Basic Wing Course(BWC). This will take around 9 months. After which i think that's when the commissioning parade will be done, whereby we will get the Gold Bar on our shoulders; rank of 2nd Lieutenant. Lastly back to Air Force School, and then lastly Advance Wing Course(AWC), that's when those who make it till here, will be split to Fighter Wing Course(FWC), Rotary Wing Course(RWC) and Transport Wing Course(TWC). Basically be train as fighter, helicopters or transport pilots.

All and all, this will take around 3 years including the waiting time in between before the start of the next course. And of course, it often starts out with a course size of 20 and after going through AGC, 50% gone, after BWC, 10-20% more gone, after AWC, another 5-10% gone, by then, you will be left with a handful of 3-5 trainees. The cut-off rate is so high, the "chopping board" never will be in silent mode.

"It's a rewarding challenging job." This is how one of the instructors, with 29 years of flying experience put forward to us during the Friday safety briefing. In fact, the safety brief we had last Friday was the one which probably made some of us think again if being pilot is what we really wanted. 3 real-life case studies of the Air Force pilot trainees were being discussed. These 3 cases were recent cases and 1 of the case study trainee was in the classroom during the brief. I'll skip the story here, but he almost died during his AWC training.

It was his own mistake for his near fatal death, but it's only fair to say that he wouldn't have want to do it on purpose and for that, the mistake caused him to be switched to RWC from his original FWC. For your information, he cheated death with only 5 seconds left to go.

So at the end of the briefing, my course, all the 13 young flyer wannabes, were discussing about the fact why most of the time, pilots were introduced together with the number of flying hours they clocked. So we came out with a conclusion that it simply means that they have survived that particular number of hours in air and managed to come down safely, in one piece.

Another thing we discussed was the glory, the prestige, the wealth, versus the death, the danger and the time we need to sacrifice. We are basically at the extremes. Now you know why Air Force slogan is "Above All"? High pay, high death, high stress, high up, high everything.

Alright, i guess i'll stop here about all the talks of being a pilot. Period.

Today is the day of sharing and being happy. So, i suppose we should be happy? But anyway, it's not good for me at all. Don't want to be a spoil-sport, so i better not make it sound emo yet again. Hope you guys have fun.

Merry Christmas to those reading this blog. May Santa be with you always.