Fun flying in Sri Lanka

Thank you for publishing my dear friend Capt. Elmo Jayawardena’s article on ‘Fun Flying’ in The Island of 1 Nov. I totally agree with him. May I be permitted to reproduce the following article with the full story, which was aimed at the golfing community in Sri Lanka? It was published in your esteemed newspaper some time ago.

RECREATIONAL FLYING AND GOLF

“When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned upward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”

– Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), painter, artist, engineer & Renaissance genius from Florence, Italy.

The art as well as science of flight is indeed very interesting to learn and practise. Like golf, it takes a little time to accomplish, depending on your instructor’s ability to teach and your ability to learn. One does not need to have special skills except a passion for flight. Sacrifices have to be made, like waking up early to get to the airport. Everyone can fly. Like riding a bicycle. The prospective pilot is taught to fly, navigate and communicate up to a required level of proficiency, and then the sky’s the limit.

For most people, the sky may be the limit, but as someone once said, for those who love aviation, the sky is their home. One thing is for sure: once the bug bites, it is forever. The most memorable day in a fledgling pilot’s life is the day he/she is allowed (cleared) to fly solo. That is, all by oneself, without the benefit of an instructor in the next seat to give guidance. This also means that the instructor is confident that the trainee is a safe pilot and ready to learn more by himself or herself. A milestone that will usually be celebrated among like-minded friends in the fraternity. In fact, in flying, as in golf, you are always learning and you are so focused, you leave your problems behind (on ground).

“I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things …” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

There are 16 airports approved by the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) at locations across Sri Lanka: KKS (Jaffna), Iranamadu, Vavuniya, Thalladi (Mannar), China Bay (Trincomalee), Anuradhapura, Sigiriya, Minneriya, Batticaloa, Ampara, BIA/Katunayake, Ratmalana, Katukurunda, Koggala, Weerawila and Mattala. Light aircraft could land at any of these airports. At the moment, although manned by the Sri Lanka Airports and Aviation Ltd., and the Sri Lanka Air Force, some of them are rarely used.

Flying schools in Sri Lanka

There are many CAASL-approved flying schools at Ratmalana and Katukurunda. They will be only too happy to provide an aircraft and an instructor to teach anyone interested in taking up this wonderful hobby. Imagine, after you are trained and qualified you could fly from Ratmalana to Sigiriya, Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Koggala or KKS in the morning, have lunch there, and get back to Ratmalana by evening.

“You haven’t seen a tree until you’ve seen its shadow from the sky.” – Amelia Earhart (1897-1937).

When one acquires the skill to fly with reference solely to instruments one could obtain an Instrument Rating (IR). This will allow the pilot to confidently fly through and above the clouds without being always restricted to be in sight of ground or water. The trainee pilot could also learn to fly in the night and get a ‘Night Rating’. This will provide more flexibility by not being restricted to daylight flying hours between dawn and dusk. Initially, the trainees start practising early in the morning, at a time when the winds are usually calm and the air is smooth. When they gather more experience (counted in hours of flying), they will be allowed to fly later in the day when the air is more turbulent, due to heating of the ground by the sun. The winds also usually build up by then. They will also reach competency in landing and taking off in crosswind conditions, at their home airport, before they are allowed to fly in command on cross-country flights to other airports. Being the ‘Pilot in Command’ of the light aircraft builds up the new pilot’s confidence and develops a healthy respect for weather in the tropics. Checklists will also be introduced, so that the pilot will ‘do things right and do the right things’!

Thrill of flying

Once you are competent and comfortable with the type of aircraft you were trained on, you may even want to buy your own aircraft which could be parked at and maintained by one of the many flying organisations/schools. On the other hand, if you don’t plan to fly too often, hiring may be a cheaper option. When you experience the thrill of almost ‘two hundred horses’ hauling you down the runway and the acceleration in the seat of your pants, you never forget it and will come back for more. Come to think of it, pilots are connected to the aircraft only by the seat of their pants! The nerves, muscles and skin in the pilot’s posterior, how it reacts to gravity and acceleration/deceleration, is collectively known as the ‘somatosensory feel’. Along with what you see with your eyes and experience through the balance organs in your ears, it helps in orientation. Age is no barrier as long as you are medically fit (this writer is now past his 72^nd birthday!). So, as one gets older, it will be necessary to do regular medical check-ups to ensure that everything is in order. In one way, it helps one keep fit. Bear in mind that the CAASL does not require your health to be that of an astronaut. You can fly with corrective lenses (spectacles), and even if you are slightly deaf in one or both ears, for there is a volume control in the radio receiver to help! You could fly after heart surgery, even a by-pass. Diabetes need not keep you grounded. There are many waivers in the medical regulations for the Private Pilots’ licence category.

“Can the magic of flight ever be carried by words? I think not.” — Michael Parfit, Smithsonian magazine, May 2000

During training, one will acquire ‘stick and rudder’ skills. One will also acquire a working knowledge of Air Navigation Regulations (ANR), engines and airframes, aircraft and human performance limitations, flight planning, weight and balance theory, GPS navigation, meteorology (weather), map reading, the use of the slide rule, protractor and compass. Every minute of flight is exciting, but how safe is it? It is certainly safer than crossing a road in Sri Lanka or riding in a three-wheeler. From the first day, you are taught to be safe and think safety.

Hardly any emergency landing

Modern aircraft engines are very reliable and run smoothly, like proverbial sewing machines. Although fledgling pilots are trained extensively to competently handle emergencies, one hardly hears of an emergency landing due to engine failure nowadays. Engines don’t usually fail suddenly. They usually give some indication of a pending problem in the form of noise, vibration, fluctuations of oil pressure, oil temperature, cylinder head temperatures, coolant temperature, power produced, etc. The pilot could safely reach ‘terra firma’ as soon as possible and have the problem attended to, if necessary. Statistics from around the world show that most engine failures in small aircraft have been due to bad fuel management. resulting in fuel starvation.

“The engine is the heart of an aeroplane, but the pilot is its soul.” — Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh (RAF)

To fly over our Fair Isle with your family or friends, spending quality time and watching the places familiar to you as they unravel from the air, makes one appreciate our country. For example, flying over the cities of Kandy, Kurunegala, Jaffna, Bible Rock, Sigiriya, Castlereigh, Victoria, Kothmale, Senanayake Samudra, Lunugamwehera and the Bolgoda Lake. To spot elephants after takeoff from Mattala or Weerawila, see Adam’s Peak in the distance, or the Mahaweli meandering northwards towards Trincomalee from Kandy, and the Mahiyangana Stupa shining in the morning sun. Flying to Anuradhapura and navigating by Ruwanwelisaya to locate the airport. Following roads, rivers and railway lines. Flying over Iranamadu, Fort Hammenhiel guarding the entrance to Jaffna Lagoon, and much more with your newly acquired skill. Flying an Instrument Landing System (ILS), as if on rails, in between the big jets at Bandaranaike International Airport, down to 400 feet followed by a ‘greased landing’, where the tyres kiss the runway.

There are two other fun categories that are practised in other parts of the world, requiring qualifications other than the Private Pilots’ Licence (PPL): ‘sport aviation’ and ultralight flying licences, where the aircraft are smaller, simpler and, in the case of the latter category, allow one to fly with no certification. Unfortunately, such freedoms are still to be implemented in our part of the world.

Here’s a quick comparison of the restrictions and privileges in each category in the USA, as quoted by Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA): (see table)

Unfortunately, at this point in time the CAASL can only provide a Private Pilot’s Licence Category for recreational (leisure) pilots.

Striving for perfection

Flying, like golf, is striving for perfection. You can play golf against yourself. The mathematics involved in flying is perhaps a little more complicated. It is challenging, but not competitive. At the end of the day you have the satisfaction of pitting yourself with nature and doing a good job of it. As in golf, flying has its own jargon.

As one golfer says: “For me, it’s largely that sensation of raw power that comes from hitting a little white ball 250+ yards, sky high, and in all sorts of shapes and sexily curved flights. As others have mentioned, the feel of striking the ball purely and watching it pierce the air like a bullet – or, at the other end of the shot-making spectrum, float on the wind, balloon-like – is, very arguably, a euphoria unmatched in any other sport. “It’s incredibly satisfying when you hit the ball just perfectly.

Another golfer says: “I love taking all of the variables into account: wind speed, wind direction, fairway slope, club limitations, ball placement, and more. Then the whole analysis comes down to one simple swing that’s over in seconds. It’s fun (or sometimes not so much) to see the results immediately, where in business it may take weeks, months, or years to see the results of a strategic decision.”

It is the same with flying. The strategic use of your knowledge and experience in a more acute sense as your decisions will affect you directly. You don’t need to watch anymore. Now you can be a part of it. Although there are many common elements in flying and golf such as self-improvement, determination, concentration and enjoying fresh air, flying must obviously be more fascinating and personal as I have yet to see poems, such as the one below, written about golf.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds –and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there

I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air…

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark or even eagle flew –

And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr

Fun fliers harassed

There is a small community of ‘fun flyers’ who are harassed by the authorities who drive them from pillar to post as they have to work with bureaucrats who don’t know how an aircraft flies. Above all, they don’t have a passion for aviation. There is a National Aviation Policy (NAP), which has now been issued as a Government Gazette (No 2214/54 of 10^th Feb 2021). Encouraging the formation of flying clubs is one of the declared objectives of this policy.

Instead of facilitating ‘Fun Flying’ (officially known as General Flying), these ‘seat warmers’ tend to obstruct their activities by attempting to enforce the archaic Administrative and Financial Regulations (ARs and FRs). The two frontline entities in charge, i. e. the Civil Aviation Authority Sri Lanka and the Airport and Aviation Sri Lanka, were formed to eliminate ‘red tape’ in the 1970s. Since then, red tape has crept in through the backdoor, and things have moved back to square one or are even worse in the ‘permanent administration’. To add insult to injury, after the 30-year war the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) behaves like aviation’s self-appointed ‘Dr. No’.

Security clearance

Prospective pilots have to wait for over six months to obtain security clearance from the SIS, NIB, CAASL, SLAF and what have you. In fact, the Aircraft Owners and Operators Association (AOAOA) asked the authorities for a quicker IT-based system more than two years ago, and are still waiting. Capt. Elmo’s suggestion of the practical and profitable possibility of flying training for tourists could be achieved only if and when the security system is revamped and put on a fast track, especially when the country is short of valuable foreign exchange.

As we are not at war anymore, the planning of air space and airports in the country is the sole responsibility of the Civil Aviation Authority Sri Lanka (CAASL) as mentioned in the said government Gazette. Instead of coordination with the CAASL, the SLAF still seems to want absolute control of civil airspace over our fair isle. To illustrate the point, a few days ago there was the funeral at the General Cemetery, Borella, of a lady who was a well-known anti-cancer activist who died of cancer herself. In her last will, there was a handwritten request for a ‘flower drop’ at her funeral. After her death, the Ministry of Defence and CAASL were duly contacted and permission granted to carry out a flower drop from a civil helicopter. Flowers worth thousands of rupees were bought, but at the eleventh-hour permission was refused by the SLAF for no apparent reason. However, a week later when a scholar monk died, the SLAF sprinkled flowers at his funeral – demonstrating the existence of two different laws in one country. The tail seems to wag the dog!