Sketching some interesting moments from my life

I believe, Blogs are also meant for sharing beautiful moments from our life. So I would like to share some unforgettable moments here which are happened in my campus life at various occasions.

Pawan Bharathi- Man with lot of dreams

    During the second month in my college, an urgent need for a tool room keeper emerged. Thus, our principal introduced a new workshop-in charge- Mr.Pawan Bharathi, a north Indian from Mumbai. He was very tall, some what fair with spectacles. When I met him first, he was in a shabby appearance. Although he was not educated much, he was able to speak English well. For us, pawan Bharathi was a mystery man or rather a laughing stock. He used to carry one small bag always about which he was not ready to reveal anything. These sorts of characters were seen in his jobs also. In between he got a nick name-“pawanayi” (taken from a Malayalam movie). Pawanayi had a Chinese mobile on which channel browsing was possible. Many students utilized that facility for seeing cricket on live during the intervals of workshop practices in college.

     He had a lot of plans and ideas. One of his invention- automatic fuel less generator-one day he explained. We teased him a lot because it was just similar to the starter generator that used in aircraft. It was nothing but the modification of an old theorem. But now I feel that should have been appreciated or at least encouraged, because some elements of innovative ideas were included in it.

After six months he went to Mumbai. I am the only one person in this campus who heard the painful story of his life. After he has gone, I heard somebody grumbling each other “he was an eccentric”

Learning Foot ball from an outsider

     How many legends of football analysts could predict that Spain would win the FIFA world cup?? Nobody could until Netherlands and Spain conquered the ground after defeating all other teams. You may tell the name of that octopus – poll. It’s not fair.

     But I know one man who correctly predicted that Holland and Spain would come in semi-final and Spain would win the match. His name is sunny- an outsider who comes into our collage ground for playing football frequently. He is a daily labour and well proficient in football. The way he plays the football is a lesson for everyone. He usually comes late and will join in a team that scored less. He taught how we are supposed to control a ball and make extreme shorts non-verbally. Co-ordination is the most important thing in this game. It’s a team work.. As far as I am concerned, people of chalakudy consider foot ball as a passion. In my small village also, there are some foot ball team clubs who do not know how to play foot ball actually (when compare). The reason is that the players start practicing it only when some matches or tournaments called for.

     Some times our respected chief instructor Mr. chacko (>76 old) will also come and play with us. When he comes into the ground, as a simple human-being rather than a man who is owned so many degrees, is an inspiration for us. Interesting thing is that he wouldn’t be a man whom we see in our college when he steps to the ground.

The visitors

*Meeting a black man

     Before joining the college, I had heard so many stories of our foreign alumni students. Most of them were Africans and few were Australians. Even though I had heard all those stories, I was not ready to accept it first. But in the first semester, I got a chance to meet one of our alumni; from Africa (I don’t remember his name now. It was a typical name which we have not come across). He reached in our college in an afternoon with his family. His wife, a fat black lady had a resemblance of “Dakini amoomma” (balarama) in all means. The man whom I mention was very tall with no hairs in head (but not bald). He spoke to us and inquired the developments of aviation industry in India. He was working as an AME in British Airways at that time. He had a good personality. His daughter, a 5 yr old naughty kid, was running around the whole college. I think she liked our place very much. When my friend Jyothish extended a hand for a shake hand, she refused and made him run from that place. Kids are always kids, whether they differ in colours. Later we came to know that this man used to play football with our sunny chettan. He had met sunny before going.

     Sunny chettan told some interesting stories regarding these Negroes one day which I shall try to write later. According to him, those guys were fantastic in football. It could be true because it is evident that kerala football team still hires black.

I could understand one thing when I saw this man. We, Indians are very very beautiful. No need of inferiority complex at all. 

     After some time another alumni of our college visited with his wife. He was a panjabi I think, working in USA or SINGAPORE. However, being an Indian he married a foreign lady. He was pleased to see an American business jet aircraft housed in a kerala hanger. He took some photographs for the sake of his old memories.

*Seeing an aircraft first in life

    

     One fine morning, a group of nursery students visited our college. Actually that was their study tour. It was very nice to see, small kids with neat uniforms and ID cards, lining up with left and right. Their innocent eyes were searching those flying machines about which their teachers told. P A Nicker (panicker sir-seniors says P A Nicker) guided them to the hanger. Some students wanted to touch those aircraft. Those who could touch the aircraft pretended as if thy have done something special than others. For instructors, clarifying a nursery student’s doubt was not an easy task. One thing is sure, they were very happy before leave the place. They gave some chocolates for us before going.

     

   

   

Mangalore Air crash and Instrument Landing System

     As our principal Mr. Gilroy John Luiz is so particular in the personality of each student, all students are required to maintain a reasonable hair-cut and proper shaving always. Thus, having a hair cut twice a month became a habitual action. The next day of Mangalore air crash I went to a saloon to have my hair-cut. It was an evening. In my rural area, people usually join together either in some tea shops or saloons after their working hours. For them, discussing something with others is a good method of relieving fatigue and tension. When the barber began hair cutting, some people gathered there and started slandering others. In between somebody put the topic of air crash in front of them. Everybody’s attention turned into it. He was simply trying to shine in front of them. What ever he told them, was utterly foolishness. Before telling something, he should have read the news paper at least (in fact, he is a political leader)-I thought in my mind.

     During this time, some people had approached me with genuine doubts. They wanted to know about ILS (instrument landing system) mainly. As a student of aeronautics, I have the responsibility to answer their question. But, unfortunately, as I am not an avionics student, I couldn’t answer and make them understand completely. Here I am trying to explain about ILS which is said to be the main cause of that air crash.

     In our child hood, we used to play a game on which after a particular round we are supposed to play only in accordance with the guidance of other friends. Mishel obama once played the same game with children of Mumbai, when she visited India. In short, this is the main theory behind the instrument landing system. Landing of an aircraft, using instruments under zero visibility conditions. I shall explain it here without going into deep and using much technical words.

     During heavy fog condition or the pilot can’t see anything (what we call zero visibility), each aircraft has to be landed safely as directed by the instruments. This system enables the ATC to make the aircraft land in a particular runway at a particular time automatically. ILS includes two parts. Marker systems-outer marker (blue indication) which is at a distance of 3.9NM approx. from the Runway threshold, middle marker (yellow light) at a distance of 3500ft approx. and an inner marker (white light) at a distance of 1000ft. The second part is localizer antennas (that you can see in the above picture with yellow colour) and a Glide scope antenna. Suppose the aircraft is approaching an airport at night. When the aircraft passes the outer marker which is at a distance of 3.9 NM from the touch down point (runway threshold), the pilot gets a blue indication with a series of dashes in his cockpit. So the pilot can understand that his aircraft has reached so and so distance from the threshold. When the aircraft further moves and crosses the middle marker, pilot gets a yellow indication with a series of dots and dashes in the cockpit. Finally the aircraft reaches the inner marker which is near to the touch down point (approx.1000ft). What will happen? Pilot gets a series of dots and a white indication which tells the pilot that the aircraft is about to land. Next problem is-the aircraft has to maintain a correct angle before landing. Glide scope antennas takes this responsibility and provide the correct angle to the aircraft (while landing, nose will be up first. Hope you have seen it in films at least). The purpose of the localizer antenna is to give a direction to the pilot or rather aids the pilot to maintain a correct center line. Wind sac will be provided in the runway ends to indicate the direction of the wind. Aircraft  normally take off and land against the direction of the cross wind.
If something is not working, then the pilot will advance the throttle to initiate a missed approach and “go around” to land the aircraft in some other places.

About Mangalore crash

     The reason which is considered as the root cause of this tragedy is-hitting the aircraft in the glide scope antenna. The stability and control of the aircraft lost after that serious hitting and it fell in to the swire from the table-top runway. Actually that was a missed approach. The pilots were about to increase the engine power and fly from the runway threshold. I think they couldn’t land the aircraft in correct center line. Otherwise the possibility of hitting the wing with glide scope antenna would never occur. Nowadays we are using sophisticated radio communication equipments. Still a single human error will have to give a huge cost.

I am not an avionic student. What I have explained here may have some mistakes because we don’t have to study this portion. I gained only limited knowledge regarding avionics equipments which is from my electronic instructor commander Rajan Pillai sir.

Any mistakes can be pointed out
Any suggestion can be raised up

Thanks for your e-mails and valuable suggestions so far. I am a very glad to know that you people really liked my BLOG.

Sreeraj pathari
About2takeoff@gmail.com
sreerajpathari@gmail.com