The 4 or 6 seat compromise

I'm torn. I love the Cirrus because of its advanced panel, high performance and safety features, but it only has four seats. My family numbers five, and they are getting bigger, so cramming them all in a Cirrus - as I admit to having done in the past - is a little tricky, albeit legal. For this simple reason, I have done most of my family flying in 6-seaters. Starting with a 1965 Cherokee 6 (VFR from the Netherlands to the west of France, no less - more on that in a different post), and recently in a 1975 Piper Lance with 310 horses under the hood. I nice plane, but old, with a dilapidated panel (ok, it had the Garmin, but that was it) and an increasingly suspicious number of maintenance issues. Not exactly the gear you want to fly your beloved wife and wonderful sons around in, I'd say. Cram them into the Cirrus again and hope they don't kill each other in the back seat? Find a newer 6-seater for less than $280 per hour? Good luck with both.

Luck, as it tends to do, seems to now have presented itself in the form of the Diamond DA50 SuperStar. What a wonderful plane! Five seats, without a third bench, a 3-panel G1000 panel that makes me drool, and a FADEC controlled 350 horsepower engine that can pull this thing through the air at 200 knots! Who doesn't want one, especially if you need to transport more than 4? I'm very bummed that I had to miss Oshkosh this year, and didn't get to see this beauty in person...

In short, I can't wait to find out more about this plane, and am actually secretly looking for possible partners to go and get one! This would be the ultimate plane for me, no other wishes (promise!). Unfortunately, our friends at Diamond haven't given a firm indication of price yet, so we won't know how much for while. My guess is around $600k: a little more than the SR-2 G3, and a little less than a fast 6-seat Piper (like the $775k Matrix, with the $573k Saratoga II TC just below, but slower). If you know anyone interested in a 3 or 4 person partnership in the Chicago area, let me know!

Until (and, more likely, unless) I get access to one of these babies, I'll continue to be torn between the cool Cirrus and old, crappy 6-seaters. Oh well, we'll just have to get checked out in both then, don't we?

One-way approach to Tioman island, Malaysia

So there it was: my windscreen filed with lush green jungle, with only the blue roof of a beach house contrasting with the environment. A turquoise blue see below me, and mountains to my left to make sure I wouldn't turn the wrong way. This is the approach to Tioman island in Malaysia, about 25 miles east of the mainland. The island is one of the better backpacking destinations in Malaysia, and can be reached easily in a twin turboprop operated by Malaysian airlines from Kuala Lumpur. I, however, was in a Cessna 172, on final approach to this paradise island.

The approach is unique in several ways, not just because of its beauty. The runway is parallel to the coast, but because of the mountains that make up the heart of the island, it can only be reached by flying a base leg directly toward the mountains, followed by a right turn to a short final, over a couple of 50ft trees and a fence, onto a 2500ft runway that ends in - you guessed it - another mountain. A one-way runway, in effect, and the only one I've ever flown in to. When I flew there, in 2001, the runway had recently been extended from 2000 to 2500ft, by hacking huge boulders out of the mountain, parts of which were still lying around at the circular turning area.

I had practiced extensively before making this approach, and was with an instructor for an airport specific checkout (without which you can't go there). Key to the pre-checkout training was a short-field landing over a 50 ft obstacle (to simulate the trees), with an objective to be at a stand still within 1000ft of the beginning of the runway, after dipping down fairly steeply following the imagined obstacles. I had practiced this at Seletar airport in Singapore, my home base at the time. In practicing, I had managed to break a little too hard, and skidded the old C172's little tires until they smoked. Mental note: remember to raise the flaps before you break next time... Despite all this, I was cleared for my actual flight out there, and found myself staring at the green in my windshield, focusing on the blue roof that signals the start of the slow turn to base.

One of the scarier parts of the exercise is that the prevailing wind actually blows against the mountains, almost perpendicular to the runway, so the turn to final needs to end with the noise pointing sea-ward, to avoid drifting into the green leaves. It reminded me a little of the traffic pattern at Half Moon Bay that I had flown once, except in Tioman you end up much closer to the mountains. The other tricky thing is the commitment to landing. It's a one-way runway for a reason, and at about 150 feet above ground, you have to commit to landing or go around. Below that, there is no go-around option, as the mountain at the other end of the runway is big, and extends into the sea. The go around itself requires a climb straight ahead until above obstacles, then a climbing right turn to the sea, with a chance to do it all over again.

Once firmly on the ground, take-off is in the opposite direction, regardless of wind direction, and requires a taxi-back to the start of the runway. WIth only two scheduled arrivals per day and very little GA traffic in this part of the world, there should be no surprise that this is not usually a problem (although I still find it uncomfortable to be taxiing for a while on an active runway. The take-off itself is not particularly thrilling, although the 50ft trees and the looming mountain make a climbing left turn soon after takeoff advisable.

The checkout for landing at Tioman island consists of a couple of approaches to landing, a couple of take-offs, and - of course - a couple of go-arounds. No touch and goes - go figure. With that in my pocket I flew back, and have returned to Tioman by myself a couple of times since. It is truly a wonderful place to be and relax, with no traffic (all transportation is by boat around the island), warm, calm water, sandy beaches and of course palm trees. The best reason to go there though, is this wonderful little airport with its challenging approach and landing.