Pilot for a Day – Reduce Your Carbon Footprint with Sanjeev Palar
Saturday 30th April 2011 – 0900hrs
Friday night, I pre set my alarm at 5:30am, 6:00am, and 6:30am, just to make sure that I was able wake up for what was going to be the first experience I would go through with RedRibbon Days; little that I know that I would have the ride of a LIFETIME.
This was the first of many experiences with a celebrity that we are doing for the main event for World Environment Day, 5th June 2011. This is where celebrities would go through experiences brought to you only by RedRibbon Days, and to convey the message that we all can play a part in saving the environment day, whether things like recycling, carpooling, and reducing your carbon footprint, where by Malaysia offers plenty of experiences to be explored and done locally.
So the morning started where we; Sherin, Ming Ne, and Nik met up at the office, so that we could carpool to Subang Airport. Once there, we had McDee’s breakfast; my favourite, before we met up with Sanjeev Palar and hand over our identification cards to Captain Adli for clearance. Next stop was the ‘sign your life’ office, where the passengers; Ming Ne, Sanjeev, and I, we had to sign an indemnity form, which simply means to me ‘sign your life away.’ As we walked around the hangar, and planes parking strip, I was thinking to myself ‘wow, this is awesome, all these small planes parked, private helicopters around, and there it was, our 4-seater plane.’
The plane has one propeller stuck to its nose! One! I normally fly on TWO jumbo engines, not on one that look like the fan on my ceiling! Yes, I have this little phobia of flying, just a lil bit. Captain Adli then went through the safety procedure of checking the plane before the flight with Sanjeev, as we all were filming Sanjeev and the Captain, taking pictures, and listening to what was explained. Soon after the safety check was done, it was time to get on the plan, and at this point my nerves were kicking in again, the kind of thoughts that shouldn’t be running in my head was doing a relay race in my mind. Ming Ne got into the plane and buckled in first, I followed suit, then Sanjeev, and Captain Adli. We all got our headsets on and we can hear Captain’s communications with the Control Tower. All my ears captured were the words ‘Tango, Alpha, Foxtrot, Numbers..Port Klang, proceed to runway.’ There I was strapped in, Ming Ne and I looking at each other without saying anything, but we understood what was going through our minds. The expressions said it all.
We then approached the runway, waiting for a plane to land, before it is our turn to hit the main run way for takeoff. Once again the words that I heard between Captain and the Control Tower were ‘Foxtrot, number, Tango, something something.’ It’s what you would normally hear a cockpit and control tower conversation in the movies, nothing like so what’s for dinner, what’s the plans for the weekend, it’s a good day to fly; nope none of that. Serious stuff, so I said a little prayer to myself once we got on to the main runway seconds away from taking off. ‘Ready? Let’s Go’ said Captain Adli. Right before I knew it, we had lift off, and it was smooth. Looking down out the window and around just to see the view, it was quite a site, and we climbed to an altitude below the commercial planes routes, some thousands of feet from ground. It was my first time flying in a small plane, my nerves settled in once we were cruising to Port Klang, which didn’t seem that far away. Captain Adli took us into a cloud just to see how it felt, and then a crash course lesson for Sanjeev to fly the plane. After a quick tip from Captain on how to control the plane, Sanjeev took over. He manoeuvred the plane to the left, then to the right, and couple of that for a bit more. Mind you, Sanjeev had driven Formula 1 cars, the speed on those machines, spectacular, and what was about to happened next was unexpected, unscripted, totally pure adrenaline rush.
Captain Adli asked us if we wanted to feel zero gravity, the answered was yeah why not sure thing. I looked at Ming Ne, with the hell nawww kinda face, this can’t be happening! ‘Ready guys? 3..2..1..’ *CENSORED* aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!! *CENSORED**CENSORED* ahhhhhhhhhh!!. Captain nose dived the plane!! I repeat NOSE DIVED THE PLANE! I screamed like a girl I think with my hands up looking for support. It felt like my heart was coming outta my mouth, my eyes popped out looking outside the plane, yes I saw land, buildings, roads, trees, everything! Before he pulled the plane up back to normal. That was INSANE in the MEMBRANE! I looked over to Ming Ne and she looked like she was going to pass out, I think she screamed too but no sound came out, and Sanjeev was enjoying it. And there was no time to pause. Captain Adli then said ok now for positive G, and I’m thinking OMG! Here we go again! And he pulled the plane up at an acute angle! Aaaaaaahhhhh *CENSORED* *CENSORED* OMG! Everything in my head flew off, my thoughts, questions, my worries, everything went BLANK! Zero G, positive G, OMG, G6, we did some G thang!
This was the craziest thing I’ve ever done in my life! Ever! Crazy! Loco! Been through rough turbulence on normal flights, almost skidded off the icy roads of Black Forest, nothing prepared me for this experience! Insane! Then we flew back to Subang Airport, total flight time roughly 30mins. We landed back to Earth, back to safety, got off the plane, my knees were weak, my hands were trembling, I fell to the ground happy! Happy I’m still alive! And I felt so ALIVE!
Pilot for a Day became Stunts for a Day, The +Zero Gravity Experience? Ah perhaps, coming soon! We then proceeded with the program, filming Sanjeev, and he gave us the 411 on his experience with RedRibbon Days being a Pilot for a Day, and a few words about World Environment Day, and conveying the message that everyone can play a part in saving the environment. He had blast!
If you ask me, would I do it again? I’d say hell yeah! Maybe next time a stunt plane, or a jet fighter? Wouldn’t that be awesome! Top Gun, Maverick. This experience is tattooed in my brain for life. It was all worth it! "I had the time of my lifeeee eh eh eh dirty bit" Till the next time you read me, I’m flying off........
Songlist:-
1. Like a G6 - Far East Movement
2. Insane in the Membrane - Cypress Hill
3. Alive - POD
4. The Time - Black Eyed Peas
Songlist:-
1. Like a G6 - Far East Movement
2. Insane in the Membrane - Cypress Hill
3. Alive - POD
4. The Time - Black Eyed Peas
