Student and his flight instructor from Singapore missing off Sumbawa

[WSSS]

A student and his instructor from Singapore are missing after their training aircraft lost contact off the coast of Sumbawa, Indonesia last Thursday morning. Let's hope for the best. Thoughts with the crew and their families.

Trainer aircraft lost contact in Moyo island - ANTARA News (http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/96317/trainer-aircraft-lost-contact-in-moyo-island)

[v4city]

Missing stories getting common these days

[armchairpilot94116]

S'porean missing near Indonesian island: 'We had a glimmer of hope that it was not our friend', AsiaOne Singapore News (http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/sporean-missing-near-indonesian-island-we-had-glimmer-hope-it-was-not-our-friend)

[truefaith]

May Mr. Lua Boon Huan rest-in peace.

Singapore Government to be blamed. [link (http://bit.ly/20141130_LuaBoonHuan)]

[smiling monkey]

Given Mr Lua’s age of 30, to be a Chief Flight Instructor is unbelievable, therefore, I believe the school had been using him as ‘cheap labour’.

It's not so much his age, but the fact that you usually need a minimum of 1000 hours of flight instructing time, and a minimum of 2000 hours TT to be accepted as a chief instructor by the Indonesian DGCA. So if he had more than 2000 TT, then he would have met the CAAS 700 hour minimum requirement to convert his license to the Singapore license.

But agree, that random 700 hours as minimum for conversion to the CAAS license is a ridiculous rule. Why 700 hours? If you ask me, a 700 hour pilot flying in GA is no different from a 200 hour pilot, especially as a flight instructor where you hardly handle the aircraft anyway. You still have the same skill set at 700 hours of GA instructing as you did at 200 hours. So why make up the rule in the first place?

[G.S. Willy]

I doubt you were ever a flight instructor S Monkey.
Anyone who ever was an instructor will agree that your opinion is BS.

I have no opinion on the 700 hr. Rule. In fact I never worry about things I cannot change :-)

[smiling monkey]

I doubt you were ever a flight instructor S Monkey.
Anyone who ever was an instructor will agree that your opinion is BS.

No offense to flight instructors meant, of course and yes, I was once a flight instructor and ended with considerably more than 1000 hours of instructional time before joining the airlines.

I'm not saying that 700 hours flying as a GA instructor isn't useful, but as a measurement of one's flight experience, there isn't much difference between 200 hours and 700 hours flying unless of course, during those 500 hours, you progressed to more complex aircraft. When I was instructing, 500 hours translated to about 9 months of flying in the same aircraft under the same conditions.

[truefaith]

It's not so much his age, but the fact that you usually need a minimum of 1000 hours of flight instructing time, and a minimum of 2000 hours TT to be accepted as a chief instructor by the Indonesian DGCA. So if he had more than 2000 TT, then he would have met the CAAS 700 hour minimum requirement to convert his license to the Singapore license.

But agree, that random 700 hours as minimum for conversion to the CAAS license is a ridiculous rule. Why 700 hours? If you ask me, a 700 hour pilot flying in GA is no different from a 200 hour pilot, especially as a flight instructor where you hardly handle the aircraft anyway. You still have the same skill set at 700 hours of GA instructing as you did at 200 hours. So why make up the rule in the first place?

Yes, I agree with smiling monkey.