Singapore Sling

Most drinkers would know what I am talking about when I wrote this title for my aviation blog. However, for those who don't know what this is, let me explain. It is an expression for a jaunt in Singapore, where I am presently. For the seasoned cocktail drinker, it is also the favoured alcoholic drink created at the Raffles Hotel (a heritage property and a real expensive hotel) in Singapore and has become famous the World over. A little deviation from aviation in this case, let me try and give my reader a recipe for making this drink:

30ml Gin,15 ml Cherry Brandy,120 ml Pineapple Juice, 15 ml Lime Juice, 7.5 ml country, 7.5 ml Dom Benedictine,10 ml Grenadine, A Dash of Angostura BittersGarnish with a slice of Pineapple and Cherry. Shake it all up in a cocktail shaker and you have the signature drink of this country-Singapore.

I have been fortunate to make a trip to Singapore a few times in the past and presently here on, what else, but aviation works. A company here called Hawker Pacific is located where they do Aircraft sales of Beechcraft (Raytheon) and Hawker Jets sales and service. My client in India has brought me here to this tropical paradise, to identify the right Aircraft for their operations and to get the same customised. I will be dealing with three Aircraft, two turboprop and one jet Aircraft, all executive configuration. Whats that, you ask? Executive Aircraft are meant for charters and for in-house travel of company executives, The Aircraft interior, unlike a commercial Aircraft, will have overstuffed chairs, sofas/divans, well appointed toilet, conference tables, in short it will be an office in the air. We are going to gold plate some of the fittings like cup holders and stuff.

The jet Aircraft is in Australia and thats where yours truly is headed next week. My job there is to look up the Airplane, check all the records and log books and then fly it to Singapore. I should be back here in Sing (as popularly called in short) by next weekend. The flight will be about 8 hours long and should be interesting. I will blog about that next week. I have done flights acroos the North Atlantic a few times. My preferred fuel stops have been Northern Scotland and Iceland and on occasion I landed at two places in Greenland. By the way, it is interesting to note that iceland is rather green and lush and Greenland is full of ice all year round (polar ice cap and all).

Although I have flown in around 23 countries, Aussie land has always eluded me. This trip will therefore be different and interesting, not only because of Aussie land but also because the Airplane is a new generation full glass cockpit jet. Whats that again, you ask? Glass cockpit is a term that we use to describe an all electronic cockpit. No dials and regular instruments here. Only large TV type CRT screen and there are buttons to push to get readouts on all the parameters of the flight. The same screens can show the weather radar, TCAS II (see my earlier articles to know what this means), engine parameters readout, ground Proximity warning and many other conventional readouts. Early aviation had lots of instruments and dials in the cockpit, these days, all new gen Aircraft have glass cockpit. Hope this helps explain a few things. Until next week, let me say Cheers and try a Singapore Sling on me!!