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TOUCH AND GO IN MANILA - PAGE 1
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| The Philippine license, why did i want one? well with the relatively expensive and restricted flying in Hong Kong, no cross country's and having a taste of what could be had in the Philippines on the Micro light and Singapore trips it seemed the best flying readily accessible in Asia. The planning on this one started last year, in fact the Mayon Volcano trip was supposed to fill in the 10 hours local flying time I needed to sit the check ride, but as fate dictated and with a break down in communications, I flew the 10 hours, ten great hours with my mate Andrew "Alvin T Cloudbuster" and Darwin from Omni I add but that's about it. Hours don't count unless you have a temporary license so this time with a lot of help from my pals at Omni, Adrian and Mike, i set out to get that elusive Philippine license. Previous accounts of fellow aviators trying to get the license resembled something of a search for the Holy Grail and that's just the paperwork. As it can turn into a protracted and frustrating exercise I thought it would be worth while writing it up for those who wanted to embark on the same adventure and this is it. I should briefly mention the characters of the plot before I go on. Adrian was Cloudbuster's partner in the C172 they brought in from the states, a very clean ship with new engine etc. and Adrian had just fitted an Apollo GPS. Capt. Mike Gomez (I subsequently found out he's known on the airwaves as Apache) owns and runs Omni Aviation, a well established flying school based at Clark Airfield. Almando is my ATO specialist and Aldrin was my instructor. |
| I had just short of
a weeks of holiday left that wasn't allocated for my time with my sons
and so I planned for a Friday to Wednesday in the Philippines in June,
not a smart move but we'll get to that in due coarse. I had been pestering
Adrian and Mike during the early part of the year, asking what I had to
do, what copies of what I needed, what, where, when, how and who etc. I
remember Mikes words when I asked if he thought I could do it in the time
allocated, "if the tides at the right height and there's a blue moon, you
should be ok... i think? but try and come on Thursday". Work demanded Thursday
in the office, Friday was a public holiday in Hong Kong hence the planned
long weekend and so it was, I confirmed to Mike I would be coming down
in June on a thursday night, he confirmed the 172 was reserved and Mr.
Almando Calping would meet me in Manila first thing Friday morning to sort
out the paper work, I booked my return air ticket with PAL and two nights
in the Westin just in case we had to do something Saturday morning.
Thursday, I made an early morning check in morning at the airport railway and with only carry on baggage getting to the gate that night should be a breeze, famous last words. I left the office 15 minuets later than my drop dead get out the door time due to the hectic day and bulbous in tray, but I was out, jumped on the high speed train to the airport and settled down to sort out my ticket and passport. Argggh ! to my horror I had left my ticket in the office, jumping off the train at Kowloon I raced back explaining to the railway staff my dilemma, to my amazement and their credit the staff on the other side of the tracks ushered me through the turnstiles on to the next train, and at Central out of the exits. Very impressive service, they had radioed each other to be on the look out for a very worried looking gwielo running at warp speed for the exits. As you could imagine the boys at the office had a laugh as I soared through the office drenched in sweat, i grabbed my ticket and fled, again at warp speed to the airport. To cut a long story short, I made it and began to relax as the 747 pushed back and soared into the skies for the next hour and a bit to Manila. The flight was uneventful apart from the chap sat next to me who made the most amazingly disgusting noises while eating his supper. 10 minuets away from landing and the night sky was busting with lightning, oh dear I thought, June is the wet season and there it was lighting up the sky with a vengeance. On my way to the immigration desks I met my old boss Alan Ford who was also on his way to Angelese city with his Lawn bowls chums for a regional competition. Well that's their story. |
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A large cheer went up, and all eyes were wondering what was going on. It seems one of these poor chaps "Brian" had the same name as some infamous drug dealer and was being carted off to prove he was who he said he was or wasn't, apparently this happens to him all the time and no one has got wise to the fact. It was good byes and may meet in Angelese as I left them behind heading for the Westin, a barby by the pool and an early night. I was meeting Almando at 7.00am in the morning. |
| Friday morning, 5.50am the phone rings and Im up for breakfast. 7.00am no sign of Almando, 8.00am and I'm calling Omni wondering where he is, they assured me they had seen him leave 5.00am that morning for Manila. 9.20am Almando arrives, apparently he had been looking for a Westin Hotel in Makarti. We hoped a cab to the British Consulate in Makarti for the first key ingredient, a letter to whom it may concern stating yours truly is of good standing and no objection to getting a Philippine license etc. A sample of the text is given below. Now 2 hours behind schedule I was hoping this would be swift as I had written to the BC with a complete copy of my passport a while ago with my request and they had written back confirming they would issue the letter. sure enough it was ready but dated March, when I originally had written to them. fearful the Philippine Authorities may want some thing more current, I asked if they could change the date to today which they promptly did once they had sorted out the computer with the attitude. The fee for the letter was a princely PS ??? (US$??). At 10.35am we were in a cab and on our way to the next stop on our quest, The Philippine national Police - Aviation Security Group which was located on the outskirts of the airport. |
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We arrived some 20 minuets later after winging our way through the traffic, fortunately it was not raining otherwise the traffic would have been horrendous. Signing in and leaving some form of ID at the security desk we climbed the stairs to the PNP processing office. Luck on my side again Im the only one here. The object of this part of the exercise was to get a PNP release letter "Authority To Fly". |
| I was given a form to complete while Almando went off to get a copy of my BC letter. the form demanded a who's who of my family, which countries i had been to and when, and a hand writing sample where I had to copy text about Ramos someone or other guzzling 3 bottles of brandy. Once complete it was time for the finger prints. My hands and fingers were covered in purple ink as I performed a variety of finger, palm and hand prints. I handed over two 2" photos and all that was now required was a photo copy of my last date of entry. Opps I hadn't got one, fortunately they had a copier there and took one straight away. Now I waited while the letter was typed and taken for signature by some one senior in the building. I was lucky, the letter appeared 10 minuets later, the whole process taking and hour. I had heard of others being asked to come back the following day to pick up their letters. we expressed our thanks, said our good byes and headed off to the ATO. It was 12.10pm, just before lunch so a quick break at the local cafe was had before we headed across the road to the ATO offices and the medical department. Tessi, the admin. assistant to the doctor advised we should come back at 14.30 when the doctor would be back. I spent the next hour in the ATO canteen steeping myself in garlic while Almando went off to get spare parts for Omni. Almando turned up 20 minuets late, it was 14.50pm we headed for the ATO medical dept. where Tessi told us we were late and the doctor had now left for the week end. Not only that the 2 year FAA medical was 13 months old and not valid in the Philippines, the medical for person over 40 years was only valid for one year and I would have to have a new one, it would cost 2000 Ps and that we should come back Monday at 7.00am. After some discussion it was clear there was nothing we could do, there was only one FAA doctor in the Philippines. (Nobody mentioned a Philippine Medical which was a tenth of the price) I was not a happy bunny, the whole week ends flying was now up the creek because of some spare parts that were not ready any way. Tessi TO BE CONTINUED |
The Transport Office Notoriety |
I gave Tessi copies of my previous medical so she could prepare the form, we said our good byes and headed upstairs to the Licensing Office. Rather than waste the whole day, I decided we would try and get as much done as possible. Almando said we could get the application form and fill it out which will save time on Monday. Apart from the usual stuff the forms required a complete analysis of hours on different aircraft, night, day, PIC, copilot, student, x country and so on. My FAA log book didn't lend its self to this and no one mentioned the format they required so the next hour was spent doing a total break down of my logs. Once complete I had to get the stamped at the Notoriety of the Transport Dept. just down the road, 5 mins away by cab. |
| The Notoriety was an eye opener to say the least, it seemed to be a bunch of ramshackle huts with ladies sat at type writers busy typing some thing surrounded by rusty filing cabinets. Almando took my ATO form and passed it to one of the ladies, I had no idea what happened to it but it came back 5 minuets later with a nice purple stamp on it and I was charged a fee of 50 Ps. This was as much as we could do today, I said good bye to Almando who was heading back to Clark and told him not to expect me to early in the morning as originally planned now the weekends flying was scuppered. I hopped a cab back to the Westin for a swim, a hot bath, a bite to eat and an hour down the road at the "Complex", the infamous entertainment center for boys, before heading back for a well deserved kip and a lay in. |
Manila by day, from the Westin |
Saturday, I was awaken at 7.00am with a phone call. from ADO the taxi driver I arranged to take me to Clark at our agreed price of 1600 Ps, I have since learnt you can get the ride for 1200 Ps. I arranged to meet him at 11.00am, which would give me time for a morning swim and lazy breakfast. you can take a bus to Clark for about 350 Ps but i didn't want to run around to some ones time table, hence the taxi. ADO arrived early and we were away at 10.45am. The drive was fairly uneventful although it was slow getting out of Manila. |
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12.45 and we arrive
at my Hotel.
TO BE CONTINUED |
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