Flight Testing Course

In 2016, I re-joined UPM in the same Department of Aerospace I helped to pioneer some 20 years ago. I was tasked to take up an impossible challenge to teach a course in Flight Testing ... without having a fully working plane. The official name for the course is 'EAS 3924 Aviation Laboratory for Agriculture Application'.

It is an exciting course for Aerospace students. I know this for sure. My personal experience of attending such course was in Cranfield University in the UK, in 1994! I still remember the name of the course - Experimental Mechanics of Flight. I had so much fun going through that course which was ran by professional test pilots, flight test engineers and practically those guys that we, the aerospace students, always wanted to be. I learned a lot from the course in Cranfield, and much of what I learned then I still remember clearly today. That was the tall standard I tried to achieve for my students in 2017 - something they will remember almost 25 years later!

I had to pull my resources to offer this course to my fellow students. Coincidentally, I was also taking my Private Pilot License (PPL) lessons from a local flying club, Air Adventure located at Subang Airport, some 40km away from UPM. To teach flight testing, the class needed a plane (at least!), a fully working one and certified airworthy.

After I discussed with the Air Adventure Flying Club owners, they agreed to award free membership to my students to allow them to come over to the hangar and interact with the club facilities including their light aircraft, the Cessna 172. This was crucial for the course and the membership gave the students access to the club hangars and other facilities in the airport too. I managed to ask the Club to sponsor a total of RM 180,000.00 (GBP 33,690.00) of membership fees for my students. ( ... to be continued so stay tuned !)

This is the video put together by Group 1.

The video from Group 2 !

Group 3 Video !