Singapore on YKM's Corner on the Web

My Dos and Don'ts when trying to convince the unvaccinated

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Singapore’s COVID vaccination programme has been doing very well by worldwide standards at 76% who received 2 doses since 16 Aug 2021.

Forgive me for stating the obvious but I’m part of this majority group. I’m considered fully vaccinated as I’m more than 2 weeks past my second shot. Still, I don’t subscribe to the mentality that that should be the end of the story for me.

Throughout my interactions in daily life, I have met some people for some reason or another, have not chosen to get vaccinated. In absolute numbers, the size of this group is still significant even after taking away children under 12 who cannot be vaccinated.

The word “anti-vaxer” has been thrown around a lot to describe this group of people but I believe the situation is never as simple as a label.

I chose to listen to them to find out what are some of their concerns and if possible see if I can persuade them to change their mind. In those conversations, I have to admit I gained a lot as well, hence I decided to write this post to share my consolidated learnings and my opinions on what best to do and not do when trying to convince them.

How does Flight Simulator 2020 compare to real flights over Singapore?

Sun, 23 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

With the recent release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 (FS2020), many videos have been shared online. However, few have been made on Singapore. Of those that do, most players fly from Changi Airport and to the city area which are off-limits in real life and they hardly use any real-world procedures.

In reality, General Aviation (GA) for visual flying within Singapore is limited to Seletar Airport (WSSL) and the local Light Aircraft Training Area (LATA). I have personally made many flights from WSSL although mostly to the local training area in the Northern part of SG. So I thought why not I conduct flights in this game as close as I can to a real plane and see how this stacks up to the real thing?

(Check out the Chinese version of this post here.)

Book Review: Air-conditioned Nation Revisited by Cherian George (Part 3 of 3)

Sat, 01 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This is the last of the 3-part book-review series on the Air-conditioned Nation series of books written by the academic Cherian George (CG).

Singapore: The Air-conditioned Nation Revisited (2020)

I’m departing from the usual style of writing book reviews by putting my conclusion and summary at the top as some context I feel is in order.

This book is different from the earlier books in that it republishes many of the essays written in the previous 2 books. This book is just 3 years away from the previous version hence it’s understandable that there isn’t much additional content unlike the 17-year gap between the first and second book.

For someone like myself who just completed this series in quick succession, it actually wasn’t much of a “revisit” to me. For a new reader who is short of time, reading this latest book is sufficient instead of the entire series. CG has selectively chosen the best of the previous essays that are still relevant today with some more recent additions.

As a consequence to that, I’ll only focus more deeply on the additional content which are actually only just 3 chapters. 3 chapters which are targeted at modern times given the recency of this book.

Book Review: Air-conditioned Nation series: Singapore Incomplete by Cherian George (Part 2 of 3)

Fri, 31 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This is the second of a 3-part book-review series on the Air-conditioned Nation series of books written by the academic Cherian George (CG).

Like the first book, this book contains non-linear essays written by him but slightly updated to the times 17 years after he wrote his first book. I shall pick out certain points of selected chapters which I felt impacted me the most.

Book Review: Air-conditioned Nation series by Cherian George (Part 1 of 3)

Mon, 20 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I have heard of this term “air-conditioned nation” for more than a decade but I never actually read the book where this term originated from. Now, I finally did.

The “Singapore: The Air Conditioned Nation” book was initially published in 2000 by the academic Cherian George (CG). Over the span of 20 years, he published 3 books.

Each of these books hold a collection of none-linear essays written by CG.

Given the length of all 3 books and some reviews have already been published by much more qualified people, I shall selectively pick out certain points which I felt impacted me the most.

This is the review of the first book with the subsequent books to follow in more posts.

Singapore: The Air-conditioned Nation (2000)

Safety and Environmental Concerns of General Aviation within Singapore

Sat, 30 May 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I get a lot of flight requests from friends ever since I got my PPL last year, on average once every other week. At the same time, I have questions posed to me on the safety and environmental concerns of General Aviation (GA) within Singapore. Some questions were posed to me in shall I say, “less than respectful” tone.

Let’s put things in perspective, the following is what I sometimes tell my potential passengers to mentally prepare for and be aware of what they are up against before agreeing to fly with me.

If you want to fly with me, throw out what you know of a flight based on your airline experience. This is no luxurious private jet.

Compared to any airliner you have sat in, this plane compartment has the most cramped seats. It’s so hot that you can get dehydrated at the end. The plane is noisy enough that it can deafen you in the long term without ear protection.

This plane like most GA piston aircraft worldwide, runs on leaded fuel which has been banned in Singaporean cars for decades. Obviously, it’ll take a lot more energy to put a plane up in the air than move a ground vehicle so expect to make a stronger contribution to global warming than a car trip.

Yours truly is the most inexperienced pilot in command you will probably ever have too. This indirectly leads to this being the statistically most dangerous flight of your life. To top it off, the cost I ask you to contribute will make this the most expensive seat you’ll pay for the distance travelled.

So do you still want to come?

How much it costs to fly General Aviation (GA) in Singapore?

Sun, 09 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The costs of flying General Aviation (GA) is a question I get asked a lot ever since I started taking up my family and friends.

I had this question too as I needed to plan my frequency of flights for personal budgetary reasons. It may seem to be a simple question but the answer can be quite complex owing to the myriad of regulations and cost structures. While tabulating the numbers, I thought to make my calculations public due to the limited information online on this topic and the general lack of GA awareness in Singapore.

Flying costs vary greatly depending but not limited to the following high-level factors:

Legal maintenance requirements
The club you join
Hourly rental rates (solo/dual) and landing fees
Amount of flying one wants to do

I’m a member of Seletar Flying Club (SFC) which offers the lowest flying rates locally. Rates are cheaper across the causeway at Senai airport in Johor but I avoid going there due to the hassle of traveling and the fact my local friends are unlikely to follow me across.

So with this, let’s do an in-depth analysis of the costs of flying GA in Singapore.

Singapore quiz in iOSConfSG 2020

Sun, 19 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

During iOSConfSG 2020, I was asked by the organising team to give a Singapore quiz as part of my emcee role.

I was given sufficient notice period to come up with these 16 questions but I felt I could do better if I didn’t wait till the last minute. Nevertheless, I hope you’ll will enjoy them. Quite a few people told me they liked it so I think it went okay but there were some controversies. So hence this blog post with the sources provided as well as my thoughts behind the possible answers behind each question.

So let’s start with the questions and possible answers first! Once you are done, scroll further down for the solutions.

Considerations on picking a Flight school for PPL - A Singaporean perspective

Sat, 28 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

A private pilot once told me “when you write about your private pilot experience online, be prepared to be deluged by plenty of people asking you about your experience and picking flight schools”. I initially didn’t believe him, but after writing many blog posts on this topic, I’m forced to concede after receiving many direct messages.

After interacting with more than a dozen people, I realised most of the questions generally revolve around the following which I shall collate here to avoid repeating myself again and again. There are many much more qualified and more experienced people who can write on these topics but I can’t find such topics discussed in the way that would have suited my needs. Hence this post.

FAQ I get

Flight trip to Malacca and back to Singapore

Sun, 21 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I told a friend I was heading to Malacca over the weekend. Asked how I was going there. Car? Bus? Train? Don’t tell me boat? How about PLANE!

Seletar Flying Club (SFC) had a navigation trip planned for Malacca and back on 13 July 2019. For this trip, I had a “heavily-subsidised” backseat ride on a modern air-conditioned Diamond DA-40.

I will then fly the return trip on SFC’s Piper Warrior under the guidance of safety pilot Dr Fadzil! I was eager also as I have not flown a cross-country flight since I finished my PPL.

This was an opportunity that I couldn’t refuse.

The Plane!

The pilot SFC president Wei Siang and safety pilot Jason doing the preflight-inspection of the sleek plane while I just observe.

Notes on flying in Seletar Airport and Singapore Training Areas

Sun, 09 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Having obtained my FAA PPL earlier this year, I decided to join Seletar Flying Club (SFC) to maintain my flying proficiency and to also rent aircraft to bring friends and family up to the skies.

Before I can rent SFC’s planes to fly others, I have to complete a checkout flight with the club’s instructor to familiarise myself with SFC’s planes as well as the Singapore’s airspace and local procedures at Seletar Airport.

From left, SFC’s instructor Eric, myself and my training buddy Davinder when I was in the US.

After all, my knowledge have all been based on the way the Americans (FAA) do things which will likely differ from how Singapore (ICAO) work.

This blog post was originally meant for my personal notes for how does a General Aviation pilot fly within Singapore from Seletar Airport but I thought why not share it as well as such information seems to be quite scarce online. I’ll also try to list out the differences I learned between FAA and ICAO style.

Book Review: Neither Civil Nor Servant (The Philip Yeo Story)

Mon, 26 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

“life sciences graduates are only fit to wash test tubes” this statement I heard more than a decade ago was the first time I knew of this guy called Philip Yeo. Then chairman of Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), it caused quite a ruckus I believe in Singapore at the time where there was a strong push by the government into the bio-medical field.

That line partly factored in my decision against taking up a triple-science (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) subject combination in secondary school. I opted for Physics and Chemistry only.

When I recently heard from online sources of this biography of the man himself “Neither Civil Nor Servant”, I was intrigued. I admit I did not know much of this supposedly very “notorious” Singaporean civil servant. So when existence of this book came to me, I decided I had to read it.

So here is my take of reviewing this book!

My thoughts on Lee Kuan Yew’s passing

Tue, 24 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

We all know our first Prime Minster Lee Kuan Yew (LKY) passed away yesterday morning. People have expressed their condolences both online in social media and offline on the streets and condolence sites.

Many of my friends have changed their profile photos and shared blog posts and news commentaries. I could have easily done so, changing my profile picture or sharing something someone else has written is just as simple as a click away but I thought I should do more and write a blog post for reflection, hopes and personal record. This will definitely be much more mature than what I wrote for J. B. Jeyaretnam some 6 years ago.

Book Review: Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium by Sim Wong Hoo

Tue, 10 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I have heard of the acronym NUTS some years back coined by the famous Singaporean technopreneur Sim Wong Hoo (SWH). For the unaware, SWH is the founder of Creative Technologies (CT), the maker of the Sound Blaster sound cards that used to be the industry standard for computer audio and very popular up to a decade ago. As I encountered this phrase quite recently again, I decided to further explore its origins.

It turns out this phrase was originated from his Dec 1999 book “Chaotic Thoughts from the Old Millennium”. Since then, this phrase has been bandied around several times by our political leaders and prominent people. It was also at this time when the Dot-Com bubble had yet to burst and CT was still at its heights.

11/12 S1 PS1101E Intro to Politics: Paper on pros and cons of NS

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Choose any country of the world that practices military conscription and discuss whether the policy is necessary and/or desirable. What kind of arguments would you make for or against military conscription? Got B+ for this essay and A- for the module in total. I must have did very well for the finals to get that grade heh!.

Military conscription or the draft is defined as the compulsory enrolment of a country’s citizens for military service. In modern times, this usually means that young people are required to serve in the armed forces full-time for some number of years, after which, they are kept on reserve for some period to form the bulk of the fighting force only in times of emergency. One of the countries today that still practices conscription is Israel. Since its independence in 1948, its men and women upon reaching the age of 18 are required to serve in its military for 30 and 18 months respectively.[1] One wonders in this modern day and age, whether conscription is necessary or desirable for Israel.