SEDAYONG

CUTI CUTI SOFIA, BULGARIA

2012-01-24T19:07:00.004+04:00

Welcome to Sofia, Bulgaria. This time, on vacation, after being tired of watching the city from above . Almost every time flying to Europe, flying over this place, the capital of Bulgaria, former Russian, located about slightly over an hour flight from Istanbul. Me and wife with 2 daughters set course from Abu Dhabi on 11 Jan early morning, via Istanbul using Turkish Airline. Smooth journey, no problem on connecting flight at Istanbul, visa on arrival granted at Sofia. Bulgaria joined EU since 1997 so we Malaysian can stay there for 90 days.

Nice sun shine weather on arrival day, temperature around 3 deg C, rented a car at the airport but without GPS as I wanted. Navigating around the city is a big problem because all the signboards and the road signs written in their language, look like Russian to me.

Got lost for about 2 hours trying to navigate to our booked apartment, called the reception, asked my present location for him to guide us and tell me how to pronounce those words...

So finally we drove to a prominent building and he came to pick us up from there..

We rented this Volkswagen Polo for 3 days, awesome new car.

But, left hand drive with manual transmission !! Oh my.. double trouble. but after a few hours, got a hand on it.

Rented apartment, view from behind, 180 Euro for 3 nights.. consider cheap.

Big and clean living room, my kids love to run around.

Wifey and the youngest, in front of the apartment.

Drove around the city and also the sub urban.. afraid to go far away with the road condition like this... slippery, skidded few times.

Nice view.

They love playing with the snow, surprisingly my small kids can stand the cold weather.

At the lobby of the apartment.

Last pose from my Arianna, will come back some days when she grow big enough for the ski...

LIMA11

2012-01-02T16:59:00.006+04:00

Happy New Year 2012 !!!

Since my blog is mainly on aviation, I start with the LIMA11 photos which I have not posted in my blog yet. My sincere hope, aviation world all over the world will be better than 2011, with a lot of planes orders by airlines. My wish, 2012 will be accident free year, more revenue, and looking forward for bonuses.

TAKE OFF FROM SYDNEY

2011-12-21T18:50:00.004+04:00

Taking off from Sydney, with a lot of cargo beside normal full load of passengers , mainly chilled meat and fruits from Australia. Maximum weight for take off for the Airbus A340 is 380,000 kg, 380 tons for short. This is how the take off speed calculated, using the LPCNG or the Less Paper Cockpit Next generation. The application is installed in each one of the pilots' laptop.

Start with the ops status, with the aircraft type, registration, the flight number and the route pairing. SYD to AUH in this case.

Next, the environmental data is input, such as the runway in use, 16R for take off in Sydney at that time, the wind, temperature,runway condition and the take off weight.

And, the computer computed the take off data such as the speeds, take off run, flap configuration, ASDA and etc..

The pilot will 'rotate' i e start to pitch the nose up for lift off at 170 knot, or 315 km/h.. and the take off run is 3.8 km . Runway length is 3.96 km only... very small room for error.

V1 : the speed beyond which if one engine failed, the take off should be continued because the runway length available is not sufficient to bring the plane to a complete stop.

VR : rotation speed, as explained above.

V2 : safety speed. The speed at which the plane will be fully controllable even if one engine fail and can climb safely.

LAKERS F1L BICYCLE CLUB

2011-12-19T16:58:00.008+04:00

I started to ride a bicycle when I was 5 years old and now I restarted to ride again at 50, why? Because my leg can't stand any more stresses especially the knee if I jog . I really need the regular exercise to keep myself fit.. So the best bet, bought myself a mountain bike ,Mongoose Salvo, RM 2500 with dual shock and joined the rider club of my residential area.

We had a ride at almost every weekend ( Sunday for the sake of my friends in Malaysia) and on my off days . I don't mind the travelling back home since I love this kind of activity, heart pumping during the hill climb and adrenalin pumping on the way down hill, with the fresh air in the morning in that we breath in... can't have these in the desert of Abu Dhabi..

Somewhere in between Semenyih and Broga, Selangor and N Sembilan border.

Nice weather, purposely went off track , trying to concur any hill that come in sight..

Fellow riders, young and old... ride together

Rubber and oil palm plantations .

These guys are really strong.

So now my request to the scheduler for my monthly flying roster to plan my off days on Saturday and Sunday, so that I can join the regular weekend ride, otherwise I have to do solo ride along the usual track.

MILANO TO VENICIA

2011-12-06T05:57:00.005+04:00

On my recent flight to MILAN Malpensa Airport, I took a train ride from Milan to Venice, taking the opportunity before the snow fall that make travelling difficult. Was so tempted because the hotel that they put us is just about 3 minutes walk ( crew standard fast pace walk) from the Milan Grand station, like our Central Station in KL.

The train station, look like a heritage building on the outside but has a modern set up inside.

The train , average speed of 70/80 km/h, took about 2 hours 30 min journey to Venice.

The ticket. All written in Italiano... have to figure it out. At least the departure time clearly stated.

The Gondola station. As I step out of the train station in Venice, few men greeted offering the gondola service. I preferred to walk , taking my own sweet time.

The set up looks romantic. No wonder this place is a popular destination for the honeymooner.

In Venice, there is a big festival, couldn't recall the name, celebrated once a year just before Esther, and during that festival, everybody will wear masks... like these one sold on the street.

The street, in summer it is busier I guess.

The big river, to cross from one side to the other is not a problem. Bridges all over...

Self portrait, travelling alone mah....

Just to say chiau... chiau... chiau.. to Venice

3 words that I learned in the train..

pronto.... hello

see see see.... yes yes yes

chiau.... bye bye

Bounjorna...

MAU KENA GARI KER?

2011-12-03T10:19:00.002+04:00

Semasa di udara, tiada polis, tiada penguatkuasa. Captain ada kuasa mutlak untuk menggari sesiapa sahaja yang dipercayai boleh menyebabkan keselamatan penumpang penumpang lain dan pesawat .

NAGOYA

2011-12-02T21:24:00.004+04:00

CHUBU CENTRAIR INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

The last time I landed at this airport was in Aug 2007, a month before I left MAS . This is the second airport in Japan built on the manmade island. Officially opened in Feb 2005. Before that the Nagoya airport was situated quite near the city.

The airport, as we approached from the South for a landing.

Landing time, done by my copilot, so that I can have time to snap this picture.

This is the Planetarium, among the attraction in Nagoya.

Bonsai...??

Walking along the covered shopping area, near the Ohtsu Canon.

Ohtsu Canon, the famous temple in Nagoya.

The city at night, shot taken before I close my eyes for the night.

SINGAPORE

2011-10-15T07:44:00.004+04:00

During lay over at Fairmont Hotel, Singapore. View from my balcony, on the left , taken during day time and on the right taken during the night.

SURFERS PARADISE, GOLD COAST

2011-10-15T07:28:00.002+04:00

It was a paid holiday for me, tq to Etihad Airways, haha. 4 days in Brisbane and they put us at the Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast. Was enjoying the sun and the sea.

This one I found somewhere nearby our hotel at the beach front. A monument for the Ozzy Coast Guard I guess.

At 10 am, bright sun in the early summer, but the temperature still consider cold at 25 deg C.

No wonder they called it surfers paradise.

A place for me to eat, a halal restaurant nearby, few more outlets around the corner.

And a teh tarik for me after the spicy mee goreng, mamak style.

SOMEBODY WATCHING ME !!

2011-09-29T07:55:00.002+04:00

I took over the control after waking up from my sleep in the bunk, and find this thing left by my colleague. What is it for?

EFB, Electronic Flight Bag

2011-08-13T15:39:00.006+04:00

Another use of iPad, as a replacement for the Electronic Flight Bag, where all the navigation and the airport charts were kept, and can be access easily by a matter of tapping.

Firstly, Jeppesen application called JeppTC and JeppFD must be available ( with licence ofcourse ) . With the Licence Number, all the charts and Jepp manual can be downloaded, as good as having Jepp paper manual.

On the JeppFD, fill up the origin, destination, alternate and the routing as per the FMS.

The routing and the SID of the departure airport.

The enroute airport, once tapped on the screen.

Runway length, elevation, freqeuncies, all available.

The Jepp manual if you want to read or refer can be recalled, and the approach chart for the destination.

Airport layout , parking position etc etc all available.

RIDING THE JETSTREAM

2011-08-08T01:50:00.003+04:00

Cruising at 650 knots ground speed or equivalent to 1204 km per hour.

The wind pushing from behind at 169 kts.

Cockpit view, with the lower ECAM selected to Taxi video so that we can see what is underneath the plane.

MILAN, ITALY

2011-08-08T01:20:00.005+04:00

Jalan jalan sekitar Milan pada 24 Jul 11.

Bandar Milan, tak banyak terdapat bangunan bangunan tinggi, masa ni weekend, orang ak ramai dan kedai kedai belum buka lagi.

The Central Station, tempat nak naik keretapi untuk ke bandar bandar besar lain seperti Rome, Venice dan lain lain lagi.

Terjumpa satu park yang besar, warga Milan mengambil kesempatan untuk berjemur dalam panas summer di park ini.

Halal food available here.

Good bye Milan, pemandangan dari atas semasa berlepas pulang dari lapangan terbang Milan Malpensa.

ABU DHABI TO KUALA LUMPUR

2011-07-25T23:28:00.003+04:00

Sebab selalu sangat travel as a passenger dari Abu Dhabi ke KL, lebih kurang 2 ke 4 kali sebulan, maka sempat la observed the moving map on the screen kat seat depan kita tu, itu pun bila dah habis tengok movie dan mata tak mengantuk lagi.

Yang di sebelah kiri, saya ambil sewaktu pesawat diterbangkan olih juruterbang berbangsa Arab dan di sebelah kanan, juruterbang orang Malaya. Kalau kita perhatikan, juruterbang Arab ni memang takut nampak awan, ada nampak walau pun sikit, terus elak jauh jauh, jadi bentuk penerbangannya macam ular kena palu, bengkang bengkuk. Yang sebelah kanan, lurus jer, sebab juruterbang dari Malaya, including me off course sudah biasa dengan udara yang berawan, boleh tau yang mana bahaya dan yang mana jinak.. so elak bila perlu jer. Tak salahkan juruterbang Arab tu, sebab dia orang jarang jarang dapat jumpa awan.

JALAN JALAN ATAS JAMBATAN

2011-07-16T09:02:00.004+04:00

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Lorong jalan kaki

Yang berminat, boleh naik ke puncak, I am too old for that, hehe.

View from the bridge, we were staying at Marriott

The Opera House view from the bridge.

FLIGHT OVER HIMALAYA

2011-07-09T11:20:00.003+04:00

Semasa melintasi pergunungan Himalaya, sempadan Pakistan dan Monggolia.

Sungguh indah kejadian tuhan.

WIND BENEATH MY WING

2011-07-01T08:41:00.002+04:00

Cruising at 35,000 feet over the Indian Ocean, Abu Dhabi to Melbourne.

Airbus A340-600.

Landed back at Abu Dhabi International Airport after 3 days away, sunrise in the morning. That funny looking building is the new tower of the airport.

TAMING SARI REUNION

2011-06-26T07:44:00.004+04:00

The first reunion for the elite group of RMAF Instructors, The Taming Sari members.

The proud bold pilots, getting older but the spirit still alive.

Me and another Taming Sari member still serving in RMAF, Col Khairil, happened to be my junior all the way right from RMC days .

TCAS

2011-06-21T18:38:00.002+04:00

Traffics Collision and Avoidance System ( TCAS )

On the navigational display, the other planes around the vicinity are shown as diamond icon with the height difference, - sign means below, + sign means above. In this picture, a plane is detected about 8 miles away, 11 o'clock position, 900 feet below and another one at 12 miles, 1900 feet below.

The actual aicrafts position, as represented in the navigational display.

Picture taken while flying over the Iceland, on the way to JFK across North Atlantic.

iPad 2

2011-06-21T09:17:00.004+04:00

Making full use of my iPad. Very helpful during long flight time,whilst doing nothing beside monitoring the flight.

Watch full HD movies.

As a photo viewer, can watch my families while cruising at high altitude.

Not forgetting reading the Holy Quran.

In case of nothing else to do, real bored, try to read the plane manual, hehe.

This thing is very handy for Jeppesen Approach Plates.

BILA PENUMPANG SAKIT TENAT SEMASA DIDALAM PENERBANGAN

2011-05-09T21:04:00.003+04:00

Sering kali juga terjadi penumpang sakit tenat ,seperti kena serangan sakit jantung, hypertension, sakit perut dan macam2 lagi. Captain bertanggungjawab sepenuhnya terhadap nyawa dan keselamatan penumpang. Sekiranya terjadi perkara2 begini, pertama sekali pilot akan menghubungi doctor dengan menggunakan satellite phone yang terdapat di dalam cockpit. Sebelum itu , cabin crew akan mendapatkan butir butir penuh penumpang dan juga tekanan darah dan pulse rate. Ada alat khas untuk mendapatkan bacaan tersebut dan cabin crew sudah di latih untuk menggunakan alat tersebut. Doctor yang dihubungi adalah dari rangkaian MedLink yang beroperasi keseluruh dunia. Di bawah ini adalah Display Unit untuk menghubungi MedLink, apabila online, akan bercakap terus dengan doktor untuk tindakan selanjutnya ke atas penumpang yang sakit.

Di dalam cockpit pesawat, terdapat berbagai bagai ubat untuk di makan, sapu atau injection, mengikut arahan doktor secara online. Setiap ubat ada label untuk senang mencari ubat yang mana harus digunakan.

Sekiranya penumpang sangat tenat atau memerlukan bantuan doktor secepat mungkin, pilot akan menghubungi syarikat penerbangan dan akan mendarat di lapangan terbang yang berhampiran.

FLYING CLOSE TO THE NORTH POLE

2011-04-12T17:03:00.004+04:00

Flying from OMAA, Abu Dhabi Airport to KORD, Chicago Ohare Airport. The route, crossing North Atlantic form Norway, over the Iceland and Canada. Following the Latitude of 67 deg North, which is quit close to the pole. This map is a view from above the North Pole, depicted by the centre of the circle, 90 deg North latitude.

There is no specific route or waypoints to fly over since we were flying on the random route. Generic waypoints have to be inserted into the flight computer by keying the coordinates, for eg N67 00.0 W00 10.0 and the plane will fly from coordinate to coordinate. In this Navigational Display, the pane is about to pass over N670 00.0 W00 10.0 and next waypoint is N67 00.0 W 00 20.0 .

Looking down , the sea is still full with iceberg in the early spring.

GRADUATION

2011-03-29T12:16:00.004+04:00

ASYRAF FUDHAIL BIN ABU BAKAR

Congratulation to my son, now you are a licensed pilot, a professional, so be like one and act like one.

Welcome to aviation world.

India cancels 14 more 'fake' pilot licences, India Economy - Maktoob News

2011-03-26T09:29:00.000+04:00

India cancels 14 more 'fake' pilot licences, India Economy - Maktoob News

Mommy n Baby contest

2011-03-19T09:12:00.002+04:00

Saja saja masukkan picture of my wife and anak bungsu ni ke cikimiki Mommy and Baby contest. Undian cara Like the picture through FB.

my FB AbuBakar Hassan bahas36@yahoo.com

my wife SaaDhia Eusoff adieyyusof@yahoo.com

Kalau anda rasa they are cute, please vote for them.. TQVM

PILOTS TORTURE CHAMBER

2011-03-19T08:35:00.002+04:00

Ini lah dia simulator yang digunakan untuk melatih juruterbang yang baru converted to type dan juga simulator untuk testing the operational pilots . For info, pilot yang dah experiance pun kena menjalani test once in every 6 months. Masa tu la pilot diuji terbang dalam keadaan cuaca buruk, emergency situation seperti engines failure, hydraulic and flight control failure dan macam macam lagi. Fail test ni, lesen boleh kena gantung sehingga ,tak boleh terbang sehingga lah lepas ujian ini.

THE HYDRAULIC SYSTEM

2011-03-18T17:32:00.004+04:00

The Airbus basically have 3 systems of hydraulic , colour coded GREEN, BLUE and YELLOW. Refer to the overhead panel of this Airbus 340-600. At the HYD panel, the schematic diagram showed Eng 1 and 4 run the GREEN system, Eng 2 runs the BLUE and Eng 3 runs the YELLOW System. The engines driven pumps pressurized the hydraulic system to 3000 PSI. The GREEN used for Landing Gear operation, the Nosewheel steering and anti skid. The BLUE for the brakes and YELLOW for the Flaps. For flight controls servo, normally using GREEN but always backup by the YELLOW and the BLUE.

For the pilot, the system screen will show the status of the hydraulic system in flight. 1,2,3,4 represent the engines that run the hydraulic pumps for each system and there are 3 ELECtric pumps that can be used momentarily in the event of failure of the respective engine pump to provide sufficient pressure for the Landing gear, Flaps and Brakes. If all engines are failed, mean all engine driven pumps not working, the RAT, on the ENG 4 GREEN system will operate automatically to provide some pressure for the flight control and electric emergency generator.

RAT, the Ram Air Turbine is a small propeller that will pop out of the underneath right ring, and it is turned by the ram air, depending on the speed of the plane, higher speed , higher rotation, which in turn runs as a motor to pressurize the GREEN system.

So, next time you fly, you will feel safe because you know the systems always have backup in the event of failures.

FAA allows Apple's iPad app into the cockpit | TG Daily

2011-03-10T09:54:00.001+04:00

FAA allows Apple's iPad app into the cockpit TG Daily

Let s buy iPad 2..

NOSEWHEEL STEERING

2011-03-09T22:40:00.004+04:00

Mungkin ramai yang mempunyai persoalan di dalam kepala, macam mana kapalterbang mengubah haluan semasa bergerak di atas taxiway atau landasan sebelum dan selepas terbang? Macam mana kapalterbang nak parking?

Kapalterbang kecil seperti Cessna 172 atau piper yang sering digunakan oleh pelatih pelatih selalunya menggunakan differential braking, dengan cara menekan brek untuk mengubah arah. contohnya kalau nak membelok kekanan, mereka akan tekan brek sebelah kanan sahaja, kalau kekiri, sebaliknya lah. Kapalterbang yang besar, boleh juga menggunakan kaedah itu tetapi kurang efektif dan kena support dengan differential power, iaitu dgn menambah power sebelah enjin sambil menekan brek sebelah yang hendah dituju.

Kapalterbang yang besar besar menggunakan kuasa hydraulic untuk steer the nosewheel. Ini dinamakan nosewheel steering atau dipanggil TILLER . Fungsinya sama lah macam steering kereta, cuma steering nya tak la sebesar steering kereta. Tiller ini pun bukan link direct ke nosewheel. Tiller ni apabila digunakan akan memberi signal kepada hydraulic servo, which in turn akan menggerakkan nosewheel ke kiri atau kekanan mengikut input dari tiller. Kiranya macam powered steering lah. Semasa kapalterbang bergerak perlahan, pilot akan menggunakan tiller ini untuk steer kekiri atau kekanan tetapi apabila kelajuan pesawat meningkat, contohnya semasa takeoff, nosewheel control akan diambil alih oleh rudder yang mana pilot akan menggunakan rudder pedal pula untuk mengawal haluan sehingga la pesawat berlepas ke udara.

Tiller on the Airbus 340-500. Dah boring sangat ,sambil minum kopi, took this picture.

Canadian Air Force SNOWBIRDS

2011-02-23T18:50:00.003+04:00

This is RMAF CL41G, TEBUAN. Picture taken in 1982, when I was a second lieutenant,22 years old. Now these kind of planes can be found in various bases and museums as exhibition only.

This is the same varient, Canadian Ct114 TUTOR. Until now, they still fly these planes for their National Aerobatic Team, The SNOWBIRDS.

Why cant we do the same ?

KARENAH PENUMPANG

2011-02-18T15:10:00.003+04:00

Baru balik dari 37 hour layover kat Casablanca. Masa pegi, headwind kuat sampai flight time yang selalunya 7 jam lebih jadi sampai 9 jam. Ada sekumpulan 40 orang dari Pakistan, nampak gaya macam first timer naik kapalterbang. Semasa dalam penerbangan siap boleh suruh pilot pusing hala menghadap ke Kiblat. Masa tu dah berada sebelah barat Mekah dan kalau nak alih haluan sampai 180 darjah. Nak explain kat dia orang ni pun susah sebab tak faham Inggeris. Alasan dia orang , nak sembahyang jemaah so senang semua menghadap ke depan kapalterbang.

Kapalterbang ada laluan dia yg tertentu dan tak boleh ubah2 sesuka hati. Lagi pun minyak cukup2 jer untuk route tu, kalau terbang menghadap ke destinasi lain semata mata nak sembahyang menghadap kiblat, mau mati enjin kerana kehabisan minyak. Dalam pesawat ada entertainment system, boleh tukar channel ke map mode dan boleh tengok arah kiblat dari situ.

Dah settle yg itu, dia orang berkeras juga nak sembahyang berjemaah, masalahnya mana ada tempat. Siap dgn azan lagi dalam kapalterbang so penumpang2 mat salleh semua panic la, tau tau jer la kan bila dengar laungan Allah hu Akhbar dia org dah sinonim dgn letupkan diri sendiri dan sebagainya. Kena la explain kat mat salleh2 yg paranoid tu. So jalan mudah, I switched on seat belt sign, dan semua kena duduk kat tempat masing2, walau pun cuaca sangat baik dalam smooth flight.. Dia orang ni menunjukkan macam la Islam tu rigid sangat, padahal banyak flexibility nya dalam mengerjakan sembahyang.

Perjalanan balik, tengah malam dari dari Casablanca ke Abu Dhabi, 6 jam lebih jer sebab this time angin tolong tolak dari belakang. Tengah sedap2 tidor , controlled rest ok , dalam cockpit, dibenarkan bila dah ngantok sangat asalkan sorang jer yg tidor, tiba2 berbunyai fire alarm..

Rupanya smoke detector sudah detect ada asap dari dalam toilet kat belakang sekali, economy class. Cabin crew buka dari luar, dapat tangkap 2 minah morocco tengah hisap rokok dalam toilet tu.. punya la bengang. Apa nak buat, bagi verbal warning jer la... dah tak tahan sangat la tu.

macam macam hal... nak tidor dulu, bayar balik hutang tidor.

Al Ain Airshow 2011 Part 1

2011-02-16T22:45:00.005+04:00

04 Feb 2011, watched the air show at the Al Ain Airport. Armed with my newly purchased EOS550D with Sigma 70-300 lens, well actually it was my first assignment. Photo shot taken with auto focus, making full use of the 3.5 fps capability. Here are few pictures out of hundreds that I shot. Enjoy...

Al Ain Airshow 2011 Part 2

2011-02-16T22:08:00.004+04:00

Italians fit out flying machines for our magnificent men - The National

2011-02-15T09:14:00.000+04:00

Italians fit out flying machines for our magnificent men - The National

DEPARTURE TO LONDON LHR

2010-12-31T06:38:00.006+04:00

Took off from AUH Abu Dhabi International Airport at 0420 UTC or 0820 local time, Runway 13 ,Easterly direction then turned left to the West and had a good view of the airport on my left hand side. At the end of the runway, western side with the red roof is the Ferrari world, the theme park where the fastest roller coaster in the world situated.

Abu Dhabi city view from the North at 8000 feet above sea level. 3 years ago, the number of the buildings is half of the present.

Basically there are 3 choices of routes to London from Abu Dhabi. Over Saudi, then Jordan, Syria and Turkey on the first half, or over Iraq then Turkey or over Iran then Turkey. The shortest one is over Iraq which open recently for commercial but due to the turbulence over that area, the company chose routing via Iran.

In winter, the visibility always good.

This beautiful view I captured when we were flying somewhere near Tabriz, North of Iran.

IN-FLIGHT DIVERSION

2010-12-20T21:18:00.004+04:00

Yes I am now in Milan Melpansa Airport, resting in the hotel room before my flight back to AUH. Earlier , I was supposed to land at CDG, Paris but due to heavy snow fall the airport was closed just before we reach our top of descend. Initial diversion was to Llyon, LFLL but we were few minutes late, all the parking spaces taken by the diverting planes. Munich, Frankfurt, Orly, Brussel all covered by the snow as well so the best choice that left for me was LIMC, MXP or Milan Malpensa....

Touched down uneventful at 0837 local time, waited in the plane with some the angry looking passengers until new set of crew arrived to take over from us. Luckily another set of crew was ready at the airport to fly the passengers from Milan to Abu Dhabi. Company decision, we will do the Milan to Abu Dhabi sector after rested for minimum of 12 hours at the hotel and the original crew for that flight will bring the passenger to Paris... hmmm good luck guys..

Points to consider, the weather over Europe in winter can change drastically. Taking extra fuel always help ( in my case, I took 2 hours extra holding fuel ). Duty Period and Flight Time Limitation are always the limiting factors in any diversion, so keep the table handy. Try as much as you can to console the angry passenger for not taking them to the place that they wanted to go.. Overall, Safe Flight Always..

VISITING OLD FRIEND

2010-12-17T14:34:00.010+04:00

Our friend, classmate, schoolmate and his bed was beside mine in the same dorm when we were in RMC... Prof Dato' Dr Radin Umar , now he is the Ketua Pengarah Pendidikan Tinggi was not very well due to an illness. After a few operations and medical observations, Alhamdulillah he is back to normal everyday life and back to his office. We paid him a visit recently and after been given green light by him after the quarantine period was over.

Me and Prof Dato Radin Umar

Prof Wan Zaidi of UTM Skudai and YB Yaakob Sapari, EXCO Selangor

Me and Adzmir, another ex RMAF partner in mischief during our RMC days.

Among us, Oficers in Armed Forces, lecturers, doctors, Lawyers and judges, Pengetua Sekolah, Politican and Businessman. Good mixtures in a friendship circle.

Bye bye Dato', thanks for the advices and tips on how to keep healthy and sharing the agony and feeling before entering the operation theater. God bless you.

SIMULTANEOUS APPROACH

2010-12-08T10:54:00.005+04:00

" Etihad 472 clear to land runway 25 R , Traffic on your left coming to land on 25L "

This simultaneous approach on both runways is common, especially at heavy traffics airport. I have seen it at London, Paris, Beijing, JFK but not at KLIA... In these pictures, I was on final approach to land on runway 25 right and at the same time another plane is making an approach at the same time on runway 25 left. WIII Sukarno Hatta International Airport. Well, that's the idea of having two or more runaways...

Busy...Busy...Busy...

2010-12-07T17:38:00.005+04:00

Arianna Husna and Arissa Husna

Disneyland, Paris

Dhia Sofea Umairah

Yes, I was really busy. Twin girls born at 24 Apr 09 followed by another baby girl at 08 Aug 10. Not my grandchildren okay !, they are my daughters. So right now, I have 3 infants ( below 2 years) with me. I was busy watching them growing...

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON..

2010-09-25T16:13:00.003+04:00

Transformation, from a naughty boy who think that he could do everything, to a Standard Operating Procedures, SOP abiding student pilot. Not so quite like father like son, because he skipped the joyfull adrenalin pumping fighter jet flying. All the best to him, my beloved son.

Ramadan Kareem !!!

2010-08-13T19:03:00.002+04:00

Selamat berpuasa dan beramal ibadat du bulan yang mulia ini, semoga diberkati Allah ke atas apa jua amalan yang di buat. Hari pertama, saya dapat berpuasa bersama sama dengan keluarga di Malaysia tetapi tak berpeluang untuk berbuka bersama kerana terpaksa berangkat ke Abu Dhabi pada petangnya , hanya sempat berbuka di KLIA.

Hari kedua, memandangkan akan membuat penerbangan ke Chicago, menghala ke Barat, maka tidah dapat la nak berpuasa. Jika berpuasa juga, waktu imsak sekitar 0400 di Abu Dhabi, dan waktu berbuka sekitar 2000 di Chigaco. Penerbangan mengambil masa 14 jam, berlepas dari Abu Dhabi jam 1100 dan mendarat di Chicago jam 1600, waktu tempatan. Perbezaan waktu antara Abu Dhabi dan Chicago adalah 9 jam. Ini bermakna, setelah berpuasa selama 7 jam sebelum berlepas, 14 jam dalam flight dan menunggu lagi waktu berbuka selama 4 jam lagi di destinasi, jumlah waktu berpuasa adalah 25 jam !!

Saya masih ingat lagi pesanan dari Dato Dr Harun Din di salah satu ceramahnya yg saya hadir, katanya tuhan dah bagi kita kelonggaran, dah bagi kemudahan, jadi jangan la kita sombong tak mahu terima kemudahan yang dah diberikan. Jadi bermakna pada hari kedua saya dah tak berpuasa. Hari ini, semasa saya menulis ini, sedang berada di Chicago lagi ,bangun sahur pukul 4 pagi tadi dengan kebab yg dah sejuk yang saya beli sebelum tidor malam, insyaAllah akan terus berpuasa kerana akan berlepas balik ke Abu Dhabi pada 2030,iaitu selepas waktu berbuka.

Hari ke 4, akan berada dalam kapalterbang sepanjang hari, dan akan berbuka sebelum mendarat kerana terbang menghala ke timur.

Scramble Egg

2010-08-05T23:26:00.003+04:00

My favourite breakfast, the scamble egg and the toast. Been missing
nasi lemak and roti canai banjir since 2007. But it is okay, feel
healthier now. This breakfast was taken at 40000 feet above Istanbul
on the way to Europe.

The new diamond first class seat. just trying it out. Feel like

sleeping in a hotel room up in the air.

Proud Malaysian

2010-06-29T07:32:00.003+04:00

This is the cabin of Airbus 340-600. The 75.3 meters long metal tube, this picture taken at the rear most seats.

And below is the list of crew that were on board on Flight EY 455 departing from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, 27 June 2010. The Pilot In Command, PIC is the only Malaysian on board.

UMRAH 2010

2010-06-26T20:14:00.009+04:00

Alhamdulillah, telah selamat mengerjakan ibadat umrah dengan isteri pada 2 hb Mei sehingga 8 hb Mei 2010.
Bertolak dari lapangan terbang Abu Dhabi menuju ke Jeddah.

Setelah selesai saie, bergambar di bukit Marwah.

Didalam masjid sementara menunggu masuk waktu maghrib.

Pemandangan dalam masjid diwaktu tengah hari selepas waktu zohor.

Isteri saya selepas selesai tawaf dan sembahyang sunat di dalam hijir Ismail.

Masjid Tanaim, Miqat yang paling hampir dengan kota Mekah untuk berniat ihram .

AUTOMATIC LANDING

2010-04-07T01:09:00.007+04:00

Sometimes, the weather at the destination airports not always good. During winter the visibility can be as low as 100 meters only in fog, especially in the early morning. At this visibility the runway will not be visible until the plane is just a few feet over the runway. As an airliner, we can't just divert to more suitable airport for landing as that actions will cost the company a lot of money. The modern aeroplanes are now equipped with automatic landing capability whereby the pilots do not have to see the runway for landing even though the visibility is at zero !! It is fully automatic, the pilots job is just to monitor the flight path, the systems working normally and to take over manually in the case of any abnormalities occurred. Take over mean not necessary to land the plane, it could be to bring the plane up again and land somewhere else which has a better weather for safe landing visually.

In order to carry out the approach, the flight computer must be programmed to follow the standard published procedure as per the chart below. This eg is for the arrival into Geneva Airport, following the BANKO TWO ROMEO arrival for runway 23. Once programmed, the autopilot will fly the plane according to the route in the chart, starting from BANKO (which is just a few miles from Mont Blanc ) following the track and the vertical path accurately.

Then the plane will intercept the final approach path, which is 3 deg descend angle towards the runway 23 as per the Instrument Landing System (ILS) chart below, following the exact track and vertical path. On the lower side of the chart, the vertical profile is shown, which the distance and the height the plane should be.

The pilot should be scanning the Primary Flight Display (PFD) , letting the plane fly by itself, just standby to take over in case any malfunction occurs. CAT3 DUAL mean the airplane will land by itself and the pilot will take over when safely on the ground .
ps : This PFD picture is just a sample as it does not show the approach for ILS runway 23.

Normally the pilot will take over to stop the plane or to taxi to the parking bay if the taxiway is visible. Minimum visibility to taxi the plane is 30 meters. Airport chart must be read before coming to land so that the pilot will be familiar with the layout and the parking bay, to avoid getting lost on ground.

New Airbus Cabin Seats.

2010-03-09T20:40:00.007+04:00

Diamond First Class

Pearl, Business Class

LONDON HEATHROW ARRIVAL.

2010-03-09T01:11:00.005+04:00

For any destination, according to the regulation, alternate airports must be planned in the event of unable to land at the destination airport due to bad weather, runway closer or any other reasons. This was for my flight last week to London Heathrow Airport. Nominated destination alternate were Alternate #1 EGKK Gatwick Airport, Alternate #2 EGCC Manchester, Alternate #3 LFPG Paris and Alternate #4 EBBR Brussel. The flight plan will take into account the amount of fuel required to fly to the destination plus fuel required to the alternate and that figures will be the Minimum Sector Fuel to be carried for the flight. The final figure will take into consideration of 30 minutes holding before landing( reserve fuel )and 3-5 percent contingency fuel . If the weather forecast is bad, additional reserve fuel may be carried. So as a passenger,nothing to worry about whether the plane has enough fuel or not to reach the destination and or to divert to the alternate airport.

Landing at runway 09L London Heathrow Airport.

Another record broken !!!

2010-02-06T22:10:00.008+04:00

On my recent flight yesterday night, Chicago to Abu Dhabi. Flying over Canada Airspace, riding on the jet stream at 33000 feet. Look at the top left hand corner of the Navigational Display ND. I was flying at 478 kts True Airspeed TAS, the wind was blowing right from behind bearing 278 deg from the North at 175 knots giving resultant Ground Speed GS of 651 knots. That was the actual speed that we travelled over the surface of the Earth, 1205 km per hour !!!

Not so busy flying over the Atlantic, waiting for the time for me to rest and Team B crew taking over. Total flight time was 12 hrs 50 min, and the rest period calculated was 5 hrs 50 min each.

These are the beds for the cabin crew. Total of 13 onboard, half will be working and the other half will be sleeping in this Crew Rest Bunk Compartment.

This one, nearest to the door is the bed for First Officer and the bigger one with the bedsheet pillow and blanket is mine, I mean for the Captain hehe..

Closer look at the Captains bed.

Good Nite ! I will wake up one hour before landing at Abu Dhabi becouse I have to prepare

and freshen up , have to do the landing.

MELBOURNE, AGAIN..

2010-01-27T11:03:00.007+04:00

Flying over Australia, just East of Perth. During
hot summer, the shallow river and lakes dry up
as can be seen here, become whitish.

Melbourne city from the birds eyes view. Good visibility, nice

25 deg C temperature but sometime can be very hot and humid

with a lot of clouds formation overhead.

Approaching the runway to land, runway 16 Melbourne Airport.

The hotel where they put us for the night after 14 hours of
flight. The Crowne Plaza.

Beautiful view from my room.

LATEST VIEW OF DUBAI

2010-01-23T23:09:00.005+04:00

Departing from Runway 31R AUH, EMERU 1P Departure will bring us directly over Dubai on the Northeast bound track. As can see on the picture below, almost the whole Dubai is visible especially The Palm Jumeirah, the not completed yet The World and the newly completed Burj Khalifah, the tallest building in the world. Good visibility during the winter, can expect haze coming soon as the temperature rises.

CHICAGO Part 2

2010-01-23T22:02:00.007+04:00

My second trip to Chicago, KORD Ohare International Airport on the 13th Jan 2010.

Arrived late evening, already dark when we reached the hotel, so stayed in the room till morning the next day. At 10 am local time, braved myself to take a walk along the Michigan Avenue towards Millennium Park.

This scupture situated infront of the Millennium Park, shining

bean, could see the refection of the city on it.

The water in the river still in the iced form, breaking up.

This one I took while standing infront of the Chicago Tribune.

Descending over Abu Dhabi city during approach to land,back from Chicago.

Home sweet home.

NO 12 SQUADRON

2009-12-30T12:25:00.004+04:00

My glorious years with No 12 Squadron, RMAF Butterworth.

Top Gun Squadron 1987

Left to right, Coolie, Gary, Batu, Taipan and Ashburn

TAMING SARI

2009-12-24T10:48:00.002+04:00

The very first LIMA , in Dec 1991 . I was the soloist, No9. We lost one of our buddy during training near Alor Setar Airport.

My First Flight To Chicago

2009-12-12T21:23:00.014+04:00

The flight from Abu Dhabi to Chicago, Ohare International Airport took 14 hours and 40
minutes, flying over Iran airspace, Turki, Europe, over the North Atlantic and Canada. We took off at 1010 am Abu Dhabi local time and landed at 1540 local time Chicago, same day. This is becouse Chicago is -6 hours of UTC or GMT and Abu Dhabi is +4 of UTC. So at the time we landed, at our point of departure already 0140 am the next day. We landed using runway 14R of that busiest airport in the world.

Chicago, viewed from my hotel room, which is just beside The John Hancock Tower.

The temperature was around 3/4 deg celcius, I was just wandering around the hotel, afraid of catching cold.

John Hancock Tower. I was there on Saturday, a lot of tourist lining up to buy tickets to get up to the top.

Of all the places in the world, I had Tilapia Fish n Chip for lunch in Chicago. No choice, that was the only halal food I could find in that restaurant.
( masak lomak cili api sodap jugak)

On the way back, broke my record,the fastest ever in commercial planes. Doing 627 knots of groundspeed or 1160 km/hour. That was due to the jetstream we were riding on, wind speed of 148 kts directly on our tail, somewhere over Canada, near Toronto.

CASABLANCA

2009-12-11T15:40:00.013+04:00

Nama terlebih indah dari rupa. Mula mula dengar nama Casablanca, sebuah bandar di Morocco cukup exotic. Sampai ada filem bertajuk CASABLANCA. Saya tak pernah tengok lagi pun cerita tu. Morocco, sebuah negara yang paling utara di Benua Afrika, pernah dijajah oleh Spain, France dan British, sebab itulah penduduknya boleh bertutur berbagai bahasa, bahasa utama adalah Arab dan kedua French.

Mula mula sampai, nak masuk sikit punya susah sebab kena stamp passport walau pun kita orang menggunakan crew lane, still kena beratur celah celah penumpang yang lain yang tak peduli menggunakan crew lane sesuka hati dia orang. Jadi sebagai Captain, terpaksalah saya pergi berjumpa pegawai immigration dia orang minta priority, tu gunanya pakai kot dengan empat bar yang berkilat di lengan... Pada keseluruhannya, bandar ini tiada yang menarik , cuma sedikit bersih dari Mumbai atau Delhi. Berbeza dengan Maraketh, satu lagi bandar yang terkenal di Morocco yang sememangnya cantik dan menarik.

Casablanca dari udara

Waktu pagi di Bandar Casablanca, masih lagi sunyi, tak banyak kenderaan, mungkin sudah ramai yang bercuti kerana pada masa ini adalah sehari sebelum Aidul Adha.

Lagi pemandangan di Casablanca, berhampiran dengan Central market.

Ini adalah pemandangan di dalam kawasan Central Market. Ada banyak lorong lorong dan kedai kedai yang menjual berbagai bagai seperti pakaian, barang barang kulit, electronic, perhiasan dan macam macam lagi. Yang meluatnya ada ramai peminta sedekah yang melekat macam lintah selagi tak dapat habuannya.

Sempat masuk kedalam kedai ini untuk membeli set tagine, konon kononnya nak masak sendiri nanti kat rumah. Satu set harganya kira kira RM20.

Makanan tradisional Morocco, Tagine. Yang ini saya order room service di pagi raya Aidil Adha. Sedap juga tagine ayam ni, walaupun tak sesedap rondang ayam kampung yang pedas.

Flight to KHARTOUM

2009-11-22T11:58:00.007+04:00

The route to Khartoum from Abu Dhabi is mainly overflying various cities in the Middle East such as Doha, Riyad, Jeddah and Port Sudan after crossing the Red Sea. The flight time slightly over 4 hours.

A closer look at the route over the Google Earth. Flying over Jeddah and quite close to Makkah.

Managed to snap a picture of Makkah city, the brightess spot is the Masjidil Haram where the Kaaba is situated right at the centre.

Touched down at Khartoum during the sunrise, refuelling was done by our non other than PETRONAS, the Malaysian Nasional Petroleum. A proud moment to share. After a morning stretching and a cup of coffee, ready to fly back to Abu Dhabi, shorther flight time by almost an hour due to the strong tailwind.

My New Toy, The iPhone 3GS

2009-10-27T00:05:00.011+04:00

I bought this iphone a few weeks back. It is unlocked set and I jailbroke it my self so that I can use third party applications, not only from the itune store. A lot of application can be downloaded for free and some with a small amount of money. What I am writing here is about the aviation applications that can be used by the iPhone. If the left photo is enlarged, can be seen there a few applications for aviator such as FlightPlan, PilotLog,Pilot ToolBox, Aeroweather and Winter320. iQuran and Qibla Direction application also available. The right picture can be assess by touching the FlightPlann icon and from there a lot of aviation stuff can be done especially the calculation.

Click on the photo to enlarge.

This is the AeroWeather which I downloaded before the flight simply by connecting to wifi and dictate the required airports. It is in standard aviation meteorology code but if unsure of the code, just touch the encode button.

click on the photo to enlarge.

I tried out the Navigation part by putting in the wind speed,direction, the course or the line on the earth surface that you suppose to fly and the true airspeed. The result, heading to fly is 130 deg, as shown by the yellow line on the Navigational Display on the right picture and the ground speed is569 kts, shown GS 568 kts on the ND top lefthand corner. Close enough? Make sense isn't it becouse the wind is from the right and behind of the plane, so pushing it forward to have a faster ground speed and the plane has to fly heading to the right to compensate for the wind..correction by 3 deg.. cool. So without the plane's computer, I can calculate my own now.

And, another use of the iPhone, favourite youtube can be downloaded and saved for viewing at 39000 feet. Michael Bubley Save The Last Dance For Me is really sweet ,come with Nescafe Tongkat Ali Ginseng.

Flying To Melbourne

2009-10-26T23:13:00.008+04:00

This was my second flight of the month after a long one month vacation. Was enjoying my Ramadan and Syawal with family in my home sweet home country. It is F1 fever in Abu Dhabi and I got the chance of flying this A340-600 F1 livery to Melbourne recently. Almost straight route following the great circle as shown on the google Earth map above.

In flight, I occasionally have a look at the camera screen, enjoying the beauty of cloud over Australia. The lower ECAM screen will show the images from the upper camera situated at the tail pointing downward and also the nose camera pointing forward located under the belly forward belly.

After landing, the Captain's PFD when selected to taxi camera, will show the image of the plane and the nosewheel in relation to the ground. That is called TACS or Taxi Aid Camera System which really help the Captain to maneouver while on ground taxiing toward the parking bay or to the runway for take off. So far, this 340-600 is still the longest plane in the world.

From this picture, we can see the nosewheel is exactly on the line and the plane is centred on the taxiway. See how accurate my handling is, hehe.

Reaching the parking stand. Phew, it was 13 hours flight !!

We took off at 11 pm at night and landed at sunset the next day.

The whole day gone in the air.

Ramadhan Kareem !!!

2009-08-19T09:42:00.003+04:00

Tak sabar nak tunggu roster bulan depan, nak check hari Jumaat terbang ke tidak. Kalau tak nak juga pegi ke Bazaar Ramadhan, Abu Dhabi ni. Nak beli ayam percik, hehe.
Selamat berpuasa.

ROUTE

2009-08-16T17:31:00.006+04:00

This was the air route planned for my flight from Abu Dhabi to Dublin last week. The route prepared by the Jeppesen is normally the shortest flight time and the minimum fuel requirement to reach the destination after reviewing the weather forecast for the most advantages wind component. The solid thick black line is the Great Circle line, the shortest distance between two points on the surface of the Earth and the red line is the route that we flew, following the Airways. My airline is a customer of Jeppesen who plot the route and prepare the flight plan on each flight.

Here are the pictures of the routes back ,DUB to AUH which I saved in googles earth format. Easier to refer now, less opening up of airways charts. The thumbtack points are the waypoints on the airways chart, BIG is a waypoint overhead London City.

MONT BLANC

2009-08-05T23:27:00.010+04:00

Jenama untuk pen, barangan kulit, perhiasan, jam dan minyak wangi ini berasal dari nama gunung yang tertinggi di banjaran Alps, iaitu 4810 m atau 15,781 kaki dari aras laut. Ia terletak betul betul di sempadan antara dua negara Italy dan France. Bandaraya yang paling hampir adalah Geneva ,Switzerland dan saya sempat menganbil gambar gambar gunung tersebut semasa hendak mendarat di lapanganterbang Geneva.

BRUSSELS

2009-07-27T10:53:00.007+04:00

TCAS, Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System. Each plane once issued with the enroute clearance will be given a 4 digits code for the transponder, termed as squawk code. In this case, the code that we got for our flight to BRU was 3721, key in to the TCAS panel as shown on the left picture above by my copilot before we begin our flight. When the transponder selected to ON, it will continously giving information to the Air Traffic Controllers and other aircrafts transponders . The ATC will see the information for the particular plane base on the squawk code such as the planes callsign, position, altitude, heading and speed. For other aircrafts, please refer to the picture of the Navigational Display on the right. Click on the picture for bigger image. The white diamonds indicate the position of other aircrafts flying nearby with the altitude differences. In this case, the aircrafts heading is 315 deg and there are 4 other aircrafts flying nearby. The nearest is 2000 feet above, +20, one at 40 nm away, 6000 ft below , 2 aircrafts at 50 nm away at 5000 ft below and 2000 ft above. We were flying at 38000 ft over Turkey, LTAC in the ND is Ankara airport.

Beautiful countryside of Belgium as we descending toward Brussels airport. Finally ,after 6 hours and 40 minutes in the air, we were cleared to land on runway 25L BRU.

Brussels in the morning, view from my room.

Actually very seldom to have a sunny day in Brussel. Most of the time cloudy or raining.

Well, time for me to catch up with the lost sleeping time.

Ada berani ?

2009-07-25T12:54:00.010+04:00

The Machine

2009-07-23T17:50:00.013+04:00

The cockpit. No control steering, replace by joysticks, can be seen in this picture at the extreme left and right. Only one pilot can have control at a time and when not in used,during autopilot operation the control sticks are locked by solenoid. In front of the pilots seat is a table each which are stowed in this picture. The engines control situated at the central pedestral so that any pilot can handle the levers easily.

The powerful engines , 56000 lbs of thrust each.

The engines controls. The levers numbered 1,2,3 and 4 are for the respective engine. Basically pilots need to position the levers into Idle, Take Off or Climb detent and after that the Auto Thrust will do the work,adjusting the engines power to the required speed.

The Engines Instruments.

All the reading can be seen there, and all controlled automatically.

Latest Pictures of Sydney

2009-07-23T16:49:00.005+04:00

EY 454

2009-07-19T15:35:00.005+04:00

If you think my last take off to JFK was real heavy, wait until you finish reading this story.
Last night I was out of Abu Dhabi for Sydney on Airbus A340-600. Total number of crew was 19, with me the only Malaysian on board as the Pilot in Command. ( Bangga sangat, Melayu World! ). Total passengers were 297 and the fuel I ordered was 142,000 kg and that was the minimum fuel required to fly to Sydney including the reserve and contingencies. So the total weight for take off was 378,000 kg, just short by 2000 kg for the maximum limit. After computation, the rotation or lift off speed was at 170 knots or 315 km/hr. Wow that was fast! Just imagine a metal tube traveling at that speed on the ground. Even Michael Schumacher got jealous!

How do we compute the take off speed? Well for each airport, there is a take off chart and what we have to do is just get the wind direction and speed and the take off weight. From the chart, read out directly the take off speed (VR). Beside the VR speed, V1 and V2 speed also can be obtained.

V1 is the go no go speed or decision speed. If any malfunction occurs before V1, the remaining runway length is available for you to stop the aircraft or to abort the take off. After V1, the take off should be continued because the remaining runway length is not sufficient for stopping.

V2 is the safety speed at which the aircraft having one engine failed can safely climb out.

Airbus makes the life easy for the pilot by setting the program for this take off computation installed in laptops. All the pilots in the airline that I am working with are issued with a laptop each so that we can compute the speeds fast and accurate. That is why Airbus removes the steering wheel in the cockpit and replaces it with table.

Using this laptop, V1,VR and V2 speeds can be found simply by filling up the required data on the left hand side.

HEAVY WEIGHT TAKE OFF

2009-07-17T01:24:00.005+04:00

This is about my recent flight to JFK, New York, 10 Jul 09. Very heavy weight takes off on the Airbus 340-600. Even though 4 engines used to accelerate the longest aero plane in the world down the long hot Abu Dhabi International Airport runway, it took slightly over a minute to get airborne. The lift off speed was at 167 knots or at about 307 km per hour for 368,000 kg big bird. The Maximum Take Off Weight for this aircraft is 380,000 kg. The lift off speed or the rotation speed (Vr) must be followed strictly in order to avoid any catastrophic disaster. If pilot try to rotate or make the aircraft airborne before reaching the correct Vr speed, necessary ‘lift’ to lift the plane off the ground is not sufficient yet. What will happen then? Rotation means the pilot pulling the control stick aft ward to command the flight control surfaces through the flight control computer to move the control surfaces, the elevator in this case to pitch the plane up. Fly by wire aircraft, does not use cables or push rods anymore. The nose will pitch up but as the lift force for lift off is not sufficient yet due to the low speed, the plane will stay on the ground. Bear in mind A340-600 is 75.3 meters long, the main wheels located at the midpoint. When the nose pitches up, the tail section relatively will go down and due to the length of the plane, it easily strikes the runaway! The plane will get airborne though when it reaches the correct speed. The Tail Strike can damage the structure or make a hole which forms a leak for the aircrafts pressurization. When that happened, no other choice but have to return for landing .This incident happened to an Emirate aircraft 4 months back during take off in Melbourne.

The pitch limit angle is presented as V in this PFD, Primary Flight Display during take off.

BONJOUR !!!

2009-07-07T16:02:00.009+04:00

I was in Paris from 3rd to 5 July 09. 50 hours on ground, took the chance for a small tour to the city ,even though been there a couple of times already. Probably the nice 24/25 deg C sunny days were so tempting.

From the hotel, I took the shuttle bus provided, about 30 mins ride and got down at Palais de Congress. Boarded the train there and stopped at Champ de la Mar station. The Eiffel Tower is only about 5 mins walk from the station.

Beautiful flowers at the park, overlooking the base of the tower.

This one I snapped from my hotel room at 10 pm local time there. Night time is short in summer.

Taken from the cockpit as I was taxying out for take off. The lagendary concorde.

Busy Charle de Gualle Paris airport as usual.

The front door of Notre Dame.

Another shot at the tower before i head back.

DUBLIN part 2

2009-06-25T15:54:00.006+04:00

DUBLIN

2009-06-25T00:46:00.007+04:00

Agak lama juga tidak update update blog ini kerana telah bercuti selama sebulan. Menghabiskan masa dengan membuat kerja kerja DIY rumah , projek yang telah siap ialah pintu pagar kayu, pergola dan gazebo. Mungkin diposting akan datang akan saya update dengan gambar gambar projek tersebut.

Sekarang saya berada di Dublin, sejuk dan nyaman udara disini, penuh dengan kehijauan, tak banyak bangunan bangunan pencakar langit, kebanyakan adalah bangunan bangunan lama. Berada disini selama 35 jam dan akan berangkat semula ke Abu Dhabi esuk.

Ini ada lah software terbaru untuk pesawat Airbus, garisan hijau yang dilalui oleh gambar pesawat itu menunjukkan jalan yang akan di lalui. warna biru menunjukkan permukaan air warna hitam, tanah rata dan warna hijau menunjukkan tanah tinggi. Lapangan terbang Dublin adalah yang betanda EIDW. Kapalterbang akan terbang mengikut garisan hijau itu untuk mendarat.

Ini adalah gambar sebenar yang di paparkan oleh instument yang di atas. Kelihatan air laut, dan Dublin di sebelah kiri, mngikut peta yang dipaparkan. Tidak berapa jelas kerana masih awal pagi, 0720 am

Plan view sekitar Dublin. Lebih kurang Kedah jer,sebab banyak hijau dan petak petak tanaman yang nampak macam tanaman padi.

Mendarat di landasan 10 di lapangan terbang Dublin

NEW YORK TO ABU DHABI

2009-04-14T23:52:00.003+04:00

While relaxing during my flight from JFK to AUH, I took these pictures, shown on the screen infront of me. I was in team B, resting on the first half of the flight and took over on the second half. The total flight time was 12 hrs and 20 mins. As seen on the picture, we flew over the North Atlantic, no radio aids to fly to, just point to point using coordinates.. Basically on latitude of 50 deg North, from 50 deg West up to 20 deg West longitude. The first land that we met was somewhere near the Landsend, south of England. after that pretty straight forward route, overflying France, Italy, Athen, over the Mediterranean ,Cypros Lebanon,Damascus,Jordan,Saudi and Bahrain.

BEIJING AND PYONGYANG

2009-04-01T13:38:00.006+04:00

Lama tak pergi Beijing. Dulu semasa bekerja dengan MAS almost 3 bulan sekali dapat buat Beijing flight. I was tasked to bring back UAE National football team from Pyongyang ,North Korea after playing there againts them for the wold cup qualifying. UAE was beaten by N Korea 2-0 . We took off from Beijing on 28 Mar, reached Pyongyang at 1800, just after the match,stayed on ground for refueling and took off for Abu Dhabi. It was slightly over 10 hours flight. Unable to snap any picture at Pyongyang becouse it was already dark when we landed there, beside we were afraid that our camera might be confiscated or worst we might ended up in jail. Until now I still can remember the smiling face of their president big photo that can be seen miles away at the Pyongyang airport.

The exitement was when we were in Beijing. Went up the Great Wall at Bedailing, the nearest point from Beijing city. Then we went to the Summer Palace and lastly the whole day completed with shopping at silk Market and Ya Show Market. Things getting more expensive nowadays, not as cheap as before the olympic game.

http://picasaweb.google.com/abakarhassan/TheGreatWall?feat=directlink

LATEST SYDNEY TRIP

2009-03-13T02:52:00.009+04:00

I had my breakfast at 7 am and then grabbed my camera , walked to the Opera House which is only 5 minutes walk from the hotel. It was cloudy morning and I forgot to set my camera accordingly.

The city view from The Rock. My hotel, The Four Seasons is further right of this picture.

The Sydney Control Tower can be seen on the far side, and the big Qantas monster ,A380 on tow out from the hangar.

And finally we were on the way back to AUH again. I was in the jump seat, took over control half way through the flight. A330 captured on the gun sight of A340.

TORONTO @ NIAGARA FALLS

2009-03-02T18:15:00.006+04:00

Entering Toronto City. The tall CN Tower can be seen from far away and something different here, all vehicles while on the road must put the headlights on either day or night.

Quite easy to drive around the city with the prominent signboards and if getting lost due to wrong turn taken, there is always an alternative routing.

The towering CN Tower, the most prominent feature in Toronto. Would like to go on top one day, just want to see Toronto from bird"s eyes view.

Niagara Fall is about 120 km to the South of Toronto. It takes about one and the half hour driving, very easy to find. It is very near to the border of Canada and USA.

Please click to my slide show to see more of Niagara Fall.

http://picasaweb.google.com/abakarhassan/NiagaraFalls?feat=directlink

THE PALM, JUMEIRAH

2009-02-04T22:45:00.003+04:00

Empat hari off, tak ada flight, nak balik KL baru jer balik dari buat KL flight so pergi la jalan jalan ke Dubai. On the way back singgah sekejap kat The Palm and drove all the way to the end. Memang cantik dan mengkagumkan. Sempat ambil gambar kat depan Atlantis Hotel , tempatnya adalah di pucuk pokok palm itu.

FLIGHT INFORMATION

2009-01-26T23:28:00.006+04:00

On very flight, a flight plan needs to be submitted to the relevance controller so that the Air Traffic Controllers well inform about that particular flight and aware of the aircraft position at all time. In the flight plan, the aircraft's type, colour and marking, speed, radio and emergency equipments carried, routing and flight level requested transmitted to the controlling agencies that the particular flight will overfly. Here, my flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, with Sydney controller initially,then passed over to Melbourne, then Colombo, Manglore of India,Mumbai of India, Muscat of Oman and finally UAE.

During the flight, the progress of the flight is shown on the passengers In Flight Entertainment system at their seats.

OVER MALDIVE

2009-01-25T02:16:00.004+04:00

These pictures taken during my flight from Abu Dhabi to Sydney yesterday. Maldives consists of 1190 islands, mainly sitting on 26 atolls. Nice view from the top and I think Dubai got the idea of making The Wold, the man made islands assembling the map of the world.

This screen showing the view using the aircraft's fixed camera . The top part is from the camera situated at the belly, looking forward and the bottom one is the view from the camera which is positioned at the the vertical tail looking downward. Other information, the aircraft's GW gross weight at that time, 329,900 kg at time 0842 UTC and the outside air temperature of -45 deg C.

ETIHAD AIRWAYS AIRBUS 340-600

2009-01-14T23:43:00.003+04:00

Abu Dhabi will be hosting the last F1 racing for the season in 2009 . Etihad airways being the major sponsor put on the new livery to their aircraft. I will be flying this plane to London tomorrow.

The Tallest Building In The World, Burj Dubai

2009-01-09T15:00:00.006+04:00

Visited Dubai recently. This tallest building in the word still under construction. So far the height reached 780 m, 160 storeys. The construction required at least 8500 workers.

New Year in Johannesburg

2009-01-08T10:47:00.003+04:00

Landed at OR TAMBO International Airport , Johannesburg at 0815 am 01 Jan 2009.

Went straight to the bed after a hectic 8 hours flight from Abu Dhabi. The weather there almost similar to KL with sunny day till afternoon then follow by thunderstorm in late evening. Everything was closed on the public holiday , the only shop opened were the restaurant and fast food outlets. Met MAS cabin crew having dinner at Bullrun Restaurant, nearby my hotel, Holiday Inn.

Walked to Sandton City which is about 1 km from my hotel on the 2 nd morning and on the way stopped by at Nelson Mandela Square. The big mall at Sandton still empty but most of the shops were opened, easy for me to walk around for window shopping.

Flight Over Iran

2008-12-19T08:43:00.003+04:00

During winter, Iran looks very beautiful with the snow covering most of the mountains especially at the Northern side. These pictures I took during my flight to Frankfurt few days ago.

Taken from 40000 feet, and this area is about 15000 above sea level. Nearest airport to this area is Tabriz, about 600 km North of Tehran.

Lesen Terbang !!

2008-12-04T19:49:00.003+04:00

Begini la bentuknya lesen terbang, maksud saya lesen penerbangan. Yang warna hijau berbentuk buku hutang 555 tu ada lah yang di keluarkan olih Departmentof Civil Aviation ( DCA ) Malaysia dan yang macam kad credit itu yang dikeluarkan olih DGCA UAE.

Dalam buku hijau itu ada lah muka surat yang tertentu tentang tahap kesihatan , tarikh luput skill test yang kena buat sekali dalam enam bulan,lesen penggunaan radio , Instument Rating dan lain lain lagi. Untuk UAE, ada credit card lain untuk medical check up certificate dan SEP.
Tanpa benda ni, atau pun sekiranya lesen sudah mati, tidak dibenarkan memandu pesawat.

Merdeka!!!

2008-12-04T16:30:00.005+04:00

UAE celebrating their National Day on the 2 Dec. Very grand celebration , I saw a few light planes towing big UAE flag all over Abu Dhabi. At night after Isyak prayer, firework brightened the sky .

TORONTO

2008-11-23T19:12:00.004+04:00

After almost 14 hours in the plane, we touched down at cold -6 deg Toronto Airport. The only black we could see is the runway, the rest covered with snow. The flight including almost 3 hrs over the Atlantic. The flight back to Abu Dhabi shorter by 2 hours, riding on the jet stream average of 110 knots.

Masjid Sheikh Zayed di Abu Dhabi

2008-11-09T13:56:00.007+04:00

Hari Jumaat 7 Nov berkesempatan solat di Masjid terbesar di UAE ini. About 20 minutes from my house. The interior is very beautiful, combination of ancient and modern decor.

Check Six !!!

2008-11-05T18:23:00.004+04:00

I was doing London flight yesterday. For the first time flying over Iraq. Cant see much, night time over Baghdad. At the moment only 4 engines planes are allowed to overfly Iraq .This is to avoid emergency aircraft from landing in Iraq. In the event of in flight diversion, have to fly to Kuwait, Iran or Turkey...

ATC, sound like American military controller.

ORBI is Baghdad International Airport.

AIRBUS 340-600

2008-11-02T09:28:00.005+04:00

This is the type of aircraft that I am flying most of the time now. Look at the dimension, its very long indeed. A camera fitted at the top of vertical stabilizer looking downward so that I can see the aircraft's body especially the main wheels perspective to the taxiways. Another one is fitted under the belly to show the nose wheel. This feature TACS (Taxi aids camera system) really help during ground maneuvering.

The Primary Flight Display (PFD). This is where my eyes glued on to during final approach to land.

Speed 155 knots, altitude 270 feet above ground level and about 1 nm to the runway. Notice the big yellow V ? It is the pitch limit for landing. If the pitch more than 10 deg up, aural warning PITCH PITCH will be sounded and if maintained, the tail will strike the ground by virtue of the long fuselage. Scary huh ?? Not really, as long as the approach is stabilized with the correct slope, speed and rate of descend, pitch angle of 5 deg up just nice for the greasily landing.

Gidday Mate!!! Sydney

2008-10-29T10:00:00.003+04:00

Sydney , birds eyes view. Beautiful city, clear sky always...

Nasib baik ada sorang Minah Salleh tolong snap kat depan Opera House ni.

Dubai, other than buildings....

2008-10-22T09:16:00.006+04:00

Satu hari tu boring sangat tak tau nak buat apa, gi la jalan2 kat Dubai. Pastu teringin nak naik bot penambang cross Dubai Creek to Bur Dubai. Kena bayar tambang 1 dirham. Bot dia tak ada dinding atau pagar, ada tempat duduk jer kat tengah tengah, life vest pun tak pakai. Kalau agak2 tak berani kena ikut jalanraya, pusing jauh sikit.

BTW these photo taken using Samsung SGHi900 OMNIA.

New York ! New York...!

2008-10-15T18:10:00.007+04:00

JFK, Kennedy International airport ,New York. Macam kampong jer, KLIA lagi cantik dan canggih.

My recent trip to New York City... So tired to wander around the city after over 14 hours flight. Pay USD 19 to be on top of the Empire State Building and see the whole city from up there.

Actress Susan Sarandon was on my flight back from JFK to AUH.

Syeikh Zayed Mosque

2008-09-06T11:44:00.005+04:00

Alhamdulillah malam tadi, 7 Ramadhan sempat bertawarikh di masjid yang ke 3 terbesar di dunia, Masjid Sheikh Zayed, Abu Dhabi. Masjid ini belum lagi dubuka dengan resminya kerana masih lagi didalam pembinaan. Gambar saya berdiri itu adalam pemandangan didalam masjid yang berkonsepkan open air di tengah. Yang disebelah kiri pula pemandangan didalam masjid bahagian depan tempat mimbar dan imam. Ditengah tengah tempat saya berdiri akan di bentang permaidani yang besar bernilai 2 juta yang di tempah dari Iran.

Ha ha ha, I like this joke !!

2008-09-06T11:43:00.000+04:00

Tersebutlah kisah dua orang hantu. Mereka ni baru bertemu lalu mereka pun berborakla untuk mengisi masa lapang kehidupan mereka sebagai hantu. Sepanjang perbualan mereka, Hantu1 ni tak habis-habis menggigil. Lalu, Hantu2 yang kehairanan ni pun bertanya,
Apsal kau ni asyik menggigil je?
Oh..cara aku mati dulu teruk..aku mati dalam peti ais sejuk!! Jawab Hantu1 sambil menggigil lagi.
Ooo..kesian aku dulu mati sebab heart attack. Kata Hantu2 ramah.
Kau memang sakit jantung kronik ye? Apsal ko tak gi buat operation? Kalau tak, sure kau tengah lepak-lepak ngan family kau sekarang. Balas Hantu 1.
Dah,aku dah buat dah !In fact mase aku mati tu, aku in recovery. Panjang ceritanya jawab Hantu2 sayu.
Ceritala sikit..Sambil-sambil lepak nih..
Camni..Aku syak isteri aku main kayu tiga ngan aku. So this one day, aku ingat nak perangkap la isteri aku..Aku pura-pura gi keje tapi actually aku park keta aku kat simpang hujung umah aku je. Seperti yang aku syak, masuk sebuah keta kat carpark umah aku. Aku rilex dulu sebab nak carik mase sesuai tangkap diorang.
So, ko dapatla tangkap diorang? tanya Hantu1 penuh minat.
Tak. Aku cume jumpe isteri aku je kat dalam bilik. Yang aku heran, mase aku masuk umah tu, aku nampak ade kasut laki kat pintu umah aku. Aku tanye isteri aku tapi die tak mo jawab. So aku pun lari-lari sekeliling umah aku nak carik jantan tuh. Abis sumetempat aku cari..kat dapur,bilik, ruang tamu,kat stor ma kat luar umahaku carik tapi takde pun.. Last-last, sebab aku penat sangat berlari carik jantan tuh, aku pun jatuh pengsan sebab heart attack. And aku tak sangka aku mati lak kata Hantu2 mengakhiri ceritanya dengan kesedihan:(
Hantu1 terdiam mendengarkan cerita Hantu 2. Selepas beberapa ketika, Hantu1 berkata,
Kenapa kau tak check kat dalam peti sejuk? Kalau kau check kat situ, sure kita berdua still hidup lagi.

The Longest Bus

2008-09-03T19:39:00.002+04:00

In my new office, the first flight on Airbus 340-600. Basically not much different with A330, 4 Roll Royce engines, the aircraft length is 75.3 m, have to use cameras to manoeuvre on the ground. I was doing AUH to LHR on the 30 Aug 08. Celebrate MERDEKA in London.

Muscat

2008-08-18T20:15:00.002+04:00

There is no aerobridge at Muscat Airport. Step will be connected to the aircraft's door on arrival and passengers will be transported by buses to the terminal.

This view is from the step, with the Muscat Airport in the background.

My Flight to Dublin

2008-08-17T11:13:00.002+04:00

The flight time from Abu Dhabi was 7 hrs 45 mins. After a few stretching and quick pit stops to the washroom, this sight came into view. 1000 feet final to land for runway 28 Dublin International Airport. Nice cool weather, light westerly wind, temperature 19 deg c.

Stay in the hotel there for 13 hrs then headed back for Abu Dhabi.

ABU DHABI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT

2008-08-12T01:24:00.003+04:00

This is the place where I normally start my work. The brand new A330-200. the machine that I love to work with.

Etihad Airways Crew

2008-08-01T17:16:00.002+04:00

While waiting for the pick up from the hotel to the airport.

Mont Blanche

2008-07-11T19:59:00.003+04:00

Taken during departure out of Geneva airport from my cockpit window. Normally covered with snow during winter.

Muenchen

2008-06-24T14:30:00.002+04:00

Nice cool quiet evening in Munich. The day when the German was playing against Austria , EURO 2008.

Musim buah kurma di Abu Dhabi

2008-06-24T14:19:00.000+04:00

Buah kelapa sawit di negara Arab. Kadang kadang sepokok boleh menghasilkan buah sampai bernilai 5000 dirham sekali berbuah. Buah kurma memerlukan cuaca dan angin yang panas untuk masak dan kering.