AMAZONICA

The Amazon rainforest (Portuguese: Floresta Amazônica orAmazônia; Spanish: Selva Amazónica, Amazonía or usuallyAmazonia; French: Forêt amazonienne; Dutch: Amazoneregenwoud), also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is amoist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 square kilometres (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 5,500,000 square kilometres (2,100,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peruwith 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. States or departments in four nations contain "Amazonas" in their names. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species.^[1]

Flying over the Amazon, between Buenos Aries and Caracas.

REAL MADRID - Estadio Santiago Bernabeu

2 days transit in Madrid, walked to the stadium which is only 1.2 km from the hotel.

Buenos Diaz !!!

Holla, buenos diaz ! , it mean hello and good morning in Spanish, the language mostly spoken in the Latin America Region.

I am on wet lease operation to Condiasa Air of Venezuela, based at Caracas. Departed in the morning from Madrid , crossed the mighty Atlantic, 7 hours over the water before we reached our destination, Simon Bolivar Airport, Maquetia, Caracas.

Airborne out of Madrid Airport on the way to Caracas.

The flight path over the Atlantic. With 4 engines running, less thing to worry.

 Landing at runway 28 , Simon Bolivar Airport of Caracas.

Alhamdulillah, safely landed.

Happy Birthday to my twin girls..

PINGAT PJM

Dua hari lepas dapat email dari sahabat lama , satu intake atau skod yang mengatakan saya layak untuk mendapat Pingat Jasa Malaysia, untuk veteran ATM yang pernah berkhidmat dan terlibat dalam operasi menentang Parti Kominis Malaya. Maka dengan gigih saya pun mencari buku biru, Pengakuan Perkhidmatan untuk dibuat salinan supaya dapat dikepilkan bersama dengan borang pendaftaran PJM.

AIR DEFENCE PILOT

Kehilangan pesawat B777 semasa membuat penerbangan dari KLIA ke Beijing, MH370 memang banyak meninbulkan bermacam macam theory dan andaian. Persoalan yang paling utama ialah kenapa TUDM tidak menghantar pesawat pemintas untuk memintas pesawat B777 itu sebaik sahaja menyedari yang pesawat itu telah membuat Turn Back, menghala ke Barat , lebih kurang 180 darjah dari laluan asal. Bermacam macam jawapan yang telah diutarakan, dan saya tidak akan mengeruhkan keadaan dengan membuat theory dan andaian saya sendiri. Cukup lah saya menceritakan apakah tugas tugas sebagai seorang Air Defence Pilot.

Dalam Air Defence kita sama juga dengan negara negara lain, ada Readiness Condition Green, Amber and Red. Apabila Red enforced, pesawat akan disiap segera berhampiran dengan runway untuk memudahkan berlepas dalam jangka masa paling singkat. Kalau readiness Alert 15, pesawat telah siap diperiksa, di isi minyak dan lengkap dengan persenjataan, juruterbang menunggu di dalam bilik rehat. Apabila mendapat scramble order, juruterbang akan bergegas ke pesawat masing masing, menghidupkan engines dan bergerak ke landasan untuk berlepas, dan ini semua mengambil masa kurang dari 15 minit.

Sekiranya memerlukan persediaan yang lebih pantas, Air Defence akan menggunakan Alert 2, juruterbang akan bersiap sedia , duduk di dalam cockpit menunggu scramble order dari Air Defence Centre. Bila scramble order dilancarkan, dengan segera mereka akan menghidupkan engines dan terus bergerak kelandasan dengan mengambil masa selama 2 minit sahaja untuk berlepas. Air Defence Controller akan mengarahkan kepada juruterbang hala yang perlu dituju dan juga ketinggian untuk sampai ke tempat yang di tuju dengan seberapa segera, untuk memintas pesawat musuh.

WAYPOINT IGARI

On ground, before departure, setting up the routing into the Flight Management Computer. This was the route that I flew to Taipei on the 13 Apr evening.

In flight, this is how it look in the computer.

And the Navigation Display, approaching waypoint IGARI at 39000 feet.

As a back up and monitoring, I have an Ipad with preloaded navigation application to show my present location.

So this is the infamous waypoint IGARI where the MH370 reported disappeared from the radar and ended somewhere at the Indian Ocean. 

Perfect landing at Diego Garcia

PRAY FOR MH370

PRAY FOR MH370

Effect of the atmospheric change to human ears.

Recently, there was a complaint made by one of the passenger travelling on Airasia flight somewhere from China to KLIA. He was complaining about the pain on the ears during the descent. He even mentioned about the speed the pilot was flying appeared to be faster than normal because the arrival was early by 30 minutes.

Early arrival is only possible if the pilot can shorten the flight time, mainly by track shortening ( with the approval by Air Traffic Controller ) flying at higher speed during the descent until 5000 feet ( with the approval or instructed by the controller , normal speed below 10000 feet is 250 knots) and tailwind condition during the cruise phase. During the descend, the rate can reach as much as 2500 feet per minute but the cabin, which is pressurised, only descend at the rate of 300 to350 feet per minute. This is possible with the function of the Cabin Pressurisation Controller with limit the rate, suitable for human body especially the ears.

I took these pictures during the descend recently on my flight from Perth, cleared for high speed below 10000 feet. There you go, 310 knots with the rate of descend at 2200 feet per min as indicated by the green needle on the right side. 

However , the cabin rate of descend is only at 300 feet per minute as indicated by the green arrow CAB V/S at the lower picture. With this rate, a normal healthy passenger will not feel any pain in the ear unless he is having a heavy flu, blocked nose or sinus problem.