SPEED

Abu Dhabi to Sydney, 09 June 13, Airbus A340-600, registration A6 EHJ, the one with the F1 livery.

On the ground still, using the camera to see the body and the wheels, to ensure the plane is on the hard surface all the time, not on the grass..

 In the air, the True Air Speed, TAS indicating 481, 481 knots or 481 nautical miles per hour. Roughly 890 km per hour. The GS is the ground speed, 539 knots, around 998 km per hour. So which one is the actual speed actually?
TAS is the speed of the plane piercing through the air at that particular atmosphere or piece of air, another word, the speed of the plane in relation to that piece of air at that particular moment..
GS is the speed of the plane in relation to the surface of the earth or ground, measurement of how much the plane covered in one hour over the ground, in Nautical Miles, kts. Why the value between TAS and GS      
                                                     are different?

Here, the TAS is 474 and the GS is 580.
There are another numbers, 269/108 below the TAS and GS. This is the wind vector, bearing , or direction of the wind coming from 269 deg on the compass at the speed of 269 knots.Since the plane's heading is at 095 deg, the wind direction is coming from behind the plane, as indicated by the small arrow below the numbers.It means, the wind is pushing the plane from behind at the speed of 108 knots. The pane already travelling through the air at the speed of 474 knots, and now the wind help to push it from behind at roughly 106 kts ( not 108 because the wind direction is not exactly from behind, slightly offset) giving the total speed the plane
                                                   travelling over the surface of the Earth at 580 knots.


    The result will be the opposite if the plane is flying the other way round, the GS should be 474-106, 368 knots. This is why the flight time of a particular flight always varies, not the same all the time. It is depending either the plane is subjected to tailwind or the headwind.. not because the pilot fly purposely flying faster or slower...

COUNTER INSURGENCY

Bila dengar dan fahami kes Sulu di Sabah ni, teringat pulak zaman Kominis dulu. Bukan senang nak menghapuskan mereka , banyak jiwa terkorban dari pehak tentera dan polis. Mereka bergiat dari pedalaman hutan hutan tebal dan bebas keluar masuk negara melalui sempadan yang tak terkawal. Akhirnya Tun Mahathir terpaksalah menggunakan kaedah win win situation untuk menarik kominis kominis itu keluar dari hutan dan menyerah diri. Kaedah apa yang di gunakan, itu kena cari sendiri. Tapi salah satu cara yang agak berkesan juga adalah melalui Latihan Bersama AIR THAMAL antara Tentera Udara dari Malaysia dan Thailand, dimana bom bom digugurkan dikawasan kawasan penempatan musuh untuk memudahkah pasukan dari tentera darat untuk menggempur kem kem mereka.

Ini lah jenis pesawat yang kami gunakan untuk misi misi tersebut, Aermacchi MB339A yang di beli dari Itali. Dalam gambar ini pesawat dilengkapi dengan bom jenis MK82 500lb dan juga canon 30mm.

Di dalam menangani kes pengganas Sulu ni, kaedah yang sama mungkin boleh digunakan, iaitu kerjasama antara Tentera Filippina dan Malaysia. Tetapi kali ini Tentera Laut lah yang sepatutnya digunakan kerana pengganas Sulu ini menggunakan jalan laut untuk keluar masuk ke Sabah. TLDM kita memang sudah mempunyai Marine Corp atau PASKAL laut, untuk mengawasi persisiran pantai, mengkhadkan pergerakan pengganas dan Tentera darat seperti biasa boleh mengepung dan menyerbu mereka.

Masalah yang paling besar adalah terdapatnya orang orang awam yang sudah lama bermastautin di Sabah yang menjadi tali barut mereka. Masalah yang sama dihadapi semasa memerangi Kominis dahulu. Jadi, mungkin kaedah win win situation yang di buat olih Tun Mahathir dahulu boleh di ulang semula ? Yang semestinya mesti banyak pehak yang tak akan berpuas hati.. Kita tunggu sahaja lah apa tindakan yang selanjutnya..

My first few landing during the night were using Goose neck runway lighting, look like a big Aladdin's lamp, using kerosene.. After that, the runways lighting powered by electricity with standby generator as the back up, powering the hight intensity lights. And now, LED is being used, still on trial. My landing at Manchester Airport this morning, and as you can see, even though already bright day, the lights still clearly visible..

My record so far..66.6km nonstop.

LVTO

   In winter, the temperature in Abu Dhabi can drop as low as 10 deg C at midnight and at early morning. The dew point also will hover around that temperature, and the result, foggy weather.

 Most of the departure out of Abu Dhabi is at early morning, from 0100 am till 0300 am, right in the foggy time. To maintain the normal operation, Abu Dhabi airport installed the RVR, runway visual range to give to the pilots the actual visibility, or how far they can see infront to conduct a safe take off. For Cat D aircrafts ( B777, A340, A380 ) the minimum RVR for take off is 200 meters and for smaller plane, 175 meters.

   In this video, I was departing for Milan on A340, the taxi out was assisted by the Follow Me car until the end of the runway. Visibility was around 200 meters. Enjoy the show.

CAT3B APPROACH AND AUTOMATIC LANDING

    After long flight, 14 hours from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, arriving at destination descending into thick fog for landing.    Thanks god the runway is equipped with the ILS, Instrument Landing System that can support CAT3B approach, mean the aircraft will lock on via the ILS and fly down to the runway by itself, follow by automatic landing..  So as the pilot, what do we do..?  Just observe and take over in the event of abnormalities..

  This video was my recent flight, in winter of Abu Dhabi, with the reported visibility was only at 200 meters. We can only proceed for the approach when the visibility is at 75 meters or greater. So there we were...  only saw the runway on touch down, all automatic..I took over when the plane was safely on the ground,  and the taxi to the parking had to be guided by the Follow Me car..

NIGHT LANDING AT LONDON HEATHROW

LANDING AT JFK, NEW YORK AFTER THE SANDY HURICANE

The John F Kennedy Airport was just opened when we arrived. Not many planes around, it was still closed for domestic flight, in fact we were the third planes that came in after the airport resumed normal operation , with only one runway opened for landing, 31R. 

On the way to hotel, many cars stalled, out of gas, many places still dark, no electricity, including the hotel that we stayed in.

My First Youtube Upload.

  I captured this while cruising at 36000 feet over the Iraq and Turkish border. In few weeks time, the background will be all white, snow covered.Pay attention at time 01:30.  Enjoy.