Azmir I.

Its MSN is 054.Ofcourse its an old bird,flown with Aer Lingus,Khalifa Airways and Air Madrid.Its GE powered whereas MAS uses PW engines.The cockpit uses CRT while the A320 in AK uses LCD panels.The new production A330 models are now equipped with LCD as standard.have flown the PW A330,the engine start sequence on the GE aircraft is faster than PW aircraft.

Dont be to early to criticise the people involved in the accident in HKT.Weather may be a factor.Ak flight to LGK at the time of accident did a go-around due to strong crosswinds (30-40 knots).Dont just believe what the reporter writes,there not professional pilots but just journalist out to make a fast buck.

Aircraft arrived from GUM (Guam).Flown by CPO FAX (Chief Pilot Operations/Capt Azhannuddin) and Head of Safety & Security FAX (Capt Omar Shuib) yesterday.Tomorrow will be official hand over ceremony at LCCT of XFA first A330.Next week will be doing some crew famil flights within AK route network.Later will do charters before finally going on line with the XFA routes.Sinced its a leased aircraft (GE powered A330-300) ,pax capacity is in the region of 320 with 2 classes (Bussiness and Economy).Owned aircraft (RR powered A330-300) will have capacity of 396 pax.Rumor has it that next month FAX will utilize an A340 for flights to Europe (wet leased aircraft).

Saw 9M-NAA at Terminal 2 Changi Internatinal this evening while doing MH613/ MH 616,whats it doing in Singapore?

On the A320 they use carbon brakes,the hotter the brakes ,the better it is.In FCOM 3 of A320,with brake fan on, max temp before take off is 150C,if without brake fans ,its 300C.Reason so that incase of hydraulic fluid is released to the brakes in the ldg gear compartment may cause fire. Now to say that after emergency braking during takeoff,with autobrake set to max,its gonna be glowing hot,ofcourse youll have to delay the takeoff plus to checkout why you did the reject takeoff in the first place. Whatever duration for turnaround time we do in the airline industry,trust me we follow the manufacturers recomendations,we just dont do it blindly.

min cool time for brakes on B733 is 19 mins,also if brakes still hot,remain gears down for a while and raised them passing 3000 ft.On A320 there is a brake fan option,so we used that almost always.Kalau tak percaya,you can ask the operating crew to check the A320 FCOM 3.If I remember well,Ive read about the early operations of Southwest Airlines whereby they used to do 15 mins turnaround with the B732 .

Are you sure?How do you know that?Last year I met some of the instructors prior to leaving Russia,Lt Col A."Gyro" and Maj F.The projects officer in Moscow is led by Col Syed S and Major M.N.As for the WSO,there is some backlog but not frontseaters,that I know for sure.Previously I wrote something about the Su30MKM capabilities but was deleted from the thread.

In our Flight safety Dept we have a group who monitors the FDA (Flight data Analysis),if there is any event (overspeed/overstress/etc) will be highlighted and particular crew will be called to explain the event and how it happened.So,in AK safety is our No.1 priority.

Mind you the Goverment VIP aircraft does not belong to the RMAF but is owned by JPM (Jabatan Perdana Menteri / Prime Ministers Dept) but operated on behalf by RMAF.Aircrafts are Boeing B737-700 BBJ,Bombardier BD-700 Global Express,Dassault DA-90 Falcon 900.The Fokker F-28 Mk 2000 is the only VIP jet owned by the RMAF.As for the Airbus A319 ACJ is private owned (belongs to a company associated with PMB and not the goverment thats why it has civilian registration)

Dont ask me,Im just an employee with AK,been driving their B733 sine 2002 and now A320 since 2006 and currently doing CCQ (cross crew qualification) on A330.

Latest is 9M-AHA.

Its not Faux Air or AKX but its XFA.Thecan always join AK if they want to,because they do have bases in BKI and KCH.

Its very easy to blame others when youre at home.Ive been on MH flights also and the delays are also frequent.Youve got to know the phylosophy of LCC operations,fly as frequent as possible,stay on ground as short as possible,multi-tier pay/fare structure and etc.Even MH also has technical glitch,if you can have some hard facts on technical delays,machines do breakdown,whatmore if its an airbus Fly by wire-its a flying computer,then youre comments do have merit.Its normal when somebodys upset ,he or she is bound to vent anger.Parly TF is right,weather latelyhas been bad,and yeah blame it on MAB,they were the ones who closed one runway for the A380 upgrade which even MH themselves dont know wheather there gonne get it or not.

Aircraft is currently overseas doing aircrew line training.Fully equiped with SATCOMS,ACARS but no brake fan.

Thats a good one.

Thanks a lot for that info Azri.Now as consumers we are forewarned.

The unit thats flying the Su-30MKM is the newly reformed No.12 Squadron,previously flying the F-5E/5F.Was disbanded when the Mig-29 was introduced and N0.17 and No.19 Squadron formed to operate it.On a normal tactical Hi-Lo-Hi mission,the Su-30 MKM can conduct combat operations from Gong Kedak and hit targets in KCH and return back to Gong Kedak without AAR (air to air refuelling).Source from colleague on the Su-30 project.

Most opted to join AK instead of taking the MASWings offer so that enable to fly jet aircraft.Once conversion to A320 is complete will be posted to either in BKI or KCH hubs,depending on their hub options.

A bit off topic,last Sunday there was an interview for FAX pilots who wish to join AK,also there was a SIM cx carried out for both Capts as well as FOs,heard that only 1 of the Capts did ok ,others were not up to standard,so most probably theyll start from RHS on the A320.

No more in front line service,allocated to 2 FTC at RMAF college Alor Setar,others handed over to Army Aviation Corps at Camp Mahkota Kluang for basic heli training.

Well answered sandeep.great ,keep it up.

Look what happen to Asmara Air?All that hype even before getting an AOC with Big time politician backing but habuk pun tarak.LCC thing in Asia is a new thing,not many people are convince with the bussines procedure but its qite mature in the States or Europe.Look when AirAsia was under DRB Hicom it was bleeding money for 5 years,its final year with DRB before takeover by TuneAir was $35 million in losses.,2 x B733.Best of all when I joined the company in early 2002 the MAS pilots that I met at KLIA were giving comments that the company will go under in 3 years and that send chills down my spine.At the end of the daylets think of it,Malaysian consumers can choose which mode of transportation to choose,by bus - high possibility of road crash on hiway,taxi-drivers wont use meters,so you can choose which one you want.Malaysia bussiness analyst are not conversant with LCC philosophy yet.Please do not talk about AirAsia X before you know anything,I know for a fact about it cause Im one of the pilots doing the A330 course plus info from DCA.

Current planning is to equip KUL hub with approx 40-50 A320 then to replace B733 at hubs JHB,KCH,BKI and perhaps new hub PEN followed by ThaiAirAsia (FD)and IndonesiaAirAsia (QZ) and also other JV in the pipeline planned for the future.The airplane order is not solely for Malaysia but rather for the whole AirAsia Grp.Planned replacement for FD will start this Nov and QZ the earliest 2008.

Great pictures,fantastic.The P-X looks like a reengined P-3 with turbofans instead of Allison Turboprops and the C-X looks like a mini C-17 minus 2 engines and no winglets.Wonder why the JMSDF didnt order the MMA (Boeing derived B737-800) and went along to develop their own airplane.The Japanesegoverment sure have enormous industrial tech knowhow and resources to proceed with such project,typical Japanese inginuity.

O.k.points taken,no problemo.