Nik H.

KS, Flee, S M Tang, thanks guys. I've got the costs for this event already under control. Now need to get aircraft, nego a good price and set the date, alert relevant Authorities, etc. As soon as these activities are done, I'll get back to you. As always, It'd be good to have good photos and also reports on the Event and this is where you all can play a role. Cheers.

Dear Friends, There will be another event for 280 orphans utilizing a jetplane for a night flight over KL City at night. Members of this site were involved in the previous events as well, ie, A Night To Remember ( A330 night flight ) & Sensational Saturday ( B747-400 day flight over KL City). As I'm now retired from MAS, the work to organise this is a lot harder. But in one week we managed to confirm take-up for all the 7 buses and sponsorship for all 280 children. What is fantastic about this whole thing is that two buses are sponsored by mt Singapore riding friends, in just 48 hours they managed to collect sufficient contribution for the two buses. Concept is similar as past Events but this time we are expecting 200 or more Superbikes to participate. I would like to invite 4 photographers to join in the Event, preferably those who joined in before. Target will be sometime in early January, on either a friday or saturday night. Thank You The 2011 Event : Kawan Awan. B747 flight from TGG - KUL carrying 20 children. NOTE : No event in 2012 as MH was 'unable' to 'assist'.

Thanks KK Lee.

Hi AvS, OffTopic; Naim alerted me on this post. Contrary to the NoGo I've actually been very much On the Go. For the past 18 months finishing my Ride Around Asean Plan. Soon will be riding parts of the world with US West Coast beginning next two weeks, Himalayas after Eid, Myanmar at year end, with Inner Mongolia, Eastern Russia and Patagonia in 2014. Still in the thick of Commercial Aviation but tied up with non-disclosure agreements so cannot say much here. Cheers, North Thailand overlooking Myanmar ( Doi Tung ) East Thailand overlooking Laos ( Phu Chi Fa ) Hot Air Ballooning at Vang Vieng, Laos. Pol Pot's Grave at Anlong Veng, Cambodia. For those interested Full Story is here. N4TION ADVLux 2012 Cheers Art, and Long Live MWings.

Anyone knows what will happen to the Jumbos?

OMG, Malcon Troops flying on AK now. And that's after MAS signing the contract with Mindef late 2011 for a two year extension. Congratulations MAS, you new boys have no idea how hard it was to get this UNIFIL thing running. Now MH has given the contract to AK on a silver platter. MH wasn't even interested to do the HAJ but since AK doesn't have the right aircraft for it, it fell back to MH. In the next few months there will be another big scandal that will surface affecting USD900million worth of the Rakyat's money. Wait and see. In late 2007 MH won the East-West Movement because Air Asia was doing such a shabby job in the last 7 years. MAS followed the normal procurement procedure and bid via tender. After being awarded the contract, Mindef split or was told to split the contract 50-50 with AK. No reason to do since MH offers better service with hot food, reserved block seating and aerobridge facilities. At the same price as AK. AK is definitely the preferred son. I don't think the current MH management has a clue the "hows, why and what " of this contract.

Not entirely correct Captain. Salary is but one component of staff costs. There's EPF, Socso, Insurance, Medical, Transport, uniform and training allocation as well as other misc components. MAS is actually an HR nightmare, which to me is the root of all its problems. Not having the right people in the right place is its biggest problem. Not revenue, not costs. Its a people problem. From the top downwards. Right people in the right place and everything will run like clockwork.

There are 4 reconfigured B744s in MH. 3 were reconfigured for Al Wafeer, and one was done for MH Charter Dept to run a "reengineered" Jeddah Route proposal. All the 4 aircraft were at the end of their lease agreements with the owner, PMB. When the AlWafeer deal went tits up, 3 of the aircraft were put up for sale, and the 4th returned to PMB. Air Atlanta grabbed two, and wet leased the aircraft to SV. One stayed with MH. The third was 'purchased' by EagleX. When the deal also went tits up, Mh then released the aircraft for the Haj period. Don't know what plans Mh has for the aircraft after the Haj is over, but the lack of having good knowledgable officers in the wet lease business segment has lost Mh millions in great opportunities. Hope that's clear art....

3 A/C was returned to PMB as MH has no use for it. 2 were from the failed AlWafeer deal, and aircraft were grabbed by Air Atlanta to serve the Saudi wet lease deal. Mpe was "purchased by EagleX, but eventually fell thru. Mh then re-leased mpe to service the Haj contract. There could have been many ways to make money from the 3 Jumbos but lack of imagination in Mh means lost opportunities.

Mad Mitch into Airlines now.............

Cool. Well done. Yet another " susu dari lembu sapi dapat nama" case. And I thought xmas island flights started way back in 2002.....as did Nanning and Guilin? Why not also tell the world that MH is the "first airline to operate the A380" after 7 other airlines.....

VFR day today, Visibility unlimited. PR coup missed, should have done a 2,000ft flight from Batu Arang, fly above KL City, cross PJ, then a flypast over SZB before ending the flight at KLIA. Advsie the public in advance, those with the best picture of the aircraft gets one free seat during the proving flight. Rugi.

Salute to AK. They can sell hot air to a sweating person. ETOPS pun bikin publicity. Salute again. MH has been operating ETOPS aircraft since the mid 90s. Many of you probably flew on ETOPS aircraft previously, so as per Naim's post, update your FB profile now. Question : If the ETOPS aircraft loses its ETOPS ability temporarily, then would AK be indulging in false advertising?

You forgot to add "Again" BC.

Not very accurate is a very kind remark. ETOPS is about Crew, Maiintenance, Communications and finally aircraft. For an aircraft to be certified ETOPS, systems must have a certain amount of redundancy built in. Crew must be trained in Operations in ETOPS Environment. A/C - Ground monitoring must be in place. Maintenance for ETOPS aircraft is also of a hiigher level than the norm, and MELs must be revised. DCA will also need to be in the picture before such operations commences. As for the passenger, I do not know the significant or the reason for excitement flying in an ETOPS aircraft.

As far as the catering Agreement is concerned, any change will be better than no change. Given the interests involved in the renegotiated agreement, this is indeed a major victory for MH.

Capt Radzi, tell the Unions and Associations the Fat Lady have not yet started to sing. Kinda like a Cobra recoiling for the next strike. Collateral damage for the innocent will be massive. Better hold the purchase of the new car until the end of the year. Good Luck.

There definitely has been a money gap, with some complicated money transfer Bank Negara issues being blamed as a convenient barrier. But I think someone got spooked after initially getting carried away by optimistic stories from those who stole someone else's idea, but have insufficient market knowledge to carry out the plan. The slipping timeline also made those holding the purse strings tighten up. As always, there's more to it than many will ever know.

Arthur, you're right. As clear as day. TF is as brilliant as others are stupid. Its like taking candy from babies. MH management is more clueless than ever. What a crying shame.

It would be very interesting if they do a story on the F27 crash. Flight Operations should shiver if the truth comes out. It happened during the Reign of Terror.

Pilot competency is also about take-off and landing cycles. Not just flying hours. A 737 Pilot flies 80 hours a month. In MH the cycle to hours ratio for B737 is almost 1:1. Which implies 80 Take-off and landing per month. An A380 Pilot doing long haul will cover 100 hours in 5 London Runs. But since its a Double crew run, he will probably do only 3 take-off and landings. Hence its pretty important when introducing a new fleet type, the initial hunt for sectors in schedule planning is put in place. Airlines that look far actually cost this into its operating budget.

That's the beauty of being an Airline Pilot. You can dabble into Air transport Business and fail, and can always fall back on your ATPL and still bring home RM40k a month.

Sad indeed. But True.

I know this comment has no value but " hehehehehehehe hahahahahaha....... " a tragic black comedy. And its only half the story. Most have no idea how deeeeep a hole that the rakyat's money has been used to cover these gaffs.

Eagle Express is in ICU. Assignments for Landing rights after the Govt to Govt Air Services Agreement is agreed upon lies with the home country, not the host country so not quite accurate to say the RSA Govt disallows Eagle Express to operate into KSA. Gung Ho approach by Eagle Express in pre-signing Charter Agreements with agents prior to putting key financial and operational processes in place means inability to deliver. As such Eagle Express have to find alternative means to move their passengers. MAS is the only vehicle, and the Charter costs per flight charged by MH puts the fledgling Eagle Express in a precarious financial position. The required Proving Flights ( a DCA/MoT requirement ) were postponed numerous times as leasing agreements were not settled yet. As i said in my earlier posts; Good Luck. And pity the frontline troops.