Nik H.
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Posts posted by Nik H.
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And they never head hunted you for spinmaster (whoops, I meant PR directorship) ?
I am not 'low cost'......
hence cannot fit into the business model.Remember 'Good not Cheap, Cheap not Good'..............?
Cheers.
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Hah - caught red handed !
Anyone noticed the supposed 'runway' at left of rendering looks super duper mega wide ?! Man, the asphalt and concrete necessary would be mind boggling !
Another give-away would be the absence of 'aerobridges' in the published renderings but promised by the AK/Sime Darby pakatan as an 'improvement' over current LCCT
Maybe KLIA East runways are designed super wide for simultaneous departures for cost savings.....
BC, the improvement may be the shorter walking distance from the terminal door to the aircraft door. Face it, shortening walking distance of 10 feet can be spun as an improvement, and that is not totally wrong. I mean 10 feet x 140 pax x 20 flights n 40 gates = 112,000 feet walking distance saved. Per Day. Multiply that by 365 for annual savings. Now convert that into calories saved, the lesser amount of shoe soles wear and tear, eventually link that into carbon deposits reduction ( cue credit for the environment ).....i can think of lots more related savings...... that can be presented if one has great verbal articulation, a nice PPT presentation, and to a friendly admiring audience.......
Hah - caught red handed ! Anyone noticed the supposed 'runway' at left of rendering looks super duper mega wide ?! Man, the asphalt and concrete necessary would be mind boggling !
Another give-away would be the absence of 'aerobridges' in the published renderings but promised by the AK/Sime Darby pakatan as an 'improvement' over current LCCT
Maybe KLIA East runways are designed super wide for simultaneous departures for cost savings.....
BC, the improvement may be the shorter walking distance from the terminal door to the aircraft door. Face it, shortening walking distance of 10 feet can be spun as an improvement, and that is not totally wrong. I mean 10 feet x 140 pax x 20 flights n 40 gates = 112,000 feet walking distance saved. Per Day. Multiply that by 365 for annual savings. Now convert that into calories saved, the lesser amount of shoe soles wear and tear, eventually link that into carbon deposits reduction ( cue credit for the environment ).....i can think of lots more related savings...... that can be presented if one has great verbal articulation, a nice PPT presentation, and to a friendly admiring audience.......
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It happened one Sunday morning on a clear day. I first heard about it over the TV at about 8am as I was getting ready to ride my bike for Fraser's Hills.
The aircraft descended towards the Kilo Lima NDB which was just over 7 nautical miles from Runway 33 extended centerline. The height it should have been at that point should not have been less than 2400ft. If I remember correctly there were a number of errors that conspired to cause the crash.
1. It was dark. If it was bright, the pilots would have seen the terrain.
2. The Glideslope was not available, either withdrawn or unservicable. If it was servicable, the pilots would have followed the GS and flew the slope correctly.
3. The Radar at Lumpur those days had no altitude reporting capability. If it had, the controller would have seen the aircraft descending to a level it should not descend to.
4. The Pilot misunderstood the controller's transmission to descend to 2400 ft. He thought that he's cleared to descend TO 400 ft.
The aircraft burst into flames upon impact, and was totally consumed by the post crash fire, leaving only the rudder visible. It was a fairly forgettable crash as 'only' 4 were killed.
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There was a big crash when an RAF BAE Hawk crashed and burned just after Take Off from Runway 22 Sempang, TUDM Base this morning.
It happened during the RSAF Airshow. Here are some pictures of the event.
The Scene at the apron flightline;
The Good Colonel and his Paramotor
The Flypast event started with a C172 and 4 Eagles doing a flypast
The 4 Eagles did a bomb burst
After that the hawk did its Take Off but I did'nt have time to shoot the Take Off roll.
Immediately after getting airborne, the Hawk was seen banking steeply to the left, with the pilot vainly fighting for control. It ploughed into the ground in a huge fireball.
The Fire Tender rushed out to kill the flames
We quickly rushed out there as soon as the area was secured.
The impact point
Sham checking out the debris trail
The trail of fireball left a swath of burnt grass
The two pilots remains were collected by Five Zero
More SAR activities
The main debris
The Hawk owner along with Sham inspecting the main debris
Till now the cause of the crash is still unknown. It was definitely not pilot trouble hence it looks like it is technical related the nature of which remains unclear. Not much remains of the debris so the cause will probably remain unknown.
The Hawk Pre-Crash
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Talked to a friend and they are arranging for a BAE Hawk with Smoke, a Long EZ Jet and an L29 to do an RC Turbine display there. Apparently there's a morning and afternoon slot for them.
The Hawk is something to look at, with detailed cockpit and pilot figures as well.
This will be a big challenge to shoot nice spotting pictures. Not as easy as shooting airliners as these little jets are very fast and agile, and framing them for a good pix is not easy.
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Pardon me, I really have to sound rude.
That aircraft looks as if it is made of carboard boxes glued together, and the red "lips" makes it looks like a monster....
After looking at all those flushed aerodynamically eye pleasing aircrafts, this is one grotesque looking aircraft.....
Now I wonder why they call it fixed wing "amphibian" aircraft!!!
You should see its performance capabilities....simply awesome.
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Another profession with 'abnormal' working conditions, which most of us are ignorant of, is ...I hope my daughter can cope - she's starting her housemanship any time now.
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Very Sad. Professionals working in an unprofessional working environment ( insofar as human endurance is concerned ).
If such working hour condition is prevalent in the Aviation Industry, we will see a sharp rise in HUFAC ( Human Factor) related incidents/accidents. Thankfully, the rules governing FTDT ( Flight Time Duty Time ) Limitations are well regulated and forms part of MCAR ( Malaysian Civil Aviation Regulations ) 1996. Punitive action will be taken against both employer and employee should the limits be breached. The Company cannot force and the Crew cannot be forced to wilfully break the Limits. The only exception will be in dire emergencies only where the crew can exercise discretion to extend beyond the allowable limits. Even then, a proper report is mandatory and must be filed with the Governing body.
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Then provide me with an example .Are you telling me only pilots have to wake up when they're sleepy and work through different time zones ?
It sure did sound like that in your first post .
But hey , you're the pilot isn't it , you should know better .
As I said earlier;And using Express Bus drivers as a comparison is "highly intelligent" and not worth debating as the argument itself has brought the subject down to internet chat level.
Khaled, Gavin, i have yet to meet a bus (NOT Airbus) driver that works through time zones, with his body being subjected to the the influences of circadian rythm, with effects of acclimatisation in an enclosed pressurised environment breathing dry air.
Anyway who else work sleeepily through time zones apart from Pilots and Angkasawan? Cabin crew face fatigue differently as their work is physical in nature, with emotional challenges being thrown at them by opinionated pasengers.
Last post.....I'm off to threads of feelgood............
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Nik , why not we provide a wonderful spa while we're at it .That is part of the job , they didn't run into this field thinking its going to be a bed of roses .
Express bus driver also has to make do with a simple seat to sleep in , even though he pulls off long hours , driving through the night , pulling off probably similar hours to what is done on the aircraft , and having to concentrate throughout the time , last time I checked , no autopilot .
Do they have a bed to sleep in ? Does it mean they drive a bus visibility is not compromised ?
Thanks for the pilots point of view
Gavin, I'd thought better of you.
And using Express Bus drivers as a comparison is "highly intelligent" and not worth debating as the argument itself has brought the subject down to internet chat level.
Definitely Norman, Fitri and Dr Naim will have a better view of fatigue onset on Ultra Long Haul flights given their recent experience of crossing 13 time zones in 30 hours.
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Great comments from non pilots.
Guess you guys have never needed to keep awake when you're sleepy, or need to sleep when you're not so you won't be sleepy when you need to keep awake later. I don't think the Pilots are fussy. They are not petty about this sort of thing.
Perhaps you'd like to be a passenger in a plane piloted by sleepy pilots, shooting an approach into a zero visibility airfield, with marginal visibility at the alternate and with just B-C fuel and just sufficient left for 45 minutes holding.....
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even I have to admit that IJ has done a good job. i will have to eat my own humble pie. congrats for a job well done!Izanee, and some of the most well meaning critics here.....some of the things done in MAS by IJ are not far adrift from suggestions posted on Mwings. Meal(Snack)boxes, pricing strategies, route rationalisation and eventually Fleet changes count as a few. Many more initiatives are to follow and the road to maintain profitability is going to be a rocky one. Much remains to be done.
Thankfully, IJ has agreed to helm MAS for another 3 years, and that, at the very least, will ensure some measure of consistency in policy and continuity in driving the BTP. IJ in my humble opinion, is a good boss to work with. Don't get me wrong, I don't work for him, I work for MAS, so blowing smoke up his ass is not something I'd do. Eventually he'll be going to even better pastures but i will still be left behind with his successor, whoever he may be. I have gone through a number of management changes and am relieved not to go through another one. Credit must be given where credit is due.
By his own admission, the future for the global air industry is far from rosy, and he's going to have a tough time doing his job with MAS being a business of National interest.
In the meantime, keep the criticism coming, there's always something useful that can be picked out and learnt from. Nothing like some reminders to keep MH on its toes.
Cheers.......
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Congrat Idris Jala!!Bet you guys my house if it was the other way round it will be headlines. But because its not its only a sidebar story.
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So did MJ & all the others actually fly on MHK, or was it just their equipment?The whol lot including MJ flew in the aircraft. Their concert equipment were loaded into the rear cargo area.
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ermm.. LTP? What's that? 'Laptop'?Thanks for the memoir, Capt.
I thought there was another Combi, 'Kuala Lumpur'? MHL I think.
LTP is Long Term Parking. One step above Mothballing.
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So they have to make their own way to Phuket? How is that any better?Well, its either you stay in BKK waiting for the airport to open and moan and groan and spend on hotels and food or act smart and take a land journey to HKT and fly for home.
Or the passengers have a choice of flying out of clean uncrowded peaceful white elephant KLIA in a wannabe 5star airline called MAS.
Mascharters have mounted a B737 flight to Utapao to pick up stranded BA and QF Cockpit crew and sent them to SIN so they can operate flights out of there. Crew who are supposed to operate the SIN/JKT sector and onwards to OZ or LHR are unable to do so until they arrive in SIN/JKT. And there are a number of aircraft stranded in SIN and JKT.
Tonight two B737 charter flights are departing to HKT. Tomorrow another A330 Charter flight will be taking off for HKT. Guess its gonna be a busy week for us.
We are also preparing to provide services to BKK once the airport opens to clear the backlog. Prices will be above normal rate as 'cheap no good and good no cheap'.
Small money no doubt but any amount is good in these bad times......
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A condition given to MH by the British Government at that time for landing rights at LHR was MH to use RR engine. Other condition was not to operate non-stop flight from LHR to KUL.For the country pride not to abide to the agreement, 743 was bought by Petronas and leased to MH. Although RR engine used on 742 had less problem than PW and GE, RR didn’t get the chance to supply to MH until 772.
9M-MHK was a good plane and we used it for charters when i first formed the Department in MAS. Our first encounter with High End Charter was for a big concert movement prior to the fall from grace of the Gloved One....Michael Jackson.
The concert was ' Michael Jackson and Friends ' and we carried MJ, Slash of Guns and Roses, Luther Vandross, Vanessa Mei, Liz Taylor, two sopranos whose names i cannot recall and a few more big names including one Mega Diva.
We flew them from SEL to Munich via Helsinki in 1999.
We were supposed to fly MJ again later that year for the Y2K concert from Sydney to Honolulu but there was a fallout between him and the organiser so that concert was cancelled.
The aircraft was a combi that seats 295 pax, and had a side loading cargo door. Although it was an oddball aircraft, it was much loved by the crew. It was eventually sold pretty cheaply after being on LTP for a year.
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Guys, don't be naive. I have great respect for Dato' TF and he has amazing abilities of turning a 'bad' situation to AK's advantage. He can see further than any of us here.
He will handle this with his trade mark panache and will come out the better over the Government. Unlike MH, no one can force AK to do what they themselves don't want to do.
Besides, Malaysians' memory span is shorter than the flashgun on my Canon.
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Read from Berita Harian today, yesterday's flight was delayed for more than 2 hrs as the A/c could not land in Terengganu due to bad weather. Any idea where they divert the a/c?The flight could not land in TGG due to poor visibility. The situation was as I have warned and made aware to the TGG State Government, and is related to a non delivery of fully operational ILS. We have been promised the ILS during the planning stage but to date, the Glide Slope is not functioning, resulting in a higher minima and visibility limit.
With the Glide Slope functioning, the diversion would most certainly not have happened.
The plane diverted to KUL and returned to TGG after a 3 hour delay. With hard work by the Hajj team, the plane eventually arrived Jeddah with a delay of just one hour.
I was in JKT when this took place, handling the UN Indobatt Charter to Beirut.....but that's another story.
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Wouldn't it be better if the official photographer can provide more details to the phototographs - like aircraft registration number/name, time spent on the tarmac at TGG with arriving and departing time, the number of passengers carried in each classes + the number of crews on each outbound and inbound sectors etc? I think all this information, if accessible, will give more weight and credibility to the thread, rather than just a plain aircraft picture.Very True Azizul. I'm sure Fitri will come up to mark. I guess he is busy sifting through the thousands of photos he shot on the two days. Then there's cropping, resizing, uploading etc etc. He has to yet recover from the two days.
In the meantime, here's some shots from my compact digicam.
The Official Photographer officially shooting while being unofficially shot by the unofficial photographer.
Unofficial shots of 9M-MPM departing from TGG for Jeddah with 354 Pilgrims, 15 Ah Mois, 1 Ah Beng, three Pilots, 106 tonnes of Fuel and 12.3 tonnes of baggage for the 8 hour 37 minute flight to Jeddah.
Another unofficial shot of the aircraft officially entering the runway to backtrack for a 04 Take-Off.
Its a tiring job for the Official photographer....being such a dedicated professional, he even tried helping out with the pushback
Had to cover the "behind the scenes"......with the Cabin Crew
Here he's overwhelmed by the attention from the friendly Ah Mois.....
The Full Story will unfold in due time.
ps; From Sunday Pilgrims will be in their Ihram ex TGG.
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There should be a law against letting just any Tom, Dick and Harry register their company as an airline before securing an AOC and some form of commercial operating rights.
I have seen this too many times. Mafira Air, Asmara Air and a few more........ and now Global Air...too many innocent people have been hurt and have their aviation career destroyed, too many investors conned, too many passsengers left stranded.....
Have a big time press conference, feed the press food from a 5 star hotel, present the gullible public utter rubbish, throw some impressive sounding figures in the air and viola, an 'airline is born.
Why am i pretty pissed....? Well its because my team have worked very very hard to consolidate our Hajj operations to not just make money, but also offer our pilgrims the best service at affordable prices...to build our Malaysian brand as the best in this business segment ....then springboard into the International arena....only to have Malaysia's name and reputation dragged in the mud by these few castle in the air/pie in the sky before we could do so....
cheap not good, good not cheap......and grass always grows greener over the septic tank.....
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And they are recruiting stewardesses here:http://www.malaysianbabes.net/forum/index....showtopic=22220
Poor girls. At least 12 of them left MasCharters after successfully negotiating our interviews to join our Hajj movement last August. They jumped ship to Global Air after getting sweet promises.....
'Yang di kejar tak dapat, yang di dukung tercicir.....' ( Lost what you're chasing, dropped what you're carrying )
Sad.......
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700 Thai Haj Pilgrims Stranded In Penang
By D Arul Rajoo
BANGKOK, Nov 11 (Bernama)-- About 700 Thai Muslim pilgrims have been stranded in Penang for the past one week after a Malaysian airline company that was supposed to fly them to Saudi Arabia failed to arrange their flights.
Areepen Uttasin, a member of parliament from Narathiwat, said the pilgrims, mostly from the southern provinces of Pattani and Narathiwat, paid about 140,000 baht (RM14,000) each to the airline to manage their trip to Mecca together with a Saudi partner.
He said they were supposed to leave for Mecca on Nov 4 but the planes that were supposed to be provided by the airline's Saudi counterpart failed to arrive in Penang as scheduled.
"This is really disturbing as I don't understand why they collected money but are unable to provide the service," he said when contacted here.
According to Areepen, who met the pilgrims in Penang few days ago, the Malaysian company representatives promised that arrangement had been made to fly them to Mecca on Thursday.
At the moment, all the pilgrims are housed at the Tabung Haji Complex on the island and the company is paying about RM20,000 a day for food and accommodation, he said.
"I hope they will keep to their promise to send them by Thursday. Otherwise, there will be more problems as Mecca-bound Malaysian pilgrims are expected to move into the complex on Nov 19," he said.
Areepen said while waiting for the company to take the necessary steps, he was liasing with Thai Foreign Ministry officials and Thai International Airways to make alternative arrangements.
"I am going to raise this matter in Parliament tomorrow. If the company cannot keep to its promise to send them by Thursday, we will ask them to refund the pilgrims' money and try to send them from Thailand," he added.
Areepen said Saudi Arabia had a 14,000 pilgrim quota for Thailand and most of the Mecca-bound Thais are flying from the Bangkok, Phuket and Hatyai international airports.-- BERNAMA
Oh No....my worst fears are realised. I've also been made to understand an Afghan minister in charge of the Hajj is in jail as the aircraft leased by the same Malaysian company also failed to appear in Kabul.
I hope it all turns out well eventually as I'm sure the organisers know what they're doing.
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Watch this thread as more stories unfold.
MW Fitri is now assigned official photographer.
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Capt. Nik, may I know in general how many flights that MasCharter is arranging for this coming hajj season with its respective departure and arrival points? It seems that too many focus is given to the operation in TGG, that somehow the operation in KUL this year was never being mentioned. I believe the majority of the hajj pilgrims will depart from KUL. Or it is just like what have been featured in your earlier trip report on the hajj operation out of KUL?The departure points out of Malaysia are KUL, PEN, JHB, BKI, KCH and TGG. The numbers of flights from all stations remains about the same but there will be a proportional reduction out of KUL with TGG operations on stream. The Focus is given to TGG as being a new station and with the numerous challenges we faced at conceptual stage just weeks ago makes a more interesting story.
The flights out of KUL started 30th October. Flights out of PEN started a few days later. So far '0' delay alhamdullillah. We will be carrying 18,000 pilgrims this year.
Malaysia Airlines 777 & A330 at Langkawi recently
in General Aviation
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Special group movement to and from LGK from China.