Attan

Yes, a longer runway is needed because it takes longer to reach Vr. Vr is based on air speed but at those altitudes, the air speed is much much lower than ground speed because of the lower air density (remember the air speed is measured by the pressure of the air on the pitot tube). The ground speed reaches 140 kts but the air speed is still way behind, therefore you can't rotate yet until further down the runway.

Thanks for the valuable inside info, Fairizuan.

Answer here: http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/2-10-00askeds.html

There are many small airlines from Indonesia that fly scheduled routes to WMKM even now. I flew Riau Airlines Melaka-Batam-Melaka about 2 years ago on an F50. Most of the flights to Melaka are from Pekanbaru, Palembang and Dumai. You will find several ambulances waiting at WMKM for the arrivals from these cities. Apparently the medical centres in Melaka are very popular with the Indonesians who come for surgeries and other treatment.

Wonderful pics of a wonderful bird! Thanks, Pieter.

Well done, Sam. Good that you got them on video too.

Nice bonanza from you this time, Pieter. Thanks a lot, love that NW A330 shot.

Marvellous, Kwek. Worth the cold.

Good ones Raymond. Thanks for sharing.

Radzi, I join you as an admirer of that pic. Super!

Norman, respect brother! Hand-held night shots and no sign of shake - fuahh! Thanks to the Azahan-Norman team.

My stupid brain still cannot reason out why we need another international airport in Melaka and another bridge to replace the causeway. Please help.

Azahan Yati....yati....yati.....................mati!

Iggy, I think those lights were not off. It's just that you were viewing them from the wrong angle. The pilots would probably see them all on.

Beautiful shots, Kwek. Love your double takes (Jetstar/Garuda. Valueair/Jet Airways and TG/CX shots). Hope you get a better location in future now that this location is closed.

Many years ago an MH F27 made a visual approach for Rwy 04 WMKF thinking it was Rwy 33 WMSA but the crew realised they were mistaken and overshot to return to WMSA.

That's really nostalgic. Good of US Airways to do that.

Nice one, Mudzaffar. Hope you can also come up with reports on the other exercises like Helang-Malindo and the FPDA exercises. A million thanks.

Norman and Azahan Thanks for the wonderful night shots and the explanation on the LCCT apron operation. Well done, dark side. Tuan Hj Zul, if you're reading this, our most grateful thanks to you and the team at KLIA ATC.

LCC's can make a dent on the full service airlines (as seen in the US) and the number of LCC's will increase. If full-service airlines (including MH) think that they are in a different ballpark from the LCC's, they will soon be caught with their pants down. When Apple introduced the PC, IBM ignored them until they found out later that their mainframe sales were being affected. So they also launched their own PC's to keep Apple on their toes but it was too late. It was Microsoft, however, that subsequently enabled the IBM PC to recover. Then the IBM clones came and IBM's own PC's began to lose market share until the landmark sale to a Chinese company recently. Fortunately for IBM their mainframes are still selling well but imagine how big their market would have been if there were no PC's. What happened to the minicomputer producers (Wang, Honeywell, NCR, etc.)?

In the US, the pilot would have been called a hero and and his story would have sold for millions of dollars to CNN, CBS, Washington Post, etc.

Best of luck to all you guys who have applied for the cadetship. May the force be with you.

TF is talking about AK serving the region up to China and India. If planned and executed correctly, this should materialise. If MH brings in (and takes out) enough long-haul traffic, AK will be kept really busy connecting them from the Malaysian hubs to the regional points, maybe not so much to Limbang. If MH joins SkyTeam, this will be better still. Perhaps TF has the data that we don't have access to regarding the traffic patterns in the Asia Pacific region for him to make that statement.

Fitri, were you at Rwy 18 end (Teluk Ayer Tawar)? I used to sit there right outside the fence after school and watch all kinds of jets rolling out and making a 180. Some of the pilots would wave at us after opening their canopies to let in some fresh air (they almost always used Rwy 36).

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. To be with all the masters in one session is a humbling experience which I want to repeat. Norman, apparently all scanners put in a lot of noise into the pics except those very expensive ones. To make matters worse most of the photo shops spoil the negatives with their unprofessional processing. So I'll live with it.