Maarof Kassim

Friday Spotting. It was a bit akward for me to spot on a Friday. But this spotting on 17th November 2006 had its surprises. First, there was no MAB to disturb me. Second, Azahan was already there at Oscar Hotel with Mr. Saw of Sungai Pelek. Third, I had a few surprises. Weather was good. The best I've seen for months. First surprise MPD Hibiscus. I think Azahan would take his usual close-ups, but for me this is good enough. Raj C. will love this shot with the two background structures. If this late rotation was caused by a full load then it is good for MAS I love this view First surprise, Thai Star Alliance 330 Notice the blue sky behind this Indian Airlines 320 Qatar came. I don't like this colour, a bit dull to me. China's flower came. After that I had to go to the KLIA mosque for Friday prayers. More pictures to follow...

I see this thread had been active for the last few days. So as not to be left out here's my only contribution. For Raj, I wish I have one of those bazookas. But for safety reasons please don't post my photo here.

You guys were lucky with no MAB around!!.

Concluding.... The usual Singapore tripple From Xiamen That's all for now. Hope to continue spotting with you guys.

I planned to shoot from 14L after the long break. So I went to the ladang on 10th November 2006 afternoon. Chaity, Kevin Teh and Raj Changela were already there. Before I could do anything the rain came. Our friends left with loaded memory cards I suppose. I took shelter at Cowboy Town and returned after the rain stopped. By then arrivals and departures had shifted to 32R. I dunno whether it was due to the rain. Still I took a few shots at the ladang first. Miss Eva just departed Maskargo just rotated leaving mists behind Maskargo up up and away KLM arrived and was leaving the runway. Notice that only one light was working on the right wing Then decided to move to Oscar Hotel hoping for a MAB free spotting. Just outside Cowboy Town saw this minor accident. First shot at Oscar Hotel, Royal Brunei A319 Merpati baby Boeing followed Airbus galore Another Airbus galore Boeing's turn for a galore KLM departing You can see clearly the non-working light. Maskargo arriving gracefully But smoking at touchdown A few more to come....

I guess I was given away by my car. Normally I came spotting using my bike (scooter) which I could bring right to the spotting positions. But now they have put up obstructions so that either you park you car at the foot of the hill or beside the guard house. At the later position (that's where I parked) you car can be spotted from kms away. So fellow spotters be aware of that.

That they did, sir.

The nickname for the Indonesian worker always found working at Observation Hill (Oscar Hotel). The last time I visited the Hotel he was nowhere to be seen. It turned out to be a bad omen for me as I was ordered to leave by the MAB authorities. After numerous visits to the Hotel that was my first time being asked to leave.

Thanks you guys for the correction. This is the shot of the Sari Girl as it passed over the Pos Office area. It was then that I decided to move to the pond. Pieter, you really look for the details. I didn't notice the eye-brows. Norman, the weather was rather misty os opposed to hazy. Hope to see you soon....

As an answer to Chaity's SOS to brightsiders I went to Oscar Hotel on 5th November 2006. It was not a happy return to the Hotel for me after the long layoff as I'll explain later. Nevertheless please accept these not so perfect pictures from me. Indian Airlines with the computer Escape key intials. If you look closely there is one more IA 320 waiting o move to 14L. Sri Lankan 340. My wish to shoot it rotating was dashed. Good take-off from this MH 777. No metal dropouts though. Rather late rotation from this MH 330 The same situation for this 747. It had me worried a bit. Bad news, after that I was chased by MAB. I had a bad feeling earlier as I did not see the Hotel Manager around. So I shifted to the pond. These were the only ones I got. AK Jalur Gemilang with the funny nose. No wonder MUFC is riding high on top of the EPL. After this I went home and fetched my family to spend Hari Raya at the Klang Valley.

350D still stuck with Hari Raya chores.

No problem, we have a Hotel Manager up there now.

Bro Norman, you've seen my body/torso. Can the outfit fit mine? If so I am interested, but after Raya la, got to hand out duit raya to lots of nephews, nieces and so on first.

Ramani, if you go into the "Pictures Speak a Thousand Words" thread you can see that once I argued and argued until I got my facts correct. Now from the maps availabe with me I can see that the distance from Sg. Pelek to Lukut (the junction not the town) alone is 27.2 km and the distance from there to Seremban via the normal Federal road is 25 km. Of course you can go from Lukut to Seremban via the S'ban-PD Hingway. Still with the travelling speed you mentioned plus the allowed 110 kmph for the highway I still doubt you can go from Seremban to SP in 25 minutes. Remember you have to start with 0 kmph and you have to deal with slow going traffic, the winding road from Lukut to Sepang and all that.

Sorry, I have to make clarifications here. If Sri Ramani is talking about the time taken to go from Seremban Town to SP, it is not correct. I stay in Seremban Town and it takes me about 40 minutes to go to KLIA alone. But if he is talking about the District of Seremban it may be so. After all the KLIA quarters is in the District of Seremban.

Well, SP is 9.2 km from Sepang Town and Sepang Town is just meters away/near the N9 border. Btw both SP and Sepang are nearer to the N9 towns of PD, Nilai and Seremban as compared to the Selangor towns/cities of Klang, PJ or Shah Alam. So its natural that folks from the two towns prefer to buy and register their cars and bikes in N9. And they don't have to endure traffic jams to do that, hee hee.

Chaity, if you look closely most of the vehicles in Sungai Pelek use number plates starting with 'N' although the town is in Selangor.

Keep on growing, KUL. Good for you, good for us spotters.

Jon, I saw a JAL 747 flew low over my house around 6.30 pm yesterday. Did you get that?

I totally agree. A few years ago I travelled MH Business Class. To be fair it was my first time at the KLIA Satellite Building and my first Y Class travel too. The time was about 10.30 pm. After getting off the aero-train I saw the Golden Lounge was situated on the 1st Floor but with no visible signs showing how to go up there. I stopped a MH stewardess who was passing by and asked for directions to go up there. She just shrugged and replied "Tak tau" or "Don't know" and walked off. I was totally disappointed beacuse to me there and then (sorry MH employees) the 2 three letter words reflected MH itself. It would make hell of a difference had she replied like "Sorry, I'm not sure, I haven't been up there myself" or something like that.

The Kuala Terengganu Airport is under renovations anyway. I was there recently. The taxi driver told me the upgrading was to be done long ago, but when the state fell to the opposition party it put on hold. Now that "U Must Not Oppose" got back the state the project is in full swing.

I went spotting on Monday 18th September 2006. After looking at the pictures taken I realised that they're of the same planes already posted here on this thread. So I post the only plane not yet posted. Here it is. This plane reminds me of the album "The Beatles" by the Beatles. When every pop group was producing colourful album sleeves following the Beatles own "Sgt.Peppers' Lonely Heart Club Band" the Beatles produced one album with a pure white cover even without any writing except the words "THE BEATLES" embossed in white lettering. So everybody called it "The White Album".

Emirs, Sheikhs, Sultans.... I don't fancy hereditory families running countries.

Well, Yesterday September 16th happened to be the Malaysian Armed Forces Day. I guess the copters mentioned earlier were performing rehearsals for the celebrations. I remember when Formula 1 first came to Sepang part of the opening ceremony was an air show by the RMAF.The fighter planes based in Kuantan flew over my house in Seremban (as do passenger planes now) to go to Sepang and back. What noise they made then.

Ewan, if you don't know already, the present LCCT is only temporary. A real LCCT will be built nearby (sorry no idea exactly where). The present LCCT will be turned to, yes a warehouse.