Maarof Kassim

Anyone care to explain the wording on the fuselage for ? "Cut Here In Emergency" Chaity, its quite sensitive because it really means "There's no God but Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet". No problem though.

Not visitors, Teoh but trespassers. I was one of them. By the way sambung here.... MH baby just airborne Air India Express, nice colours Not forgetting my favourite plane MH 777 Thai in old colours Now in new colours Indian Airlines with the English Premier League initials Last but not least I can say Bye-Bye Yati too more to come....

Today is a holiday at my place. So where was I if not at the Oscar Hotel. Here goes.... JAL cargo SQ next Alias the Wimbledon Tennis Champion Not forgetting our own Bunga Raya If you like them there are more to come...

Sorry I got mixed up, the World Cup hangover I think. Here's the Eva.

Imran, I guess you arrived after I left. Yes, the wheather was bad so I thought not to post. But since you had, let me tumpang yours. The Eva as it arrived at 1412 hours. I got the EK 777 as it arrived. I bagi jalan you post first.

Boeing 747-300, yeah.

I don't want to open a new thread, so might as well join this one. I was doing what I called a mid-week spotting at KLIA on Wednesday 5th July 2006. Here are pics taken from O.....H..... as Chaity called it. AK's latest Airbus AFG Sibling just 2 months older AFE China Airlines Airbus Gulf A340. The first time I shot this one, really! Hello! Maskargo about to go to 14L The same Maskargo in the air MH 744 Last but not least, Saudi 744 Then had to leave O....H.... because the sun was already looking at me. At the same time had to do some bull spotting...

Jon, you let KC Sim take a picture of you with the big 'Nikon' showing on your camera strap. But when you took my picture you asked me to remove my camera showing a rival brand's name. That's not fair! Are you free this Saturday?

Now you don't have to walk because they provide a free shuttle bus service from the domestic terminal (where the subway station is) to the international terminal. Yes, spotters can shoot like machine guns on the Observation Decks of both terminals.

The photo was taken at a price because Jonathan asked to take off my camera showing a big 'Canon' on its strap!

Aeroplanes, Cameras and The Computer. When I joined spotting on the 1st Anniversary of Malaysian Wings meeting familiar names like Gavin, Norman, Attan, Jonathan Kong, Edwin Yi, Kelvin Teh, Nizam, Yong, T. Azahan and of course the great Pieter I wondered how I got myself involved in this, something which I never dreamed of until a few months ago. Then I realised the main reason is my love for the three things above namely aeroplanes, cameras and computers. If I only love one or two out of the three then my aeroplane spotting is not complete. I think these loves are also shared among fellow spotters. So I produce this story as my way of sending my Anniversary or Birthday wishes to Malaysian Wings. 1. Aeroplanes. I think age wise I am among the oldest of Malaysian Wings members, if not the oldest. I was born during the Malayan Emergency in a kampung (village) situated in a Black Area, as opposed to a White one. I remember seeing my first aeroplanes during my pre school days. We called them 'kapalterbang patung' or 'dragonfly planes' because they really looked like the flying insects. Everytime I heard their drones I would be running out of my house to look at them. Then something like rain water would drop from the planes. The drops would become bigger and bigger until I could see what they were. They were not food or medical supplies like now but leaflets. These leaflets, just smaller then A4 size were appeals from the then Malayan British led authorities for the communists to surrender themselves. I think the logistics then were not as good as now because the leaflets felled in the wrong places. First of all none of my kampung people were or are communists. Secondly we are all Malays, yet the leaflets were all in Chinese, sometimes with cartoons. Sometimes a bundle containing something like 500 sheets just dropped undisturbed. So what did we do with the leaflets? We collected them rather than letting them littering our kampung. These 'surat terbang' fell on the padi fields, rubber plantations and my school paying field. They had their uses too, like covering our text books or simply covering the holes on our wooden house walls. I had a good collection although none of them exist now. I had a competition with my brothers as to who collected the most 'surat terbang'. Unfortunately the 'old newspapers' people were not in business yet, otherwise I would had made a few bucks. So the 'dragonfles' kept coming until my area was declared White and the Emergency lifted. These 'dragonflies' would eventually be replaced by the Charlie 130 and Sikorsky S61A or Nuri as they call it. At the same time my love for aeroplanes grew although I never dreamed of becoming pilots like Leech or TK. For young people like Gavin and Kevin Teh if you want to know what the Emergency, White and Black Areas mean look at your history books. I was happy when the KLIA was built at Sepang which is quite near to my home. I was at KLIA the very first day they operated. This was followed by numerous trips there mostly to the Observation Hill to watch planes land and depart. At the same time I had my flying experiences too. In June 2004 I managed to attend a 6 weeks training stint organised by the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in Fukuoka, Japan. There is a subway station beneath my hotel and you know what, the subway ends at the airport. I think the journey from the hotel to the airport took only 10 minutes. So with every opportunity I would be at the airport doing the thing I love that is watching planes. For this FUK has a good Observation Deck at the top floor. The word 'spotting' was still foreign to me so the only pictures I took were video shots and a film photo of me standing with JAL planes as the back drop. I did see a few occasional spotters but unfortunately I never interact with them. Sometimes on weekends I would be spending the whole day at the airport. There was at least one day when after waking up, praying and having breakfast I went to the airport and was back at the hotel lobby just in time to join my fellow trainees without any of them knowing where I was. 2. Cameras After entering school and given books I began to admire pictures and really dreamed of taking them myself. So it was no surprise when the first thing I bought after working was a camera. My first model was the Yashica J, a rangefinder they called it and a manual in every sense. Eventually the Yashica brand became Kyocera and I think they are extinct now. Of course a camera is not complete unless it is a SLR. I used to buy 'Life' magazine which is now extinct too. The magazine contained lots and lots of pictures. I was captured by the Asahi Pentax Spotmatic advertisements. What more, my favourite pop group The Beatles used them. I think they got them free as a promotional gimmick. So I bought a Pentax SLR, a manual one at first followed by an auto one. By that time the name 'Asahi' was already dropped, a marketing strategy I think. My Pentaxes had served me well. I would have gone for Pentax digital cameras if not for the reasons I will tell later. As Capt. Radzi and Norman might tell you SLR cameras started with the screw mount for their interchangeable lenses. Then this clumsy method was changed to the present bayonet mount. Don't think only soldiers use bayonets, we spotters use them too. One interesting thing about the Pentax SLR was their mount which was called 'the K mount'. This was a standard mount and used by brands like Ricoh, Chinon, Topcon and Casio. Some of them are now extinct too. An advantage is you don't have to buy your own camera brand's lenses. I use Ricoh zoom lenses for my Pentax. They are cheaper than Pentax own lenses. In fact Pentax have special exclusive and expensive lenses called Takumar something like what we have as Carl Zeiss now. Top brands like Nikon, Canon and Minolta use their own mounts, like now. When the digital revolution came I was a bit slow because I still trusted the 35 mm film. I was a bit disappointed too that Pentax was and is not in the forefront of the digital cameras. In the film category they were at par with Canon and friends. So my choice was a Sony Cybershot mainly because there is a service centre in my town. By that time too I was already having a Sony videocam too. Just like the film version a digital camera is not complete without the SLR. So I had to upgrade my digicam to a DSLR as they call it. So I bought this Canon and it is now my loyal plane spotting partner. Please don't ask me why I chose to be a Jedi instead of a Sith Lord. 3. The computer I began using the computer when Windows was not born yet and Wordstar, dBase and Lotus 123 were kings of the day. The moment I touched a computer I fell in love with it and I have never stopped loving it until now. But I am still new to the email, chatting and forum things. Sometimes I chided my children for chatting on the net as a waste of time. But this changed when I was sent to Japan. In Japan I realised that the cheapest way of communicating with members of my family was through the email. Since I never had an email account I created one there. In Fukuoka there is one place called The Rainbow Plaza. As some of you might know here foreigners are given free internet access limited to one hour per person per day. So beside my airport stints I must spend one hour every day at this place. One day I sent an email to a friend and he replied 'where are the fotos?' I told him that I haven't learnt this yet. My involvement with Malaysian Wings started when I found Airliners.net. The shots really amazed me so I told myself why not make make my very own airliners foto collection. So I went to KLIA again although this time not only to watch planes but to 'shoot' them. It was at KLIA that at first I met Chaity and then TK and they were the ones that told me about Malaysian Wings. Thank you very much, both of you. So my life is never the same now thanks to Malaysian Wings. I learned many things here and I hope to continue learning. Somebody told me the day you stop learning is the day you want to die. I hope that's a long way from now. Bye.

I arrived late, anyway here's my contribution.... [/size] Kevin and the guys I tried some panning exercise. I think I failed because the camera speed was too fast. Could not change lense in time, so this is what I got. When the guys went to Cowboy Town to drink I decided to shift to 32L, my favourite spot actually. My first catch, MH 330 Followed by AK Baby Boeing Same colour scheme, but different aircraft. This time a Baby Bus My only foreign catch for day, Xiamen 737 MH Kangar 9M MKE coming The same plane Another AK 737. Come on, this is already 2006 I told myself, I will not leave until I got a 777, here is it That's all from me. I hope the other guys submit theirs too.

Really nice photos, Norman. Should have joined you last weekend, but something came up. I am available this Sat. 24th June.

You really took care of the lamp posts, Jon.

As promised, here's mine:- [/size] Departures from 14R: SQ Garuda And then arrivals at 14L: MH 777 AK AFE Followed by Cathay 330 Not forgetting own flag carrier AK AAI

Mine coming. Give me 12 hours, gotta work also.

Lucky you, Jon!. 32L landing I suppose.

Maybe, Tan. But I always thought that VIP planes are parked near the Hibiscus Complex. Nevertheless lucky for me though.

Gavin, the KLM 744 was taking off. It arrived earlier at 14L when KLIA was back at dual runway operation. So I had to patiently wait for it to take off at 14R as I had never shot a KLM before. I am sorry for being a bit confused by the aviation terms. Please teach me some.....

Concluding the thread....... [/size] What this MH 737 needs is not a bath, but a repaint! One of my favourites, a Sri Lankan Airbus. Another Airbus, this time China Airlines. What came down must go up. So I decided to shoot the following departing planes Azahan style. Mohon ampun YM Ku. The above Sri Lankan. Cathay Pacific. Singapore which came when I was having lunch. Another favourite of mine, Emirates, Arsenal's new stadium. Last but not least, the flying Dutchman, City of Beijing. It arrived at 14L when it was back to dual runway operation. Could not spot this coming weekend, had to attend some more weddings.

Thanks, the AK 320 was entering the runway for departure. I didn't know how to say it coz I'm not in the aviation business.

Could not spot during the weekend as I had to attend to a few weddings. Instead went on Monday as I was on leave. I was lucky it was single runway operation from 1100 to 1400 hours. Runway 14 R was in use. Here are a few shots I want to share with fellow members. [/size] My first, quite a surprise really, Indian Airlines A320. Had I been late a few minutes I would have lost it. What plane is this? Seen parked at the cargo area. Thai Airbus arrived. Still with old livery though. Followed by Maskargo 742, I think. Maskargo and Maskargo. Qatar Airbus. What do you know, the registration is Alpha Foxtrot Charlie. Another Airbus, Cathay Pacific MH 744 landing. AK Airbus looking straight at me. Must be in a hurry cause as it exited via Charlie 4. This bird was hovering over my head. Sorry birdie, I did not bring any bird seeds. More to follow............

Min Chun, how strategic it is the Observation Hill is in fact a prohibited area. To this day I am still wondering why is it so. So our six friends out there were all trespassing, unless TK or Jonathan can prove otherwise. Once the airport authorities tell you to go you have to go. So far I had been chased twice by them. Sometimes I wonder if our pictures posted to this site can be used against us. For the same reason as Norman just posted nobody wants to be photographed up there. [/size]

[And the final subject for me and Mischa before The Emperor rushed us back to KL for our bus ride back to SIN . . . the most patriotic looking plane in Malaysia! I hope this is replicated eventually on an A320. Once again, thanks guys . . . and by the way, the KFC from KLIA is truly delicious! Better than from any KFC outlet in all of Singapore and Thailand!!! KC Sim I'll never forget the AK-AAI aka Jalur Gemilang. I flew on it last December from LGK to KUL after watching LIMA 2005. Just before take-off it developed some mechanical problem, so we were ordered to disembark while the technical people rectified it. We disembarked after 1 hour delay. Then it encountered turbulence, even dropping suddenly about 5 meters at one moment. I had a real scare.