Prestley Shim

Search still going on as of 1:40am today. Can hear the SAR aircraft activity on Kuching ATC.

Counting the days with 9M-XX* Day 4 with 9M-XXK "Xklusive" Day 5 with 9M-XXA "Xuberance" Day 7 with 9M-XXZ "Son of Xcalibur". Day 6 was 9M-XXS. Day 8 with 9M-XXC "Midnight Xcapade". First two sectors AXM8672/AXM8673 was done by the captain with the third and fourth sectors AXM8670/AXM8671 done by Mr Johan Farid Khairuddin. YB Khairy Jamaluddin was onboard AXM8673 to Lumpur.

Chris, nosebleed kena cucuk the tajamness of your pics Gio, belly damn nice

Endorsement flight. This one caused panic among Kuching citizens which of course thanks to social media led people to freak out believing the plane 'couldn't land' and that the bomba was standing by when in fact it was none of the sort. It was quite amusing to watch their reactions.

Might be a last minute decision to do a visual for 07 instead. Not quite sure, wasn't listening in to ATC. KCH is a favourite airfield for visual departures and arrivals.

Yeah flying under AK Apparently HX arrival date has been moved to May 28th Yeah increased passenger numbers as people are going back to Sarawak for the upcoming election. XXS 8672 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr Day 3 with 9M-XXS "Xhaolin Spirit".

Chris so laju xD XXP 8672 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr Booyah! D7 aircraft makes a return to KCH after more than 5 years!

Anyone dealt with Rayani refund before? Planning to get a refund for my flight to BKI in August. As of the time of writing this post, AK is offering a cheaper deal return per person. I've read on Twitter from several people that refund can take anywhere up to 1-3 months.

Double bad news for me. Have booked flights in August and October.

Ooh yeah that. Will really suck if that happened. But their BKI-KCH flight yesterday actually arrived early! Perhaps sign of gradual improvements? Thanks! 9M-MPP in her new colors look absolutely stunning! I'm quite confident under Mueller's leadership, our flag carrier will slowly regain its glory slowly. I have confidence in that. Makseh! Nice! I'm guessing you took this in the morning since Raya 757 only comes in the early AMs. What time did it arrive? Perhaps they're being activated to Sabah? Might be a short stop before continuing up north. Ninetology sharp! That's quite a nose down for FFF. Just saw on KIA's Wikipedia page that Cebu Pacific will be doing MNL-KCH starting Sept 14. Can anyone confirm?

MXA 2536 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr Finally caught her today. She's quite an elusive one.

The seats look great so far! Anxious for a more detailed look around the bells and whistles it has.

Can I gamble on the probability it will be sent to KCH to do Hajj runs?

Thanks! Lucky to have caught both of them. Even more special as one of them has my name initials aha! But it would be unlikely for MPP to come visit unless she's still in service for the Hajj charters then maybe there's a chance. RN scrapping KCH? What makes you say that? They better don't cause I'm flying KCH/BKI and KCH/KUL with them in Aug and Oct!

MASKargo Boeing 747-4H6F (9M-MPR) Final KCH Visit After having read the news the night before that MASKargo will be retiring its two Boeing 747 freighter variants, I was indeed worried. What if it doesn't come back? What if I don't have the chance to see it here in Kuching again? What if this, what if that etc..But fortunate enough for me and a few other spotters, MASKargo decided to send one of its two Jumbos to Kuching today. 9M-MPR will be operating flight MH6102 from Labuan and after offloading her cargo here, she will fly back to Lumpur as MH6103 thus completing MASKargo's final ever 747 call to the port of Kuching. Thanks to my buddies sounding off in a KCH spotters' group chat, I got the information and quickly rushed to get ready to catch the Queen. The flight was delayed by over an hour. It was scheduled to arrive in Kuching at 12.00pm but only landed at 1.14pm. Lady Luck must have been smiling on me today otherwise I would have never got the chance to catch her arrival! The sun was indeed in the mood for playing games and trolling with us today. Before the main dish, AK's Ninetology arrived in perfect bright lighting but when it was time for the main dish, the clouds ever so happily blocked the sun. Grr... At 1:10pm, my buddies and I huddled in a car with the speaker connected to ATC caught her callsign, 'Malaysian 6102 established localizer runway 25' which was then followed by the landing clearance. Out of the car and off to our shooting positions. At 1:12pm, we could already faintly make out the monstrous jet far in the distance even without the landing lights. She loomed into view, the glorious sound of her engines getting louder by the second, announcing the Queen's arrival. At 1:13pm, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. MPR 6012 DOUBLE by Prestley Shim, on Flickr MPR 6012 2 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr MPR 6012 3 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr After taking this picture, I just stood gobsmacked on top of my little hill of stones I stand on when I spot airplanes. That was my first time seeing a 747 fly past me, seconds from kissing the runway. And I caught it on camera! It might also be my first and probably the last time I would ever do that here in Kuching. Refusing to see the last of her, we headed over to the cargo apron where she rested one final time before beginning her journey to her home base of KUL across the South China Sea. MPR 6012 4 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr MPR 6012 5 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr We thought about going up to the guardhouse to ask permission for some photos beyond the border fence. That would have given us some nice side shots. It worked before but today the guard manning the guardhouse saw me approaching the gate and quickly shooed me away, not even giving me an opportunity to negotiate for a photo op of the Queen. In the end, we just stood right at the fence beside the guardhouse and I got this: MPR 6012 6 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr The fence was a big nuisance so Oliver, (Instagram @borneospotters) came up with an idea of standing on the trunk of his car to gain some height. Got this: MPR 6012 7 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr Saw the crew operating the flight having lots of pictures and selfies taken with the aircraft. One of the pilots (couldn't tell Captain or FO as he removed his bars) walked past the guardhouse and came out to where we were, luggage in hand. He asked us if we were going to stay here for long or not and we said yes. We then proceeded to have some small talk with him, and he was surprised that we knew this flight was the last for the 747. We learnt from him that the flight from Labuan ferried only about 50 tonnes of cargo and that the aircraft was capable of carrying 394 tonnes. An Alza then came and pick him up and off he went. Perhaps he's local? After a quick lunch, we went over to Kuching Sentral hoping to catch the aircraft's departure. At 3.45pm, she pushed back from the cargo apron to begin her final departure from KCH home to KUL. From our spot, we could see her lining up at the end of the runway for a full length departure. At 3:57pm she rotated smoothly with an empty load. It looked like she rotated before A3 intersection! MPR 6013 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr MPR 6013 2 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr A timeless design and an iconic figure to behold, easily recognizable all over the world even from the ground up. MPR 6013 3 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr At the end of everything today, I felt a little bit emotional. To know for a fact that this was the last of the iconic Jumbo from our national carrier to ever visit. It was quite a bitter pill to swallow but I am happy for I have immortalized it in photos. And I'm glad to share it with you all.

Hi Firdaus, thanks. I don't have any special tricks or secret recipe lah . Just constantly monitor FR24 and I've also set up some alerts for those which I wanna spot. And yeah it belongs to Layang-Layang. The registration was a give away. 9M-LLx. Hornbill Skyways aircraft/rotorcraft are also easily identifiable based on their rego eg: 9M-HSx.

Hehe don't we all wanna touch something beyond that fence 9M-AFP and 9M-AHG seems to be based in Kuching now. Perhaps somebody from AirAsia's dispatch team heard our groans and complains of seeing the same aircraft everyday But every once in a while some other special livery aircraft from AK will be sent here from KUL. Blue Ranger as AK5212. AFV 5212 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr Thereafter returning to Lumpur as AK5213. AFV 5213 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr Eager to catch Ninetology, one of KCH base's new regular. Coming in from BKI as AK6355 AHG 6355 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr And continuing to SBW as AK6460 AHG 6460 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr Caught this little guy as well LLB by Prestley Shim, on Flickr

Firdaus, nice backside! Chris, not fair lah, yours so tajam and I'm working with a 6 year old dinosaur point and shoot M-Face yesterday. AFT 5207 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr Followed by Line 9M-AHR AHR 5209 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr And a big Bus from few days ago. The Panda sticker has been removed from 9M-MUD so no more panda MUA by Prestley Shim, on Flickr

Woo sexy shots Chris! Btw keep your ears open for AQB when she brakes before vacating. Can hear the brake sounds. She's an old bird!

Any idea who's feeding Kuching ATC for Radarbox24?

If 07 is to be used more for arrival I guess spotters here would have to find new locations Nice and sharp! Anyone knows if this is one of the ones with LED landing lights?

bahahahaha at least now we know where she gets her mojo Yes of course 07 can be used for landings and it is no problem. But the media words can make some things sound a little bit twisted than the truth hehe

B-66666 Gulfstream G280 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr Nice surprise to see this Gulfstream G280 which is based in Taiwan. Owned by Panco (Taiwanese cosmetics manufacturer)

[post=http://www.theborneopost.com/2016/02/28/liow-rm5-million-sals-to-enable-kia-accommodate-more-aircraft/][/post] So according to this article and the minister, right now runway 07 is not supposed/unable to be used for landing?

Main dish for the day AHL 5212 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr Some nice sunset light today AJD 6059 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr AJD 6059 2 by Prestley Shim, on Flickr