Darren Liew

Yes agreed. Was always told that BA stood for "Bad Always" but I did not believe that until i rode with them 3 times and that was it. First flight I ever had with them was from Eastern Europe to LHR. The pilot almost crashed the B757 the way he landed and that was one of the worst landings I ever had. Even the lousy one I had on QF as a student going to Melbourne from Singapore pales in comparison to that. Then another flight the flight was bumpy(I guess the pilot doesnt know how to read his weather radar and probably thought that flying through the red was considered good luck). After that they screwed up my mother and sister`s luggage. Out of all my years of flying that was the first time I have had that nasty experience of arriving in a foreign land without clothes. Well out of the couple of times I flew with them, I found their flying to be really bad(kudos to MH pilots! You guys do a much better job!) and the inflight service to be rude and the food in EY really sucked. I guess they follow the SQ or was it SQ following their formula of upgrading the first and business class to industry standards and ignoring the EY passengers. I guess once again MH can be complimented on not forgetting where their bulk of business comes from which is the economy class.

Apparently the Garuda pilots flew their B737 like how I fly in MS Flight Simulator. Most of the add on packages I got like the PMDGs and Level D B767 have flap relief. So when I come in for a landing if I am too near the airfield I just put my flaps handle on the max flap position and then as my speed bled off the flaps automatically lower themselves into appropriate positions. I do not follow the speeds as commanded by my PFD depending on my mood and the way I set up my approacH!!!

Yes I particularly like flying on those FBW Airbus. They seem more quiet and comfortable than their direct Boeing competitors. For example the A320 is more pleasant to fly in than the B737s(more quiet and pleasant cabin) or the A340 to the B777s. Has anyone felt the cabin of the B777s being noisy? I certainly have and dread flying on the twin engined beast. I prefer the B744s over the B777s any day!

Wow! Finally a break through into the Isreali market after all this time! Looks like the Israelis are now finally picking what planes suits them rather then being politically driven and then ordering Boeing jets. When I was watching this I was expecting this to be another El Al Israeli Airlines order incident in which they picked the planes that most suited them (AIRBUS was the manufacturer of the planes) but at the last minute due to political pressures they switched to Boeing. It is good to see the all mightly Boeing and the US stop influencing the way people do business.

Cape Town`s waterfront! Good food and wonderful views! Loved it there! Hope you guys have a good time there! Best regards, Darren Liew

Hi there Gavin! I just did a flight at http://www.malaysianwings.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4225 . I tried starting up the engines in either fashion. Do pray for my soul as my uni results are comming out soon. Thanks, Darren Liew

Hi there Gavin, Thanks a million for the insight! My old man must be grumbling how come i dint learn anything from him! This armchair pilot here starts up the engines just fine by putting the fuel to RUN and then pulling the starters so I do not think I will change. They work just fine on the PMDG B744s. BEst regards, Darren Liew

Hi there Gavin, I have tried that on the PMDG B744 and it just does not light up. That is the reason why I I put the fuel in then pull the starters. Best regards, Darren Liew

Oops, Really forgot exactly the procedure. But either way works fine with the PMDG. Not too sure about real life as I have not seen my old videos of my old man flying for many years now. The CX one even better. If you have seen the ITVV video, the captain first pull starters I am guessing with the AUTOSTART off as in PMDG normally I have to off that otherwise the starters wont light up. Well then as the N2 and N3 spool match then introduce the fuel. So sorry for the confusion but hey this is FS2004 I am playing and if PMDG are as accurate as the reviews say so I guess that both ways will work as well in real life! No difference. Best regards, Darren Liew

Hi there Idham! Well the B777`s checklists are displayed on the LCD screens. When you perform a task you would use this touch pad kinda thingo to put a tick next to it. So it is not a hardcopy kinda checklist. You do it like how you would do the checklist on your notebook(putting ticks on a webby for example) so there is no paper involved. This is generally a new idea for BOEING however is an old one for rival AIRBUS who have been using a similar concept for many years now. On their AIRBUS A320/A330/A340s check lists are displayed on their ECAM or for those who are into BOEING it`s the AIRBUS equivalence of the ECIAS. WHen you perform the appropriate checklists the list will turn green if I remembered correctly(last jumpseat on MH`s A330s like 8 years ago!) If you havent done any items it will be displayed in BLUE color. That is why on landing the pilots call out (landing checks.....>No BLUE) as one of the items. So now you know why they say that and their BLUE is not the pilots feelin` sad!!!!! Hope that helped, Darren Liew

Hi there Azrin, I play PMDG`s B744 alot and I always start up the engines in this fashion which I believe is the gist of TK`s technical explaination. Also I have a bit of real life observation on the B744 when my old man was flying for MH`s B744 about 8 to 10 years ago. Before Osama`s stunt in NYC, I used to request for jump seats and alot of these were when my dad was flying as well! Always the friendly crew gave me a clear and easy to understand explaination of what was going on. (normally the standby one in the flight deck will brief me if the thing got too technical and I looked blur) 1) First flip the round looking knobs located behind the throttles to RUN (They look like nice leather balls hhahahah!!! Nice to touch too hheheh...I remember this Captain when ever he shuts down the engines he will run his fingers over the knobs a few times which I belive he was making sure that all were OFF but I think he enjoys that feeling of touching them as well!!!! ..) 2) Then reach to the overhead panel where the engine starters are and pull on the starters. If everything is ok when you pull the appropriate starters out say engines 3 and 4 you put the knobs to RUn then you obviously should pull out starters 3 and 4 too after which they should illuminate as a white light. The autostart system will do the rest for you! 3) Just do not get too excited and start all 4 at a time! On a B744 if I am not mistaken you should only start 2 at a time. 2 by 2 like what LH does. I am not sure what is the maximum that you can start up on the B744s but I am quite sure it`s 2 at a time. Too lazy to read the manuals. I remember that on Malaysia Airlines last time my old man used to start 4,3 ,2 and 1 seperately. But on TK`s B777 you can have simultaneously 2 engine starts togather right? Hope that helps, Darren Liew

The so called smooth landing can also be attributed to the design of the A330`s landing gear. Just look at their main wheel design. They tilt backwards and kinda tip toes on landing before the entire weight of the plane is placed on it. Their competitor or rather the plane that it replaced about 10 years ago the B767`s main gear tilt forward. So when you land the B767 will feel that it lands much harder than the A330! My mother thought that the Australian Airlines B767 had crashed when she flew in from Singapore to Bali about 5 months ago cuz the landing was so hard! Gave her a shock! My guess was that for those conditions that you had in Taipei can you imagine that landing done on a B767? I dread to think of it! Well done to Airbus and their A330 and I really hope that Qatar`s experience on the A340-600HGW is really good and other airlines jump on this band wagon as well! Best regards, Darren Liew

Hi there guys, In order for the Concorde to operate out of KLIA they must first "measure" the runways. This does not really mean distance but also the "bumpiness" of the runway as well. The Concorde`s Vr is very high say 190 plus knots IAS and you certainly would not want to run over a rough patch at those velocities. A B744`s normal Vr for a heavy departure is about 170 knots normally(according to what I can see on my dad`s B744 performance charts). In terms of length KLIA`s two runways definitely can handle multiple Concorde departures/ landings which in fact the Concorde can take off with no problems on reheats in about 7000 to 8000 feet with a normal payload which meant that it could even go to Kuching International(OMG my hometown...Am I dreaming or what?? ) . I really hope that they can revive the Concordes back into operation but then again the extreme costs of just pumping back in the hyd fluids into BA`s Concordes is way too expensive. Darren Liew

Fave airlines for me... 1) Malaysia Airlines (So many pleasant memories for me..>Wish I could turn back the clock to the days when my dad was still flying for them) 2) Singapore AIrlines (Not too sure but they seemed reasonable but have to do something about the current standard of their food and pilots!) ................... ............ 9999999999) Qantas ( Had 2 terrible flights with them and will never fly with them again!) 10000000000) British Airways ( Not a very pleasant airline with terrible cabin crew)

I did remember seeing the AF B744 landing in KL Subang a long time ago. Could be a UTA flight using AF equipment? I am really not sure cuz I dint really pay much attention to the details. THanks, Darren Liew