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Pieter C.

MalaysianWings 5th Anniversary

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Hahaa... thanks;) My passport expires in December and it was just a few days to short!!

I traced some messageboards on internet and they all say ; 6 months is from the ice age (even USA!) but after scrolling further they finally mention Singapore and tell you not to take the risk.. I knew it was 5 months 3 weeks and something b4 expiring.. I took the risk and got send back..

 

I try to get a new flight (same ticket) to SIN and probably arrive on Saturday 7 August and fly back to LHR on Saturday 14 August. Arrive in evening due to 388 change to QF10 instead of QF32 according to Qantas bookingsystem and back on QF31 instead of QF9 (same story).

 

In this time I visit both KUL and SIN.

 

Goodluck this Saturday guys and hope to meet some of you in August (will post or PM when dates are definite!).

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I try to get a new flight (same ticket) to SIN and probably arrive on Saturday 7 August and fly back to LHR on Saturday 14 August. Arrive in evening due to 388 change to QF10 instead of QF32 according to Qantas bookingsystem and back on QF31 instead of QF9 (same story).

 

You might as well change your signature in order to reflect the correct flights/dates, so it is clear to the KUL/SIN MWers when you arrive/depart... B)

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Ramani reporting from SIN at the moment. Weather is BAD today, again some places got flooded. I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. Buzz me if any of you are around. Maybe we can do some hanging out today (by 8 as i'm meeting up some other friends from SIN). I'm on roaming, 6012-6716470.

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Darn! If that's the case tomorrow might as well take road bus to KUL for some dry weather. :(

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Guys, don't despair. :rolleyes:

The sun might be bright until you guys complain too hot. :huh:

 

After all, tomorrow is the day not only for plane spotting but time to catch up with some new and old friends. :good:

 

Don't forget when you guys are enjoying a can of cold Tiger beer, I would cheers with you guys ! :drinks: :drinks:

 

Don't forget to take a lot of group shots to show us. :p

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Weather update : As for now, Changi Terminal Area Forecast issued on 25th 0500Z (1300LT) valid between 25th 1400LT to 26th 2000LT.

Weather will be dry!

 

SINGAPORE (WSSS)

TAF WSSS 250500Z 2506/2612 22008KT 9999 FEW018CB SCT020 BKN140

 

METAR WSSS 250830Z VRB03KT 9999 FEW018 BKN150 28/23 Q1008 NOSIG

 

Let's hope it stays this way for tomorrow. Will post another update by tonite. Seeya guys tomorrow.

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Kian Hong : Excellent idea to post this information.

 

As of now (1800hrs LT on 25 June), the sun is shining! Positive thinking folks!! Those who have met me know how I can be shamelessly positive and so I ask you all to do the same. But even if I am wrong and the weather is inclement, be sure that I will still meet up to spend time with you guys. We are not just "fair weather friends".

 

KC Sim

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As forecast, TSRA between 1000LT and 1500LT tomorrow. :(

 

SINGAPORE (WSSS)

TAF WSSS 251100Z 2512/2618 16008KT 9999 FEW018CB SCT020

TEMPO 2602/2607 3000 THUNDERSTORMS WITH RAIN SCT012CB BKN015

 

METAR WSSS 251300Z 27003KT 240V340 9999 FEW018 BKN150 27/24 Q1009 NOSIG

 

But then again, there're occasions where the forecast is completely wrong! Stay positive and I'll will see you guys tomorrow rain or shine. Cheers :drinks:

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Best wishes for tomorrow event;Let's hope Lady Luck will smile upon you guys.

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The day started out rather grey but it kept improving towards the afternoon. At last, golden light for everyone in the late afternoon! :drinks: :drinks:

 

Here's some random candid shot taken using my mobile phone.

 

Aunty Kwek checking his snap snap. :)

IMAG0010e.jpg

 

The three person who stopped all the traffic. From Left:- Sri Ramani, KC Sim & Hon Kit.

IMAG0013e.jpg

 

There're a total of 14 of us turn out. From Left: Sri Ramani, Pieter (blocked) , Flee (aka Francis Lee), Jivesh, KC Sim, Hon Kit(blocked), Vernon, Thomas, Raymond Ngu, WaiPing, Charlse Ryan Teo, Xuyong and Daniel Lim.

IMAG0014e.jpg

 

I hope I got everyone's name right. Looking to the group photos n candid shots from everyone. Cheers!

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I just got back home in Nilai. Couldn't make it for the 9.20PM flight, took the 11PM flight. To summarize, it was a HUGE event today in Changi Beach. I was there from 7AM right till 7PM before all of us dissolved. Dead tired, but hey, this is seriously a once in a lifetime event for me. Thank you very much to all our SIN MW members for their down to earth hospitality. You cannot get anything better than this, shooting planes with a bunch of funky, crazy, funny and diverse people.

 

Not to forget, thanks to the Malaysian MW members too who made it all the way across the straits. Special mention also goes out to the single MW member who came all the way from AMS!! :drinks: Talk about dedication!

 

Basically we had a rather gloomy morning spotting session but still could do some wonders out of what we had. Adjourned for lunch and when we came back in the afternoon, it was blue sky all the way with very very good lighting! Loads of new, rare, unidentified birds seen from me but I guess our SIN members have seen them all :rofl:

 

Thank you very much again to everyone who made it. Recalling the attendees for the gathering:

 

Morning session: Kwek, KC Sim, Raymond, Hon Kit, Waiping, Uncle Pieter, Kian Hong, Flee and me.

Afternoon session: Kwek, KC Sim, Raymond, Hon Kit, Waiping, Uncle Pieter, Kian Hong, Flee, Me, Tsentsan, Ryan, Jivesh, Vernon, Xuyong, Daniel and Xuyong.

 

Overall it was a good day to be in SIN. Hope to come back again someday to spend more time with you guys!

 

To keep the thread going, just two early morning specials from me :) More to come later as I have 7GB of photos to scan through :sorry: Good night folks and have a good rest!

 

anniversary2.jpg

My very very early morning catch under gloomy weather! 9V-SKA

 

anniversary1.jpg

No-nonsense spotters :rofl:

 

** spoiler - discretion needed to view the photos that are going to follow. poison, peasant; everything coming up :) **

Edited by Sri Ramani K.

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It was a day that started really grey ... as I met Francis Lee (flee) along Loyang Avenue (that is also the reason I was wearing an unusually bright colour - just so that he could spot me while driving). And when we got to Changi Beach, we immediately spotted Sri Ramani wearing a patriotically red T-shirt of Malaysia's largest airline.

 

Saturday morning's traffic is always slow and it did not help that banks of clouds relentlessly ensured the sun stayed away. At its brightest, the sun was no more than a little pimple of light grey - and I had to hang on to the last shred of my shameless positive thinking. But we had good company ... as usual, the carpark aunty Kwek gave us plenty to cheer about. No, none of the sunblock application performance but he soon insisted on a group shot using a VERY STURDY tripod.

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-01Cr-Kwek.jpg

 

Showing tremendous flexibility - inspite of years of hard work in Singapore's many carparks, aunty Kwek proved that no tripod is better than his creaking ancient backbone as he took yet another group shot.

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-04Cr-Kwek.jpg

 

The horrible weather notwithstanding, Wai Ping, Kian Hong, Francis and Kwek persevered in photographing all the planes ... as Francis said, "We need to keep practising." Wonderful and indomitable spirit.

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-02Cr.jpg

 

As the group grew in size, the action spilled onto the road-side.

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-03Vr.jpg

 

Along the seaside promenade, serious consultation was underway as Wai Ping interrogated the bosses of AirAsia and KLM.

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-06Vr.jpg

 

Here, a pair of "conjoined twins" are happy after capturing a Boeing twin in Garuda's new colours. Little did they realise that there was going to be so many of these Garuda birds throughout the day.

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-05Vr-Boein.jpg

 

Despite the gloomy weather, we somehow knew that it was going to be a great day as we had all our ducklings lined up.

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-07Vr.jpg

 

One duckling from the Netherlands missing but still three in a row wasn't too bad. In the meantime, the pressure was on Sri Ramani to deliver at least one AirAsia plane (does not matter whether this comes from Malaysia or Thailand - come on Indonesia, where's your special-liveried plane?) in special livery.

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-08Vr.jpg

 

And later in the afternoon when 9M-AFQ in Zoom! livery zoomed in, Sri Ramani was understandably relieved.

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-09Vr-SriRa.jpg

 

And like mushrooms sprouting after the rain, aviation spotters began sprouting out of the sand along Changi Beach as the sun burst through!

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-11Vr.jpg

 

During the morning's unbroken greyness, all I had to show for was this Singapore Airlines' A380 heading out to Hong Kong. And that glare was not the sun, it was just a lighter shade of grey that indicated that the sun was somewhere there.

mw-A380-EnrouteToHongKong.jpg

 

In the afternoon, this picture speaks of the rivalry between Airbus and Boeing and between SIA and Cathay Pacific as parallel runway operation continued at Changi Airport.

mw-BoeingVsAirbusSQvsCX.jpg

 

And by 1900hrs, gloom turned to gold as the grey morning ended in absolutely glorious light. Thanks for making Singapore the venue for Malaysianwings' 5th anniversary celebrations. Thanks also to Tsen Tsan and the folks from Ninervictor for joining in the celebrations.

mw-Mwings5Yrs-2010-06-26-12Cr-Glori.jpg

 

KC Sim

Edited by KC Sim

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Nice series KC! :good: Hopefully the little ZOOM baby coming in under spectacular light brought you some cheer :rofl: Unfortunately cannot promise any specials to SIN lah :p

 

The afternoon session was more lively with many SIN members coming in to grace the occasion. Passersby kept staring, looking and wondering what are all these crazy people doing in a place where everyone comes to relax, unwind and enjoy. Yes, we had our own definition for relaxing, unwinding and enjoying :p

 

group3.jpg

There were many constructive and serious discussions like these all along. There were many occasions where the runway was closed for 20mins for maintenance, and during this time everyone gathered together and started sharing stories, experience, and also many get-to-know sessions.

L-R: Uncle Pieter, Thomas, Flee, Waiping (blocked partially), Kian Hong, KC Sim, Vernon and Xuyong (blocked)

 

kwek.jpg

Personally for me, I never met many MW members yet to date, but meeting this man over here is good enough to ensure whatever you ate a while ago gets digested fast enough. Kwek is certainly a guy who can make you laugh all day long; good entertainment while waiting for some traffic.

 

waiping.jpg

Changi Airport is never dead (unlike KLIA). Traffic keeps coming in one after another. The only period of time when there wasn't any traffic was when the runway was closed for maintenance! Waiping is a happy man after getting all the rare traffic that KKIA or even KLIA doesn't have.

 

pieter.jpg

One has to salute the dedication shown by this man. Coming in all the way from AMS equipped with his years of knowledge and experience. Just to quote a line from him, "When I was spotting 20 years ago..". I never got bored talking to him at all! Hopefully one day you could schedule one of the city hoppers to hop around Malaysia :rofl:

 

flee.jpg

Another one more member across the straits of Johor. He is also another one who carries years of experience along with him. Many of you would recognise Flee (also known as Francis Lee) from the GA discussion threads. One important thing I learnt from him is when he told me not to ignore the regulars (be it Silk Air or Tiger Airways) when you have good light as you never know what will happen when to the aircraft. :good:

 

kianhong.jpg

Our very on frequent flyer on seat 0K, Kian Hong. Amazingly he was at the beach together with us from 8AM right till one group got down at T3 for dinner circa 8pm! Glad to know you Kian Hong.

 

raymond.jpg

Another one of the early bird was Raymond. This bubbly character is seen here pointing his 2.8 VR at some subject which I am still unable to identify. Thinking back it could probably be one of the barge spotting. :o

 

kcsim.jpg

You might have wondered how come KC Sim always gets lucky with all the rare birds visiting SIN right? Ok in short, he's the SIN version of Chaity. Chaity gets lucky in KUL while KC is always lucky in SIN. I have to salute his enthusiasm and passion for the aviation industry. If you had always wanted to know how he gets very lucky, here's his secret. :lol:

 

kcvernonxuyong.jpg

I loved this triangular shot of these 3 SIN members. KC on the left, Vernon in the middle and Xuyong on the right. Each and everyone of them keeping a close eye at all angles visible at the beach.

 

More to come soon, so stay tuned. For those wishing to view the pics of the aircrafts, head over to the SIN spotting thread at the Obs Hill section. :drinks:

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Me 0K frequent flyer?! Hahaha...i am just a poor cadet waiting for the cow to come and the pigs to fly!

 

Hahaha... 0K frequent flyers (i.e Colin & Leech) didn't show up, prolly busy flying!

 

Kwek: Mana group photos? :pardon:

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When the sun comes out the birds come out to play, followed by the hunters. :D

 

Btw, the dress code not quite right for a beach party, eh?

Edited by Waiping

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Just got back home and I had a lot of catching up to do. With the World Cup matches recorded, I got a backlog of matches. Watching F1 European GP too! Busy busy busy! Thanks guys, for the very quick reports that were posted.

 

It was a fantastic spotting session and we sure drew quite a bit of curious looks from the regular beach goers. Its great to have met so many of you and thanks for posting up the names - I am never good at names! ;)

 

Cornelis, so sorry that you got sunk by red tape. It would have been great if we had you here as well. Maybe we can join you again when you eventually come in August. Pieter is now hanging out at KLIA waiting for his 2 am flight back. I am sure he will share his stories (and pix) when he gets home.

 

Kianhong and Raymond - it was good to meet the two of you too. Now I can put faces to the pix that I see posted! Hon Kit, I think all of us who were there in the morning got your Fireflyz bird too... :)

 

Sri Ramani, strange that we missed the whole group of guys who left the convenience store to walk back to the car park! Were we that intense in discussion? ;)

 

KC - finally I get the chance to meet you. Just like chaity, you are another one of my heroes! Thanks for all your help and guidance here (as well as being my personal navigator to Changi Beach). I am sure that made a good deal of difference for all those who are spotting in SIN for the first time.

 

Waiping and Pieter - the two of you came from some distance and I hope you got what you came for. Waiping, do remember that when you spot in SIN, one battery pack is definitely NOT ENOUGH!

 

To all the people I have met in SIN, it was a pleasure seeing all you guys pursuing a worthwhile and interesting past time. To all those who I did not get to chat with, my apologies - shooting the planes was more important! No bulis and those magnificent flying machines against the blue skies definitely made it worth the drive down to SIN and back.

 

To all who could not make it this year, hope you can come to next year's anniversary spotting session!

 

MWings5[2]_SIN_20100626.jpg

Edited by flee

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Kianhong - whatever you say, you're still our frequent flier on seat 0K :good: :good:

Flee - it was a great pleasure meeting you. although didn't talk much to you in the afternoon thanks to the string of aircrafts and so many MW members around. thank you for sharing a lot of your experiences and knowledge.

 

To continue from where I left off earlier,

 

honkit.jpg

Another hardcore spotter from KUL, Honkit. First thing he asked me where I stayed and how come I have so much of time to go spotting in KUL almost everyday :lol: My advice is simple, get a house near the airport and you'll never regret it. Thank you for making up the colours of the traffic light.

 

tsentsanvernon.jpg

Seen here are Tsen Tsan and Vernon. One thing I have to admit is that Vernon is very photogenic.

 

group1.jpg

This is exactly what we did. Stand under the shade while waiting for an aircraft to approach, and when it does everyone gets themselves as close as possible to the shoreline to shoot. Seen here from L-R is KC Sim, Waiping, Ryan and Daniel.

 

group4.jpg

When we're not shooting planes or barges, we discuss. This discussion looks pretty intense as almost everyone's eyes were glued to Waiping's camera, except one fellow member who decided to pose :lol: From L-R again, KC Sim, Xuyong (blocked), Flee, Waiping, Honkit and Raymond. BTW Raymond, I have a colleague who looks and sounds exactly like you :rofl:

 

kcandvernon.jpg

Just like I spoke earlier on, I did say Vernon is pretty much a photogenic guy right? Seen here Vernon with a striking pose while I was focusing at KC Sim. I have a total of 5 shots of this angle with Vernon being in 5 different poses! :lol:

 

group2.jpg

When it was discovered that there was a Falcon 900 approaching, KC and Xuyong decided to move a little further down to catch her arrival. Photographed here two happy people coming back to our spotting location once they finished catching their fish. :p

 

kcrunning.jpg

Just before the arrival of the Qantas A380 and after AF's 77W landed, KC was seen here running back to his spot further down the beach. One thing to note, always make sure you have your spare CF card and battery packs by your side as you may risk losing a precious visitor.

 

sunset.jpg

Overall it was a great day spent with some great people. This was a consolation shot for the time and effort spent on the beach. Till the next outing in SIN, have a great day guys!

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Sri Ramani: One thing to note, always make sure you have your spare CF card and battery packs by your side as you may risk losing a precious visitor.

 

Guilty as charged!!! Normally, I am a person who constantly check on battery, CF card and even ISO setting ... but the company yesterday was just too good. And so when the CF Card Full signal came on while shooting the Air France B773ER, I realised that these creaking knees have to make a dash or I will regret letting the Qantas A380 go. Just punishment for the negligence.

 

And very cruel of Sri Ramani to have such a high contrast in one of his picture - the one of Vernon and me! Having the most photogenic chap and the one with the ugliest moon-cake face in the same photo really emphasise the difference! Now I must remember to stand away from good-looking people.

 

Francis: Nice group photo ... the golden sunlight really makes us all look like gingerbread! Love the colours in that picture.

 

KC Sim

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Ramani reporting from SIN at the moment. Weather is BAD today, again some places got flooded. I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. Buzz me if any of you are around. Maybe we can do some hanging out today (by 8 as i'm meeting up some other friends from SIN). I'm on roaming, 6012-6716470.

 

Thanks Ramani, back to the studio....hahaha!

 

No pics so far guys?

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