DEPARTURE TO LONDON LHR

Took off from AUH Abu Dhabi International Airport at 0420 UTC or 0820 local time, Runway 13 ,Easterly direction then turned left to the West and had a good view of the airport on my left hand side. At the end of the runway, western side with the red roof is the Ferrari world, the theme park where the fastest roller coaster in the world situated.

Abu Dhabi city view from the North at 8000 feet above sea level. 3 years ago, the number of the buildings is half of the present.

Basically there are 3 choices of routes to London from Abu Dhabi. Over Saudi, then Jordan, Syria and Turkey on the first half, or over Iraq then Turkey or over Iran then Turkey. The shortest one is over Iraq which open recently for commercial but due to the turbulence over that area, the company chose routing via Iran.

In winter, the visibility always good.

This beautiful view I captured when we were flying somewhere near Tabriz, North of Iran.

IN-FLIGHT DIVERSION

Yes I am now in Milan Melpansa Airport, resting in the hotel room before my flight back to AUH. Earlier , I was supposed to land at CDG, Paris but due to heavy snow fall the airport was closed just before we reach our top of descend. Initial diversion was to Llyon, LFLL but we were few minutes late, all the parking spaces taken by the diverting planes. Munich, Frankfurt, Orly, Brussel all covered by the snow as well so the best choice that left for me was LIMC, MXP or Milan Malpensa....

Touched down uneventful at 0837 local time, waited in the plane with some the angry looking passengers until new set of crew arrived to take over from us. Luckily another set of crew was ready at the airport to fly the passengers from Milan to Abu Dhabi. Company decision, we will do the Milan to Abu Dhabi sector after rested for minimum of 12 hours at the hotel and the original crew for that flight will bring the passenger to Paris... hmmm good luck guys..

Points to consider, the weather over Europe in winter can change drastically. Taking extra fuel always help ( in my case, I took 2 hours extra holding fuel ). Duty Period and Flight Time Limitation are always the limiting factors in any diversion, so keep the table handy. Try as much as you can to console the angry passenger for not taking them to the place that they wanted to go.. Overall, Safe Flight Always..

VISITING OLD FRIEND

Our friend, classmate, schoolmate and his bed was beside mine in the same dorm when we were in RMC... Prof Dato' Dr Radin Umar , now he is the Ketua Pengarah Pendidikan Tinggi was not very well due to an illness. After a few operations and medical observations, Alhamdulillah he is back to normal everyday life and back to his office. We paid him a visit recently and after been given green light by him after the quarantine period was over.

Me and Prof Dato Radin Umar

 

Prof Wan Zaidi of UTM Skudai and YB Yaakob Sapari, EXCO Selangor

Me and Adzmir, another ex RMAF partner in mischief during our RMC days.

Among us, Oficers in Armed Forces, lecturers, doctors, Lawyers and judges, Pengetua Sekolah, Politican and Businessman. Good mixtures in a friendship circle.

Bye bye Dato', thanks for the advices and tips on how to keep healthy and sharing the agony and feeling before entering the operation theater. God bless you.

SIMULTANEOUS APPROACH

" Etihad 472 clear to land runway 25 R , Traffic on your left coming to land on 25L "

This simultaneous approach on both runways is common, especially at heavy traffics airport. I have seen it at London, Paris, Beijing, JFK but not at KLIA... In these pictures, I was on final approach to land on runway 25 right and at the same time another plane is making an approach at the same time on runway 25 left. WIII Sukarno Hatta International Airport. Well, that's the idea of having two or more runaways...

Busy...Busy...Busy...

Arianna Husna and Arissa Husna

Disneyland, Paris

Dhia Sofea Umairah

Yes, I was really busy. Twin girls born at 24 Apr 09 followed by another baby girl at 08 Aug 10. Not my grandchildren okay !, they are my daughters. So right now, I have 3 infants ( below 2 years) with me. I was busy watching them growing...

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON..

Transformation, from a naughty boy who think that he could do everything, to a Standard Operating Procedures, SOP abiding student pilot. Not so quite like father like son, because he skipped the joyfull adrenalin pumping fighter jet flying. All the best to him, my beloved son.

Ramadan Kareem !!!

Selamat berpuasa dan beramal ibadat du bulan yang mulia ini, semoga diberkati Allah ke atas apa jua amalan yang di buat. Hari pertama, saya dapat berpuasa bersama sama dengan keluarga di Malaysia tetapi tak berpeluang untuk berbuka bersama kerana terpaksa berangkat ke Abu Dhabi pada petangnya , hanya sempat berbuka di KLIA.

Hari kedua, memandangkan akan membuat penerbangan ke Chicago, menghala ke Barat, maka tidah dapat la nak berpuasa. Jika berpuasa juga, waktu imsak sekitar 0400 di Abu Dhabi, dan waktu berbuka sekitar 2000 di Chigaco. Penerbangan mengambil masa 14 jam, berlepas dari Abu Dhabi jam 1100 dan mendarat di Chicago jam 1600, waktu tempatan. Perbezaan waktu antara Abu Dhabi dan Chicago adalah 9 jam. Ini bermakna, setelah berpuasa selama 7 jam sebelum berlepas, 14 jam dalam flight dan menunggu lagi waktu berbuka selama 4 jam lagi di destinasi, jumlah waktu berpuasa adalah 25 jam !!

Saya masih ingat lagi pesanan dari Dato Dr Harun Din di salah satu ceramahnya yg saya hadir, katanya tuhan dah bagi kita kelonggaran, dah bagi kemudahan, jadi jangan la kita sombong tak mahu terima kemudahan yang dah diberikan. Jadi bermakna pada hari kedua saya dah tak berpuasa. Hari ini, semasa saya menulis ini, sedang berada di Chicago lagi ,bangun sahur pukul 4 pagi tadi dengan kebab yg dah sejuk yang saya beli sebelum tidor malam, insyaAllah akan terus berpuasa kerana akan berlepas balik ke Abu Dhabi pada 2030,iaitu selepas waktu berbuka.

Hari ke 4, akan berada dalam kapalterbang sepanjang hari, dan akan berbuka sebelum mendarat kerana terbang menghala ke timur.

Scramble Egg

My favourite breakfast, the scamble egg and the toast. Been missing
nasi lemak and roti canai banjir since 2007. But it is okay, feel
healthier now. This breakfast was taken at 40000 feet above Istanbul
on the way to Europe.

The new diamond first class seat. just trying it out. Feel like

sleeping in a hotel room up in the air.

Proud Malaysian

This is the cabin of Airbus 340-600. The 75.3 meters long metal tube, this picture taken at the rear most seats.

And below is the list of crew that were on board on Flight EY 455 departing from Sydney to Abu Dhabi, 27 June 2010. The Pilot In Command, PIC is the only Malaysian on board.

UMRAH 2010

Alhamdulillah, telah selamat mengerjakan ibadat umrah dengan isteri pada 2 hb Mei sehingga 8 hb Mei 2010.
Bertolak dari lapangan terbang Abu Dhabi menuju ke Jeddah.







Setelah selesai saie, bergambar di bukit Marwah.












Didalam masjid sementara menunggu masuk waktu maghrib.
























Pemandangan dalam masjid diwaktu tengah hari selepas waktu zohor.




















Isteri saya selepas selesai tawaf dan sembahyang sunat di dalam hijir Ismail.

Masjid Tanaim, Miqat yang paling hampir dengan kota Mekah untuk berniat ihram .

AUTOMATIC LANDING

Sometimes, the weather at the destination airports not always good. During winter the visibility can be as low as 100 meters only in fog, especially in the early morning. At this visibility the runway will not be visible until the plane is just a few feet over the runway. As an airliner, we can't just divert to more suitable airport for landing as that actions will cost the company a lot of money. The modern aeroplanes are now equipped with automatic landing capability whereby the pilots do not have to see the runway for landing even though the visibility is at zero !! It is fully automatic, the pilots job is just to monitor the flight path, the systems working normally and to take over manually in the case of any abnormalities occurred. Take over mean not necessary to land the plane, it could be to bring the plane up again and land somewhere else which has a better weather for safe landing visually.



In order to carry out the approach, the flight computer must be programmed to follow the standard published procedure as per the chart below. This eg is for the arrival into Geneva Airport, following the BANKO TWO ROMEO arrival for runway 23. Once programmed, the autopilot will fly the plane according to the route in the chart, starting from BANKO (which is just a few miles from Mont Blanc ) following the track and the vertical path accurately.





Then the plane will intercept the final approach path, which is 3 deg descend angle towards the runway 23 as per the Instrument Landing System (ILS) chart below, following the exact track and vertical path. On the lower side of the chart, the vertical profile is shown, which the distance and the height the plane should be.




The pilot should be scanning the Primary Flight Display (PFD) , letting the plane fly by itself, just standby to take over in case any malfunction occurs. CAT3 DUAL mean the airplane will land by itself and the pilot will take over when safely on the ground .
ps : This PFD picture is just a sample as it does not show the approach for ILS runway 23.





Normally the pilot will take over to stop the plane or to taxi to the parking bay if the taxiway is visible. Minimum visibility to taxi the plane is 30 meters. Airport chart must be read before coming to land so that the pilot will be familiar with the layout and the parking bay, to avoid getting lost on ground.

New Airbus Cabin Seats.

Diamond First Class

Pearl, Business Class

LONDON HEATHROW ARRIVAL.

For any destination, according to the regulation, alternate airports must be planned in the event of unable to land at the destination airport due to bad weather, runway closer or any other reasons. This was for my flight last week to London Heathrow Airport. Nominated destination alternate were Alternate #1 EGKK Gatwick Airport, Alternate #2 EGCC Manchester, Alternate #3 LFPG Paris and Alternate #4 EBBR Brussel. The flight plan will take into account the amount of fuel required to fly to the destination plus fuel required to the alternate and that figures will be the Minimum Sector Fuel to be carried for the flight. The final figure will take into consideration of 30 minutes holding before landing( reserve fuel )and 3-5 percent contingency fuel . If the weather forecast is bad, additional reserve fuel may be carried. So as a passenger,nothing to worry about whether the plane has enough fuel or not to reach the destination and or to divert to the alternate airport.

Landing at runway 09L London Heathrow Airport.

Another record broken !!!

On my recent flight yesterday night, Chicago to Abu Dhabi. Flying over Canada Airspace, riding on the jet stream at 33000 feet. Look at the top left hand corner of the Navigational Display ND. I was flying at 478 kts True Airspeed TAS, the wind was blowing right from behind bearing 278 deg from the North at 175 knots giving resultant Ground Speed GS of 651 knots. That was the actual speed that we travelled over the surface of the Earth, 1205 km per hour !!!



Not so busy flying over the Atlantic, waiting for the time for me to rest and Team B crew taking over. Total flight time was 12 hrs 50 min, and the rest period calculated was 5 hrs 50 min each.

These are the beds for the cabin crew. Total of 13 onboard, half will be working and the other half will be sleeping in this Crew Rest Bunk Compartment.

This one, nearest to the door is the bed for First Officer and the bigger one with the bedsheet pillow and blanket is mine, I mean for the Captain hehe..

Closer look at the Captains bed.

Good Nite ! I will wake up one hour before landing at Abu Dhabi becouse I have to prepare

and freshen up , have to do the landing.

MELBOURNE, AGAIN..

Flying over Australia, just East of Perth. During
hot summer, the shallow river and lakes dry up
as can be seen here, become whitish.

Melbourne city from the birds eyes view. Good visibility, nice

25 deg C temperature but sometime can be very hot and humid

with a lot of clouds formation overhead.

Approaching the runway to land, runway 16 Melbourne Airport.

The hotel where they put us for the night after 14 hours of
flight. The Crowne Plaza.

Beautiful view from my room.