Happy Holidays

I quite like flying around big holidays, the knowledge that I'm bringing families and friends together makes the job that much nicer and as my family and close friends are all very very very very far away being in an aeroplane is the next best thing.

It's quite interesting how a tiny detail can make (or break) someone's day. I swapped my regular pilot cap for a more festive alternative and the amount of smiles it created was truly amazing. Rampers who usually rush about took a few seconds to give me a thumbs-up from outside, the cabin crew had something to gossip and laugh about and the passengers were most amused. If everyone did a little something to make others smile the would could be such a nicer place.

A Christmas card I made very quickly for you all. Took the picture today en-route to Singapore, the aeroplane wanted to wear the hat too.

As the card says, happy holidays where ever you are...

S.

Curfews

We departed KK for K-L about 2 and a half hours later than planned, at about 1930 local. The aircraft had thrown a hissy fit the previous night and maintenance wasn't able to sort it out in time for an on time departure the next morning. Not a huge problem for me - I knew well beforehand and arrived suitably late as well.

Now the runway in KK closes every night at 0100 local for "upgrading work" (though honestly I have no idea what they're doing because it just gets bumpier) so we had a last possible departure time from KL of 2230 local and our ETA was 2155. 35 minutes to turn around is more than we need but things would have to be snappy.

And they weren't.

We were sat on the ground for just under an hour due to slow boarding and problematic paperwork of a passenger. As the ground staff did their thing my eye was on the clock: 2215 ... 2230 (cut off!) ... 2235 ... 2240 ... 2245 ... By the time we took off ETA at KK was 0120. Operations gave us the "go" to give it a try - they would contact the airport and beg for an extension - but the whole thing was a bit non-committal. I prepared the flight plan for Brunei just in case and the Captain threw economy out the window and cruised at M0.80 instead of the usual M0.76-78.

We were lucky, we landed at 0107 and the runway was still open. It did make the flight more exciting though, so exciting I caught another cold.

S.

Real weather

Settling in at my new base in Borneo. The letter said I would be here at least 6 months but if I compare the lifestyle here to that of KL there really is no reason to ever leave.

Today was my third and last day, and as a payback for only working 3 in a row I got to do 6 sectors on two of those days. Some people may think all the landings and take-offs are fun but I can honestly say the amount of paperwork versus flying makes it a very very bad deal. The weather today - huge thunderstorms pouring down enough water to flood the sahara desert - didn't help much either.

This thing was sitting over the airport when we left, and an hour and a half later it hadn't gone far. Picture taken from about 60 nautical miles (100km) at FL110.

S.

A good day

Sometimes, very rarely, the stars will align in such a way that a day goes very very well despite the evil forces' best efforts at ruining it. Today was one of those days.

I got to fly our newest A320, delivered only last week, on a pleasant 2 sector - 5 hour day. The weather was more than magnificent and ATC's best attempts at ruining our already dodgy on-time performance record failed. Singapore even went out of it's way to get us the level we wanted and save us a few kilos of fuel.

I think a picture is the best way to describe the feeling...

What other office has a view as good as this one?

S.

in Sweden

I'm sitting in Stockholm right now, it's just going on 9:30 local and I've been up for 5 hours already. I've just completed my annual A320 type rating renewal sim check, a short flight which involved dealing with an engine failure, some other random system malfunction and flying a few approaches. I arrived in Stockholm yesterday around 3 and I fly back to London in 2 hours.

Very little changed since I was last year a year ago and coming back for the sim ride was a bit like going home to one's old uni or school. Memories of clicking away at computer-based-training consoles until the wee hours of the morning and the perpetual cold/darkness of the Swedish winter came rushing back.

The sim ride was actually almost fun - my Captain was one of the instructors from the type rating and the examiner was another of my instructors so it was more of a reunion than an exam. It a shame I can't stay any longer but I'll be back sooner or later...

S.

Pictures - 3

Some more pictures...

Pahang river

Kuching

In the queue...

En-route somewhere...

300

Logged my 300th flying hour today, somewhere over the Java Sea enroute from Ujung Pandang/Makassar to KL.

The weather was beautiful for a change, almost clear sky with the sun reflecting in the sea. Ujung Pandang looks like a lovely place to go on a diving holiday - we saw loads of reefs and tiny islands off the coast. Another place on my must-see-more-than-the-airport list.

The arrival was quite "fun" as well, a visual approach for runway 31 which involves flying between some rather high hills not 300ft above their tops. Although the Captain was flying I was far too busy looking for the runway and talking to ATC to take a picture unfortunately.

I just noticed I wrote this post backwards. Nevermind.

S.

That new-car smell

I got to fly a brand new jet today, it was delivered only 8 days ago. The aeroplane felt new and happy to be alive and the engines were noticeably smoother. All the switches had that extra springiness that years (or even months) of flicking tends to ware away, the cabin was spotless, all the lights worked and ... well it was like sitting in a brand new car.

Here's some weather we had to deal with a few days ago...

Hmmm...

Arriving into Brunei there was plenty of colour on the radar but the airport itself looked clear and I was able to go visual from about 7 miles. As I touched down (softly) the heavens opened up and it started to pour. Cats and dogs, and probably elephants too. It rained throughout the turnaround, so much so that the aerobridge anti-drip whatever-it's-called couldn't cope and the poor passengers had to walk through a shower to get onboard. I could't help but think of that song "the rain in spain falls mostly in the plane" as it was sort of raining inside the aircraft.

As we pushed a Royal Brunei 767 bound for London taxied down runway 21 to depart from the other (03) end... We didn't think much of it and requested taxi for 21 as it was the advertised runway. As we were taxying another Royal Brunei 767 departed 03 ... Hmmm.

Ah. Quite. As we lined up and switched on the radar we found ourselves looking at lots and lots and lots of red in the departure path of runway 21. It was the sort of red that had killed people in the past, so we also taxied all the way to the other end, span around and departed 03 with an insignificant tailwind. Next time I'll pay more attention to aircraft departing the "wrong" runway, especially when the weather gods are playing around.

Arriving into K-L 2 hours later we were given an especially outstanding display of lightning and ATC incompetence, but that's another story for another day.

The landings are getting much better, I have managed to log 20h in the last 4 days.

S.

A first

I did my first landing with paying passengers in the back at 0318z (1118 local) today, the 21st of October 2009. It was on runway 14L in K-L in beautiful weather and a very light tailwind. I flared a little too aggressively and floated far too long but no one got hurt and nothing broke.

My second landing, slightly better, was at 0611z on the same runway but with a thundercell 3nm away and a 5kt crosswind.

It's for real now, despite the bureaucracy's best efforts I have finally moved from the 3rd seat to the 2nd seat. The view is better and there are more knobs to play with. I logged nearly 6 hours today which is more than I managed in the last 12 months.

I'll be denting runways again tomorrow, wake-up call is for 3:30 in the morning. Yuk.

S.

Starry sea

Flying back from Bangkok we're skimming under a thick layer of stratus that's completely blackening out the sky. All there is outside is complete uninterrupted darkness and we could be the only object in the entire universe. Then slowly stars begin to appear beneath us. First it's just a few, then more and more until the sea is covered with little white twinkles.

The world isn't coming to an end, and we haven't started flying upside down, what we see is thousands of fishing boats out for a night of work. Seeing the tiny lights bobbing around is magical... Words fail me and I forgot to bring my camera.

A lightning flash and a kick in the bottom brings us back to reality: seatbelts on (again), select turbulence speed M0.76 (again), scan the blackness for that rogue thundercell that's hiding from the radar. The little bugger probably has friends lurking around nearby...

S.

Mandarin Meters

Flew to Guangzhou (sometimes known as Canton) a few days ago. It's a very large Chinese city about 120km inland from Hong-Kong, although from the air it looks connected to H-K in one huge urban sprawl. I'm ashamed to say I didn't have any idea this place, or the 9 million people that live in it, existed a few weeks ago. I always pictured Hong-Kong as an isolated city in the middle of I-don't-know-what ... but that's not the point.

The point is that this flight was my first ever encounter with metric altitudes. Most of the aviation world uses feet to express altitudes and will instruct us to maintain an altitude in feet. In China and Russia, for some probably communist reason, altitudes are measured in meters, separation is in meters, ATC tells us to fly meters, but the 'bus only speaks feet so we have to check a reference table every time we're given a new level.

That in itself isn't such a big deal, but ATC also speaks Mandarin to Chinese aircraft and that is very very unnerving.

I always used to scorn the people who complained about ATC being provided in French over France and Québec. I speak French so could follow what was going on easily - and even if I didn't speak the language surely knowing what I had to do would be enough?

Even flying through Spain, where Spanish is spoken along with English, wouldn't feel too odd, I would figure out what's going on using the few Spanish words I know, but being thrown into a completely new country flying to a town I didn't know anything about while flying with weird altitudes and procedures and people who speak a language that doesn't remotely resemble any other language I vaguely have a clue about on the radio really lowered my situational awareness.

I won't say they should start speaking English ... But I think I may try and learn basic aviation instructions in Mandarin before my next flight there, and I hope I go again soon because despite the culture shock and the strange noises on the radio I really feel like I've arrived somewhere different as opposed to Indonesia or Malaysia which, from the cockpit during a 20 minute turn-around, all feels the same somehow.

S.

Yet more rest and recreation

Being faced with another week off courtesy of the administration's strict adherence to the innumerable Malaysian public holidays I decided it may be time to breathe some cool fresh air, see some familiar faces and eat something not containing rice or noodles.

I flew back to Stansted last Monday for a surprise 7 day visit. Only one person knew I was coming, and magically appearing at friends' houses saying "surprise!" was great fun. The weather was brilliant too, crisp clear blue skies and a lovely 18-23° during the day just the way it should be. I got the chance to go sailing again in Portsmouth, wander around London, play with a model aeroplane near Kingston and have a very lazy week-end in Bournemouth.

Alas the break is over and in less than 24 hours I'll be back in the A340 headed for the tropics... I really don't want to leave so soon but the holidays are over and the administration should have whatever papers I'm still waiting for ready upon my arrival.

Thanks to everyone who entertained me and reminded me what home was like during my short stay.

S.

Rest and Recreation

Some friends flew over from the UK for a few days, and as it was getting on 2 full weeks since my last holiday-by-the-sea I decided it was time to take a few days off again.

Photos and narration here: http://bit.ly/45OwoC

S.

Lest we forget, 8 years later

September 11 2001, the day aviation as it was meant to be died, and the world took a decidedly sharp turn for the worse.

Let us never forget the days of flying before this planet was plunged into this terror age. I have fond memories of visiting flight decks (cockpits as they were called), bringing bottles of water or toothpaste through security and not having to unpack laptops and remove shoes/jackets/belts/watches/etc. Everyone seemed happier back then.

I now have the priviledge of being (ocasionally) allowed into the flight deck again but not being able to share the magic of that little room with others really bothers me.

Maybe the world will come back to it's senses one day, but I don't feel optimistic about it happening - it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse...

S.

(Yes I know some aircraft crashed, towers collapsed and people were killed as well, but in the grand scheme of things I feel the legacy of the day is far far worse than the actual event ... how many people have died since?)

Windshear

We were on final for runway 32L. The the radar picture on the navigation display looked like a child's colouring book, with greens, yellows, reds and even some purple here and there.

There was a nice sploch of red (thundercell) on the approach path about 3 miles from the runway and it was producing the most powerful rain I have ever seen.

The wind was 320/25 gusting 30. Strong, but right down the runway.

We saw the approach lights about 2 miles out, and the swimming pool of a runway shortly afterwards. We already knew this would be an interesting landing and we were all psyched up: positive touchdown, full reverse, pay close attention to directional control and braking at all times.

"Two Hundred - Minimum" - "Visual, continue"

"One Hudred"

Then it happened, like magic the wind shifted 30° left and we shifted 50 feet right so that we were approaching the runway edge lighting rather than the centreline. It was too late to make a heroic sideslip and continuing could have meant putting one wheel in the mud. Captain called "go-around" and we did, as the radar altimeter read 75 feet.

We went around, calmed down and landed 10 minutes later without further ado. The aircraft ahead of us and behind us didn't feel anything.

There's a saying in aviation that you haven't committed to a landing until the airplane is too slow to fly. How true.

S.

Pictures - 2

Have been flying around in the jumpseat, officially observing, since about a week. The first flights were interesting but watching other people fly is getting tedious. Sometimes they'll have me do the radios or pre-flight setup, other days there's barely a word exchanged and the day feels very long.

Some pictures...

Kuala Lumpur at night.

Final approach to Kuala Lumpur.

A 777 coming straight at us, 1000ft below.

LOFT/LPC part 2

Turns out my hard disk has given up on life, with the only recent backup being corrupted. A long, unpleasant, expensive week beckons..........

We decide to divert to Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan. The weather there isn't great either but it's within tolerances and the only other alternative is Hong Kong which would involve flying through a lot of bumpy weather. I negotiate a new clearance from ATC and the Captain briefs the cabin crew and passengers. There's no time to relax (of course) as our new destination is only 20 minutes away.

"BING" "My controls, my communication, ECAM actions"

Now one of the thrust levers has decided to leave us. It's not a huge problem now as autothrust is looking after engine power, but as soon as we extend the slats the right engine will go to idle and I will have to fly a single engine approach ... for an overweight landing. I'm only 5 miles from the ILS intercept point and still at 6000ft so I request a hold to gain some time and hopefully burn a little more fuel. I very quickly brief the Captain on the approach procedure, finish all outstanding checks, review the overweight landing procedure. Captain then gets clearance for the approach and we configure.

The approach itself is easy as the autopilot is doing all the hard work, but it's still bumpy, gusty and the constant change in engine power on one side causes a lot of yaw - I can't imagine it's very comfortable in row 30. "100 above ....... MINIMUMS" No runway in sight so we execute a rather slow lumbering go-around and get vectored for a new approach.
The second time the runway appears in the gloom at about 400ft and I manage an acceptable landing in a surprisingly strong crosswind. Welcome to Kaohsiung.

The second part of the loft, with the other pilot flying, is our departure from Kaohsiung a few virtual hours later in the second attempt to make K-L. Needless to say things go wrong and we end up where we started, shaken and stirred, 2 hours later.

Sim test later today which involves things blowing up just before take-off. Although it may sound scarier I personally find it easier as it's a more scripted flight where more or less everything goes according to a plan and 'all' we have to do is press the right buttons and say the right things at the right time. It's still a test though, and there's no fun in being tested.

S.

LOFT/LPC

It's been a while. My laptop is very badly broken and blogging from the computers at work isn't easy or pleasant; but now it's one in the morning, on one else is around and I have nothing better to do...

To the point: The LOFT - Line oriented flight training. It's a jolly in the simulator where we simulate the worst possible line flight to ensure we're able to cope with eventual mishaps in the real aeroplane. Today's scenario was the Taipei - KL service.

Taipei weather is terrible with very strong rain, poor visibility, soaking runways and thunderstorms reported nearby. We have a full load - 180 pax + as much cargo as the jet will carry.

Things start to go wrong before we start moving with a hung engine start. No big deal, aeriate the engine, try again........... and it starts. We taxi - slowly - to runway 06 for departure and line up. "WINDSHEAR AHEAD" says the man in the overhead, and sure enough there's a very pretty looking formation of horror on the weather radar. We decide to wait a bit and as if by magic the colours go away.

Take-off is normal, surprisingly but reaching the second turn on the SID the TCAS starts shouting and shortly afterwards overhead-man shouts again: "CLIMB CLIMB". We're in cloud so the Captain doesn't see the, but it passes 600ft below us.

Slightly shaken but still alive we're cleared to our cruise level FL340 and I start to relax. Right on cue there's a "BING" and the master caution comes on. "My controls, my communications, ECAM actions" it's only a fuel pump (there are 2 per tank) so the procedure is quickly taken care of ....... Until the other pump fails as well.

Now things are getting interesting. we haven't passed FL300 yet which means that our operational ceiling for gravity feeding is FL150, and we'll never make it home at that level where fuel consumption is nearly twice as high. We can't go back to Taipei either as that terrible cloud has reappeared and is now sitting right over the airport.

My bus home has just arrived so you'll have to read what finally happens to us later on...

S.

Status? No status.

Nothing from me in a while as there is nothing really new... I'm waiting for a stamp to continue flying so have been doing precious nothing for while.

Actually that's not entirely true, this forced inactivity is giving me the chance to explore the network somewhat and catch up on a lot of sleep. Last week-end I went to Langkawi for 3 days to lay in the sun, on the beach. Some pictures:

Beach 1 - Datai Bay on Northern side of the Island with Tarutao Island (Thailand) in the distance.

Beach 2 - Near Telok Burau on Western side of the island.

Not a beach, a rice (I think) field near the airport.

Pictures

As promised...

A family of giant cumulonimbus (cumulonimbi?) forcing us off the airway. The tops were a good 6-8000ft above us.

A Singapore 777 trying to race us, 6000ft above.

More clouds, in the most amazing sunset ever. Pity we were pointing the wrong way - it was difficult to take pictures.

S.

Office work and free flights

Spent the morning walking from desk to desk at work in another stamp-and-signature collecting exercise. I was also briefed on how to use the duty/rostering system and shown how flight planning works. Still no date for those 3 sims that separate me from flying online.

A friend and I decided, on a whim, to go to the beach for a few days in East Malaysia as we have nothing better to do. Flight takes off at 1700 local. The joys of ID90 (very very reduced fare) travel mean that we only paid £9 - RM50 (The price of a taxi into town) which is a tenth of the full last-minute fare.

I think it may be time for some pictures soon - once I find a suitably fast internet connection.

CRM

Cee Arr Em. A word used extensively in aviation, it stands for Cockpit/Crew Resource Management and we spent the lsat 2 days digging deep into it's meaning and application. Googling the term will tell you that "CRM is concerned not so much with the technical knowledge and skills required to fly and operate an aircraft but rather with the cognitive and interpersonal skills needed to manage the flight within an organised aviation system." That sounds very nice, but it doesn't really mean anything.

At my company it goes even further and we call it Company Resource Management. We looked into the interaction between the flight deck and the cabin, air traffic, ground handling and even general cultural factors affecting human interaction - a good thing as the airline employs people from all over the place and, operating in Asia, has to deal with some fairly strong local traditions which aren't compatible with aviation safety. The course was as much for first officers, to learn about CRM, as it was for captains, to remind them about CRM. Much too long to go into details about, but the single most important word is safety.

Next week RVSM and an air law exam, then (probably) more office hopping to get forms stamped and cards issued.

Safe to fly...

Safety training finished yesterday with an afternoon in the pool going over post-ditching procedures. Safety training for pilots isn't as thorough as for cabin crew, but we still need to know how to evacuate, fight fires, use oxygen and what the cabin crew will be doing to deal with whatever situations they face. I found my 3 days worth unpleasantly difficult so I really feel for the poor girls (and a few guys) who have over 2 weeks worth.

Another part of the safety training is company policy which is very relevant to pilots. Items such as maximum invalid passengers or infants we can carry, company procedure for dealing with ... security sensitive ... situations, procures for fuelling with passengers on board and/or engines running (I'd like to see the latter happen in H&S minded Europe), etc. Training completes with an exam which must be passed with 90% or better.

Training continues - how to talk to customers today, dangerous goods tomorrow then first aid and CRM next week...

S.

Smile!

First day in the classroom. The first 2 hour lecture was about the company and it's culture (big family - all equal), work ethic (smile!), how great the boss is, how the airline started and it's amazing growth, what the future will look like, how great the boss is, all the awards it won and how we should behave while wearing the uniform (smile!) and represent the company.

We were also handed a list of destinations and told to memorise it by the end of the week, airport names, time zone, currency and IATA codes included. I strongly question the reasoning behind learning some of the items by heart, but...

We were then paraded around the academy to shake the hand of everyone in the building, while smiling of course. Rather embarrassing for us and the groups of host... flight attendants we barged in on. The office staff seemed used to it.

The afternoon brought a session of Airbus Computer Based Torture explaining all the features of the cabin systems: doors, O2, lights, IFE, lavatories, etc.

Papertrail

First day (back) at work today - although one could say it was genuinely my first day at work as I actually did something: Rush around more offices than I can remember fetching/delivering/copying papers, being briefed about all the briefings which will take place, collecting the training schedule and doing a lot of waiting. I was also assigned my permanent base: WBKK.

Tomorrow is another day of paperwork and going to see various agencies. SOP training starts Monday morning for about 4 weeks.

Reintroduction

I spent the last 7 hours in Gatwick reacquainting myself with the A320. Incredibly it had been over six months since I last saw the flight deck of a bus.

We flew Manchester-Gatwick-Manchester as a standard line flight then did some manoeuvres: engine failure/fire, hand flown ILS, VOR, LOC and visual approaches. My landings were a bit ... artistic ... but acceptable. Taxying was something else altogether, however the captain will always be doing that on line - and ground manoeuvring isn't a strong point of the otherwise extremely realistic simulator.

I now have a day to pack before flying off to Malaysia. I'm starting to feel excited, rushed and a bit sad about leaving all at the same time.

A fresh start

Having been finally recalled to work I thought it was time to change blog. The one I used to write, which is still online somewhere (but not for very long) got completely ignored, and updating it had become an unpleasant chore. The writing style was terrible too.

Here's what happened so far: In 2003 I started learning to fly in Canada. I got the PPL in 2005 then the CPL in early 2007. It was around that time that my family decided to move (back) to Europe and I decided I didn't want to be a Canadian bush pilot. I went to Oxford for 13 months of training and got my JAA ATPL in July 2008.

In October a Malaysian carrier asked Oxford to send them some newbie pilots and I was one of the people chosen. We were fully type rated by Christmas and flew out in January, however upon arrival some bureaucratic obstacles delayed the commencement of company training (and confirmed employment). Eventually we got fed up flew back home.

6 months later we have finally been called up again - we are to report to head office on July second...