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.