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.