Change The Flight Plan 9

SHAH ALAM: I am really in a dire need of a scanner. Thirty minutes after noon today (Sept 6) I was on the way to Sek Keb TTDI Jaya to sent my son.


As I was approaching the school, my better half saw a plane flying over the school. I looked to the left and saw the plane as it was it had its starboard wing just over the roof, at a height of about 500 feet AGL.

No time to whip out the good old camera. The plane passed over head and leveled out before going out of sight.

We waited at the school hoping for a second shot on the plane overflying the school but it did not return. I knew it was a RMAF plane but could not decided off-hand whether it was King Air or the twin-engine Cessna.

A quick check on my files confirmed that it was a twin-engine Cessna used for flight and navigator training and liaison flight. Similar to this one.

I can understand jets being flown acrobatically but can RMAF restrained its slow movers from doing such routines especially over schools?


-- Change The Flight Plan.

Change The Flight Plan 8

SHAH ALAM: Regular readers of this blog would have moticed the changes in the layout of this blog. Most noticably is the big picture of a Transmile MD-11 cargo plane in the header.

No, Transmile have not sponsored this blog. I wish they would do so but in the current situation I dont think they can afford me. Anyway I decided to put up the Transmile MD-11 as the picture header as they are the ones that usually fly over the schools in TTDI Jaya whenever they are conducting their pre-or-post maintenance flights. You can see the video in my earlier posts.

Furthermore the MD-1s make the loudest noise when taking off dirty, so they deserved the publicity!

Other operators notably RMAF and Malaysia Airlines tend to fly slightly further than the schools although these planes remained very close to the schools. But with the schools located so near to the active runway, I agree that it cannot be helped.

However, they could alwats change their flight plans. If they cannot avoid flying near the school, they could simply fly after school hours or over the weekend.

I wonder whether this could be done?

The first video was taken on July 30 of a RMAF Hercules taking off from Subang. The second one is another RMAF taking off on August 6. Both started flying about 5.30pm, they were flying pretty low with the gear down.









It was so near that you can hear the school's nell ringing in the background!

Change The Flight Plan 7

SHAH ALAM: More videos this time, the first is a Beech King Air of the RMAF on a training flight and a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 747. The King Air as it was doing circuits, tend to over fly the schools in the TTDI Jaya area, not directly like the others but close enough.

The Jumbo (video taken on July 17 ) as all Malaysia Airlines planes flew away from the schools. But as the Sek Keb TTDI Jaya is located near the end of the Subang Airport runway (about one km away) the big jets and small ones flying away will always appear as close as those aircraft which overfly the school.

Change The Flight Plan 6

SHAH ALAM: It seems that even if the planes do not over fly Sek Keb TTDi Jaya and Sek Men Keb TTDI Jaya, aircraft taking off from Subang Airport fly really close to the schools.

Sek Keb TTDi Jaya is particularly vulnerable as it is located the nearest to the airport's runway, which is located about ONE kilometre away.

For some strange reason, these planes (especially those on pre-or post-maintenainance flights) seemed to prefer flying out of Subang as near to the school as possible.

They can always fly out towards the Hyatt Saujana first before turning towards Sg Buloh to complete the touch-and goes a veritable circle track in an airspace around 10 square kilometres.

I understand that the airport was build before the schools hence it is not easy to cancel out the noise issue or curtail aircraft activities but changing the flight plan to fly away from the schools should be easy.

Other planes are doing it but why the training planes and the aircraft on check flights neeed to fly over or near the schools remained a wonder. I remember that last year, a British E-3A Sentry AWACS plane fly out toward U1 and even flying over the Ladang Rasak (behind the TTDI Jaya) to avoid flying over the two schools.

Check out these two videos, the first a business jet taking off from Subang two weeks ago and the other an Air Asia Boeing 737 taken today (July 5). Note that both planes came very close to the primary school.

Buzz for Pay Per Post

Why Do I Love Pay Per Post? Why? You ask. It’s the money of course. I know I have only joined PPP recently and have not earned any money yet. But from the buzz I have read and seen, I am going on full throttle after this post.

CHange The Flight Plan is of course where anything goes, even blogging for commercial purpose ie actively blogging for money.

If you think I am shallow, think again. You do know me, so stop making judgment on me .
Anyway, its money that makes the world go round. Ask any one. You need money to live to ear or eat to live. One cannot survive on principals alone. Just as those people crusading against corruption. Without money, they would be on the streets.

On CNN they are broadcasting a program focus on Russia. One after another, Russians talk about freedom, opportunity and stability. Its all about the money even in the former communist state.

So what is wrong about blogging for money? Blah, a former colleague of mine said. He can do that. He is single. His only worries centers on where he can get his next mug beer.

Being a journalist, there is always a person who is willing to fork out the bill. If he cannot get someone to pay, with his salary and no responsibility, he can still drink himself silly every night.

And me. Since becoming a home stay dad, I need to diversify my income. I worked part time on weekends and through my contacts, I write for magazines.

If you are still not convinced that being paid to blog is unethical. Think again. Many have been millions from the Internet. Some without doing anything at all. At least I am trying to do something. Kudos to Pay Per Post for letting me do it with some rewards.


ads on blogs

Change The Flight Plan 5

SHAH ALAM: Today (June 26) between 9am to 12.30pm, at least three planes, two C-130 Hercules transport planes and Transmile MD11 overflew the Sek Keb TTDI Jaya and Sek Men TTDI Jaya.

I do not want to talk about the noise (yes its loud) but with the schools almost a mile away from the runway, it certainly cannot be helped. But why do these planes overfly the schools when they have other routes to take?

Unfortunately, due to my lack of proper video equipment (my handycam ran out of battery) I did not got any shots of the three planes. When I shot the last Hercules flying over the primary school, I only got a one second video on my handphone. It was too short to post here.

Next time I will be ready. Surely they will do it again and again.

Change The Flight Plan 4

SHAH ALAM: The video below clearly shows a Cessna 182 flying low over Sek Keb TTDI Jaya and shortly there after Sek Men Keb TTDi Jaya.

Why the plane is flying over the schools is beyond my understanding.

A couple circuits before it had taken a different route, which clearly shows that although both schools are located unfortunately just next the Subang Airport (see my previous posts) active runway, it had the option not to over fly the schools.

Over to you DCA!

Ok, As Long As You Dont Fly Over Our Schools

SHAH ALAM: They reopened Subang to commercial flights. Now if only they will fly those planes over Subang Jaya instead of the schools around TTDI Jaya.


Go-Ahead For Firefly To Operate From Subang - Chan
General
June 13, 2007 19:32 PM

PUTRAJAYA, June 13 (Bernama) -- The Government has given the go-ahead to Firefly, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines (MAS), to operate from the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang, Transport Minister Datuk Seri Chan Kong Choy said today.

He said the Cabinet had decided that the Penang-based Firefly can fly to all domestic destinations not served by Malaysia Airlines and budget carrier AirAsia and to places in Indonesia and Thailand from Subang.

The Government is also studying Firefly's request to operate from Senai and Kota Kinabalu as well, he told reporters after presenting excellent service awards to 26 officers and staff of his ministry here today.

Chan said the services would be provided by turbo prop or propeller-powered planes as the airport has been designated for short-haul flights.

Currently, Firefly flies twice daily to Langkawi, Kota Baharu, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Phuket and Koh Samui.

It started commercial operations, using two 50-seater Fokker Friendship aircraft on domestic routes on April 3 and to international destinations 10 days later.

There have been speculations that the Government would allow Firefly to use Subang as its second operations base to offer short-haul flights to domestic and international destinations.

This include the routes from Subang to Ipoh, Senai, Banda Aceh, Padang and Medan in Indonesia.

The Tourism Ministry has been lobbying for Firefly to operate its flights from Subang as the move would help boost the tourism industry.

Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport or previously known as the Subang International Airport was the country's main international gateway from 1965 until 1998 before the international airport shifted to Sepang.

The airport took a backseat since then, mainly catering for a handful and small turbo-prop planes, chartered flights and helicopter services.

-- BERNAMA

Another Day Another Flood

SHAH ALAM: As I feared it rained heavily today (June 14) and a small flood occurred. With Sungai Air Kuning (behind Mayang Sari next to the apartments) inundated with waters from Bukit Jelutong, Puncak Perdana and beyond.

It must be noted here that the Puncak Perdana area is a water catchment area and the Sungai Buloh Dam is located within the area.


My hypothesis (this is my opinion and not based on any in depth research) that all that rainwater (after all the land clearing) poured into drains that led into Sg Air Kuning and all of it culminate in this area).

The flood today was a small affair and the water had subsided by 6pm. But I believe TTDI Jaya will suffer major flooding if heavy rain occurred simultaneously in Puncak Perdana and Damansara as what happened in Feb 26, 2006.

If you got the time, please drive down to Bukit Jelutong area (underneath the highway) and you can see the huge retention pond, which is connected to the drain leading to the TUDM Golf Club.

The drain then become Sg Air Kuning next to the Bomba headquarters and the industrial area behind TTDI Jaya. This industrial area was part of the Rasak Estate owned by Guthries and has since been developed by Guthrie Properties.

Apart from the concrete culvert (just after the TUDM base junction if you are coming from TTDI Jaya), which is paid for by US, most of the industrial area have no concrete culvert just like the huge earth drain behind the two schools (see the video in the earlier post).

Since this is the monsoon season more heavy rain is expected. So be prepared.

At least Somebody is Watching or in Fear

SHAH ALAM: Its been raining heavily in TTDI Jaya the last few days. We were spared floods this time around but the same cannot be said about Kuala Lumpur. Our thoughts and prayers for those affected by the flash floods last week and on Sunday.

I heard about the KL floods on Sunday while watching Tv3 Midnite news. The first thing that came to mind was the fact that it was lucky that I went back home early.

I left my office at Jalan Tun Razak about 1pm. I was supposed to be working until 7pm but due to system failure, my colleague and me left for home early. It was a lucky break otherwise both of us would have been stuck in KL that night.

Anyhow when I fetched my son at school today I saw two excavators busy patching up the wall of the earth drain. Since its been raining heavily the last few days, the gushing water from the cleared land have been wreaking havoc on the earth drain.

I cannot believed that MBSA had not order Guthrie Properties to make the drain into concrete culvert. I know its more expensive but it will certainly prevent any chance of floods in TTDI Jaya.

By grace of god, the drain remained standing even with the heavy rains in the last few days. But the excavators at the site today clearly revealed that the drain and its walls are fragile. Another bout of heavy rain might just cause it to fail.

Lets hope its after school hours.

My Team or Their Team?

KUALA LUMPUR: I was watching the TV3 8pm news tonight (8/6/07) and one of the news bulletin (sports) was about Myteam programme in Indonesia.

I believe this is taking our supposed kinship with the Indonesians to the extreme.

According to its "WHAT started as purely an entertaining and fun project has become a serious endeavour for Khairy Jamaluddin and his team.
MyTeam began as a reality show to unearth new football talents nationwide. Today, the fledgling MyTeam has garnered support from many quarters. They have teamed up with UPB and have already made an early impact in the M-League. "

Now for the second season of the reality show, they have set-up Myteam Indonesia. Huh! Arent we are supposed to get unearth our very own football diamonds?

In the 70s, we were among the top football teams in Asia. We were on par with the South Koreans, Saudi and Iran.

Since the last 20 years, however, we have been in the dumps, even losing to the Philippines. Every one including me is in despair over our football team performance.

I think most has given up hope that a Malaysian team will ever repeat the performances of the 70s team that they had adopted English Premier League teams as their favourite.

The matter have gone so bad that they even risked Malaysian football being banned by FIFA and AFC over the Manchester United Asia tour, claiming it is just a matter of tourism.


And now this Myteam Indonesia venture. What do they expect to get? Having a bunch of Indonesians beating us in our soil using our money? Ah, its just a reality show they will say and Indonesia is our kin.

Don't they realised the Indons have been whooping our behind in badminton for the last 50 years and their footballers have been trying to do that in the last 20 years?
And they want to find their rough diamonds?

Those who thought of this venture must certainly forgotten what a Scottish coach once said to embark on this blue-ob-blue mission.

What was the advice? "Football is not a matter of life and death. Its more important than that.

Change The Flight Plan 3

SHAH ALAM: You may strained your eyes to see the Cessna 182 but undoubtedly this video shows that airplanes from Subang Airport do fly over the schools in TDDI Jaya.

As the video was shot on June 2, no pupils were at the schools, it is the holidays.

It is however frustating as the earlier flight of the Transmile cargo jet shows that they knew that the schools were there but they continue to ignore them.




Hopefully I will get a HD video camera soon. Until then I have to rely on my Nokia N73 phone

Hornbill Airways or Flying over the Skies of Sarawak

Top: AgustaWestland AB139
Bottom: EH101

KUALA LUMPUR: With Malaysia Airlines or a subsidiary is taking over the Sarawak rural air service from the fast-paced people of FAX, we wonder whether maybe its time the flight operator (who ever it is) used helicopters for some of the route.

Flights to Miri and Bintulu from or to Kuching should be flown by fixed wing planes basically because of the long distance involved.

For other routes maybe medium-size helicopters like the AgustaWestland EH-101 or the Super Puma, should be used instead of the current F-50 Fokker.

Back in the 50s, when helicopters were first introduced, it was envisioned that it would replace land-based transports for intra-city/district commuting.

It didn’t work out that way but Sarawak offers a new possibility. If the EH-101 is deemed to expensive or having too much capacity, twin-engine helicopter like the Augusta AB139 or the Bell BA609 tilt-rotor.Since helicopters have been used for years in the Sarawak Offshore industry as air taxis, deploying medium size or smaller (at least in the five ton category) helicopters for intra-city/district travel should not be that difficult.

For intra-city commuting, perhaps a regional jet like the Embraer 100-series … or the Bombardier Regional Jet to replace the Fokkers.

One must remember however, the main reason, Malaysia Airlines passed the rural air services to FAX was simple, it is simply unprofitable. So for a new operator to recapitalise the service with new planes and helicopters it quite farfetched.

The answer is simple, of course, one that had been used before. Sarawak Government in the early 90s funded together with Ekran Group the East Asia airline. The airline collapsed in 1997 following the East Asia financial crisis.

With about RM300 million, the Sarawak rural air service would be recapitalise with new planes and helicopters. The company providing would not make money, so the Sarawak and Federal governments must budget about RM50 million to subsidise the service.

It is not much money but it with proper oversight it will ensure the operator have a decent operating profit to maintain the rural air service.


What is the use of having petro-money but not used it for the sake of the people?

Change The Flight Plan II

KUALA LUMPUR: Transmile Group is in the news for all the wrong reasons.

That is why I am feeling uneasy that its planes are flying over schools in TTDI Jaya during their pre or post-maintenance flights.

I understand that the Subang Airport came before the schools and the housing estates surrounding it but could they not fly over schools where children as young as seven are schooling.

I do not want to say it but what if the unthinkable happened? And by the way since pre -or post maintenance flights are planned before hand couldnt they fly this type of flights on weekends.

If its too much, the least they can do is not to over-fly the schools. The picture below shows how much deviation these planes need to take to overfly the schools.

Berjaya Air planes fly straight off the runway, why couldnt other planes follow the same route. I understand that for touch and goes planes do not need to use the whole runway, half-way I believe, meaning that the pilots turned starboard right away.

And since the RMAF base is located also on starboard, I assume that the planes that overflew the schools in TTDI Jaya would have given the airbase quite a miss. So they bypass the airbase but then over-fly the schools. Smart, right?

Change The Flight Plan

KUALA LUMPUR: "Change The Flight Plan" was created as an e-campaign to change the flight plan of planes flying out of the Old Subang Airport. Some of these planes including RMAF planes tend to drift starboard (right) off the runway and fly over two schools in TTDI Jaya, Shah Alam namely Sekolah Kebangsaan TTDI Jaya (primary school) and Sek Men Keb TTDI Jaya (secondary school).

The primary school is the worst off. Its location from the edge of the runway is about one km (plus or minus). Hence even if the planes continue to fly straight up, its noise footprint will drown out the school.

This is especially true for the older planes like the Boeing 727, Fokker F-28 and even the Boeing 747 SP.

But the biggest problem is the tendecy of planes to over-fly the schools still with the gear in down position where the noise is the loudest.

I have been trying to catch these planes in the act (from Cessna 172s, helicopters and Hercules C-130 of the RMAF) of overflying the school not more than 2000 feet.

But without a radio scanner it is very difficult to get in the right position with my video camera. Today May 15, I was luckier although I did miss the shot where the plane was flying over the school

The video below was shot by a Nokia N73 handphone. Although I did not managed to shoot a reference point or the actual time when the plane overflew Sek Keb TTDi Jaya, the video reveals much.

And this is from a handphone! If I did have a HD video camera and a scanner you would have seen the pilots from this Transmile MD11.



Did you hear the sound of the three jet engines? Believe me it was loud.






A picture of an MD11 of Transmile. Picture from the company's website

Idris Jala part II

It seems that my blog on Idris Jala blog have been viewed with interest within Malaysia Airlines.

It is unfortunate that no comments were made but at least I received an email from someone whom I had interacted when I was working with The Malay Mail..

I will not share his name but the email made me wonder what I posted was correct. But Idris remained quiet. However, upon checking my records, I do recall that his contract is up within this year.

Idris does not need to quit. He needs only to ensure that the three year contract is not renewed and he can go free, away from the maddening crowd.

If you think that he will be leaving Malaysia Airlines personnel in the lurch after what had happened in the last three years, do a recap. Idris is just a salaryman, highly paid of course but he is not Tajuddin Ranli.


He can and should walk away from this mess, with his head held up high. Many people thought they were expendable (Datuk Zulkifli, Tan Sri Rahim Noor, to name a few) and left their service with their reputation in tatters.

Idris had turned around Malaysia Airlines. He deserved better than what Chang Kong Choy placed on him

Make Money Online

Yeah, I know I am far away from the other top bloggers already online. But I am not giving up easily. My original blogspot Malaysian Defence is already out there. It may not be the best read blog around but the defence news have never been that highly read in the country.

For those who want to know an advance version of making money online please read John Chow Dot Com.

I know we are all amateurs but John did not reach the level now without first doing what we are doing now. I have followed some of his writings but certain things is still beyond me especially my own DOT COM.

One simple reason is the lack of funds. Hopefully this will be corrected soon.

Firefly, FAX or Idris Jala or The Malaysian Airlines story so far

NO GOOD MALAYSIAN DEED GOES UNREWARDED


Pity Idris Jala (his the Malaysian Airlines MD). Just when he got the airline back on track again, boom came an uppercut. courtesy of FAX, the off-shoot of AirAsia.

Under the rationalisation plan of the Malaysian airline industry, FAX was given the license to operate the rural air services for Sabah and Sarawak.


FAX has other things in mind though, it has launch AirAsiaX to take low fare travel for long haul flights and now it want to ditch the rural air services back to Malaysian Airlines.


Cue our Transport Minister Datuk Chong Kong Choy who only a few days after FAX bosses cane out with the statement that the Cabinet had approved the proposal.

The rationalisation plan that allow Malaysian Airlines to hand over the rural air services to FAX took almost one year to be studied. I am not making any accusations here just facts. If you dont believe me check it out yourself at the NST archives, you can do the timeline yourselves.


Clearly, Idris Jala is the victim here. He simply cannot win. Just when you thought that Malaysia Airlines finally has a good captain, those in powers would try to muck it up again.

Malaysia Airlines have not responded to the latest development. In my posting on AeroMalaysia Forum, I suggest that Idris was trying to find a diplomatic way to say no to the diktum.

But how is Idris going to say no to the Cabinet? The only way for him now is to accept the proposal no matter how bad it is on his bottomline.

Being a Sarawakian, Idris certainly knows the importance of the rural air service but as the MD he had made the necessary decision to cut off the black hole of Malaysian Airlines.

Idris certainly has an obligation to his shareholders but his biggest shareholder is the Government itself.

The best way out for Idris? Quit, passed this strange turn of event to the next guy. Certainly it was the Government which is holding his hand.

Couldnt he returned the favour? As the subtitle says No Malaysian Good Deed Goes Unrewarded

Google Adsense

Google Adsense have been credited for boosting internet advertising after the dot com bust of the 90s. I have an Adsense account but my website Malaysian Defence are not a bell ringer. Anyhow as the Malaysian Defence is quite serious in nature, Change the FLight Plan will be the other avenue for ne to write on anything and even commerical posts (such as pay per post - a type of advertising with bloggers getting paid for reviewing diverse set of websites.

I have not received any money yet from Adsense or payper post but I am getting there. So dont forget the click the adverts!

Why Make Money From Blogging

SOMEONE asked me about this the other. Why make money online? he asked. I could only say that I was not running a scam, my money, if it ever come, would be from advertisers not ordinary people. Unless of course they would credit their money into my bank account. Since I did not asked any one to donate money I dont think it would happen.

I can only posts and hope readers would be kind enough to click the ads on my page. I will post how other blogger could make money but only from my own experience.


Google have not paid me yet. When they do I will make an announcement here. I ran Google AdSense on my three blogs, but this blog would be the most commercial of my blogs.

Make Money Online

I was looking for advice on how to make REAL money online and somehow I found this website johnchow dot com

The website is a blog that helps you make money online. And the btw, if you do a review of his blog, he’ll link to it and send you a ton of traffic.

It is helpful certainly his links are better than those that I have found in other similar websites. Clearly a website for me to emulate.


Those new to blogging could also learnt a lot from the website.

Internet Mogul

This site was supposed to be on another subject but since I have set-up another blog for that purpose, it is obvious to me that this should be the commercial blog for me.


While the other two website also contained advertisement but in this blog that I will try to place all other type of commercial operation (to make money online)including paid review and such. I too want to be an internet mogul.