Psyc’z Dept Of Winds, Wings & Wackiness…

  Something you would listen in the morning while waiting for the sun to rise.

  Morning… I woke up at 5.15am. Like my standby is at 5am. I will be going on standby at 5 in the afternoon though. And I don’t surf the net as the 1st thing to do as soon as I wake up. I actually shut the computer down because it stayed up working (downloading a whole bunch of available season of Spongebob Squarepants et al.) Let the thing rest at least once per day, just like us human beings. We are packed with lactic acid, they are packed with heat.

  About 7 in the am, this is the best time to study and to compose melodies. Yup, I used to compose before line training. But I’ll get to that much much later.

  So, activity for the day :

• Pick up my sister from UM thereafter to a clinic at Kelana Jaya thereafter home.
• Send bibik to the market.
• To the ATM.
• Finish PRIMA Guide for Sims 2 : Nightlife (yes, I’m such a geek that I read this kind of stuff to interest myself of the technical stuffs… and for programmers, this book really gives you the idea on how to play with variables)
• Go to my mum’s colleague son (or daughter, I dunno) wedding.
• Standby in late afternoon till 1 am. (during standby, activity must be limited as to conserve energy in case I would be called up for flight)

  I’ll post up a picture of me wearing my new FO rank later. And I might post up something about music and me by the next post.

  Salam… peace be with you…

  Definitely the most neutral of all greetings. At least, that was what I thought after reading an article from The Star quite some time ago…

  Anyway, off to the topic. I cleared my A330 Final Line Check like several weeks ago. What a relief~. Finally, the most stress-out moment after the B734 line training, over!~. If you are an aspiring pilot and you are reading this, I would say, it’s not as hard as what I had explained few lines earlier. And having aviation as your primary interest is one of the key factor for successful training (besides luck and high memory capability.)

  At the same time, I had my first officer proficiency check (we call it PC) cleared. And I am now a first officer (FO) and actually a ‘real’ co-pilot. Well… I haven’t got my ATPL yet due lack of flight hours, so I’m wearing a ‘two and one-half bar’ rank. Upgraded from the ‘two bar’. Bye-bye SO…

  As a first officer, knowledge & decision making is vital. And you are really on your own. And as I will be going to further destinations than during my B734 days, my responsibility is getting even bigger. We, FOs, are really the captain’s wingman as we are the source of all information, be it the must-know or the supplementary.

  Off I go to explore the new world according to myself. The world where my friends has gone before. Except for Kuwait, where I think that’s a new routing for MAS A330…

  P/S : Think bout it… peace be with you… if you are in any mood at all, you would surely accept that as a greeting. Unlike ‘Good Morning’ but you are having a bad one. Search for the article. I dunno… thru ‘The Star’ archives…

  P/P/S : Wearing the new epaulettes (the rank~) gave me a whole different feeling. Does that come naturally or what?

  Above was Michael Jackson, acting in a Pepsi commercial circa 1992. I was emotionally stricken by this commercial rather than any other clips. In my opinion, the commercial itself was showing ‘happy’ times. Alas, after his death, it gave another meaning… he went away from the cruelty of the world, peacefully (without the Pepsi, that spoilt the whole emo mood.)

+ = + = +

  Michael Jackson… who in the world (especially now) don’t know bout him. The King of Pop (now ultimately recognised.) Deceased for quite some time, but just about to write things about him. Musically, he makes me appreciate a lot into the contemporary music back then. And his music really changes and decorates the world entertainment scene. He (and his crew) did it.

  Actually, the only thing I’m interested is the fact whether he had convert into a muslim or not. Either way, it’s a big issue to the western media that they wouldn’t ever want to touch bout it, religion that’s not in their preferences. It’s really a big bang to the media and entertainment industry in America. Still at MJ’s memorial, those CNN reporters commented about the ongoing of the funeral, what song gives the best impact whatsoever without speaking a word of faith. Yeah I think I understand that. Because it’s a ‘big day’ for MJ. It’s the day to speak only the good stuff. And speak out the bad ones later, which indirectly giving social tension to the late MJs family.

  Anyway, mentioning about the show itself, as a whole, it was OK but of course MJ would totally do it better than they did especially ’We Are The World’ and ‘Heal The World’. In fact, I don’t feel the chills, the grandeur of the song. But what I like was when John Mayer played instrumental and Usher sang ‘Gone Too Soon’. Too bad I missed the part where Mariah Carey sang so I won’t comment anything on that (yes, we have youtube but I intend to be lazy about going thru the vids.)

  Still, after the ‘concert’, what happened next? Where was the burial held? I’m not updated to that. And until now, even with the will MJ left, the lawyer was like disregarding the ‘authority’ of the will, instead they took their own action and I think the intention is to grab all MJ’s assets just like the others did to him when he was alive. Generally speaking though, this is the world we have now.

  Other country rights, they want to take over. Their own citizen rights, they want to take over, too. Enough!!! MJ is dead. Perhaps the only thing matters are the royalty (of the records) that can be gained by their family directly. (If in Malaysia, royalty is to be taxed, I don’t know about America.)

+ = + = +

  But, the MJ’s death as a muslim (back to main issue) is still being the question pondered by us earthlings. Wallahu’alam, only God nows.

  In fact that’s the only thing that matters to me.

  Until now, the media still don’t have the idea on MJs burial site whereabout…

+ = + = +

  Below, I dedicate back one of his music to him, entitled ‘Gone Too Soon’ (yup, the one that was sung by Usher during his memorial.) A bit of info though, this music was dedicated from MJ to a boy / teen who was suffering HIV throughout his whole life and he died when he was 19 years old. And now, me… to MJ…

  MJ, I salute you.

  Hi…
  By the time of writing, I believe that the SBPWOC XIth 2009 was held about almost a month ago. Alas, my alma mater did not gain a good position as for this year…

  Here are the results in general:

• 1st TKC Seremban (Trophy + RM 1500 + Certificate)
• 2nd SDAR Seremban (Trophy + RM 1000 + Certificate)
• 3rd SMSAH Jitra (Trophy + RM 750 + Certificate)
• 4th MCKK (where else?)
• 5th SSP Cyberjaya
• 6th SSAS Putrajaya
• 7th STAR Ipoh
• 8th Ave Maria Convent Ipoh

  Best conductor : From TKC… (personally I prefer the one from SDAR… but who am I anyway~)

  By leering the TKC supporters excitedly cheering, I felt the warmth, the joy, a bit of envy in me (’leering’ = semi-oxymoron). I mean, look at them, they must have like a very well established fan club or maybe their orchestra existed for so long, they have hundreds of cheerios (short form, mind you…)

  Anyway, I got the best of the competition video footage (or so I think.) Why? They are all in Full HD and had every details recorded. Might convert it to a lower resolution and put all into a DVD (and then sell it for RM15 apiece… business idea…)

  And as for the oldboys weekend, which at the time of writing, it was held like almost 3 weeks ago, I couldn’t go because of flight training. It was a KUL-DPS vice versa trip. Got some of the questionnaires ticked…

  Ok, I sidetracked…

  I am actually don’t mind not attending the oldboys weekend as for this year for only one unsolid reason : the band’s not playing. But I am yet to follow up with my fellow batchmates for various activities e.g. random trip to anywhere in the world; pulverizing each other; etc. No worries… definitely will follow y’all for the upcoming activities InsyaAllah…

  Hi folks… yeah, I still insist to use the old SBP Wind Orchestra ‘name’ instead of ‘Festival Wind Orchestra’ (for the win!~). Details as per my last post.

  It is the end of my 3rd day off since my last line training flight to HKG. And during those 3 days, I have been driving like a bus driver with office hours as my shift. Anyways, just wanna keep the post short (kata try nak bwt pendek2 kan~~~)

• As for the competition, since my old (not to mention nostalgic) camcoder got stolen from the surau in Sungei Wang (it was just not our day (our = me n a friend of mine)), I’m eyeing on the SONY 120GB HDD 10.1 megapixels Full HD camcoder. The price went down from RM6k to 5k to 4.7k at this present time. And today, I went to the Sony Centre, and saw another camcoder about the same specs, only with whopping 240GB. The price was about RM5.3k… anyways, still eyeing on the 120GB one. And not making any rushed decisions at the moment.
• Hostel kids will go back to their respective schools by Sunday (or Saturday if their schools are in Kedah, Kelantan n Terengganu.) As for Monday onwards, finalists have like less than a week to staring warming up for the finals. I’d like to go to Ipoh to give a hand. Yelaa… STAR dah lama x masuk finals.
• Seriously, if I have all the time, aku bantai mengajar bebudak cukup2. Maybe up to some extent yang cikgu2 kat sekolah tu dah menyampah dengan aku.

  2 days ago, my sister got her handbag snatched by a thief who was riding alone on a motorcycle at a night market at Jalan Wirawati, KL. Not to be racist or anything, but looking at the ethnicity of the thief, he was an Indian (obviously for not putting on the helmet visor…) I had curse him enough (just badmouthing him actually.) Luckily there was a nearby police station which was just a 5-minute walk away. That same night, all telco lines that belonged to my sister were blocked and all the ATM cards from various banks were cancelled to avoid further loss. The IC was being made the next day. Gosh it was a tedious process… An advice… theives will try to snatch ANY bags… even short-handled ones and purses.

  I happened to watch the event of thieves snatching other belongings that was caught in action on the security camera. They would snatch anything, anytime, anywhere. Trust me. They really don’t have other things to do. You think that they snatch things to support their family? NO WAY~ They would spend on drugs and lottery. X caye tanye la diorg. They bluffed? Take a boulder and smash it on their face. Bluffed again? Smash it until they are unconcious (and probably defaced…) Thieves would never tell truth. Unless they have somehow being enlightened, I might consider…

  Dah, malas nak cakap pasal diorang. Up to an extent aku rasa pengemis lagi berguna dari diorang…

  The month of June. The heat of Wind Orchestra ‘Festival’ is getting more tense (or tenser if that’s grammatically correct). Inverted commas because I really don’t like the usage of the word. Well~ formerly being ‘SBP Wind orchestra’. The prestige ‘was’ there. And the participation of non-SBP schools really don’t justify the name change of the event. Let it be ‘SBP Wind Orchestra Competition’. It’s still not a reason for the non-SBPs to be left out. They are most welcome. 21st June 09, PICC Putrajaya, Be there!~ (Free advert)

  Hi. An entry from me this June. Currently checked in at the airport hotel in Hong Kong. The hotel design, I tell you, is fantastic and futuristic. I initially started the post before connecting to the internet to save some airtime. At the same time, I switched on the television and the BBC channel caught my attention on ‘The Doha Debate’. I mean they are debating about Islam and culture and stuff. They are arguing about a Muslim marrying non-Muslim. Really interesting debate. (I know my stand btw).

  Ah, it’s 12… logging in the net. I have 24 hours of FREE air time. An advantage for being an air crew, eh? We get free tickets for the airport train too (but I gave to a stewardess as she’s collecting for her family she’s gonna bring for this year’s holiday… and I’m not going out.)

  Ok this is my 2nd trip to Hong Kong. 1st time was during my line training sector with a safety co-pilot. And now, I went in with the ‘functional’ status. “Yes, Aku dah clear solo~~~” It was an achievement. I felt very elated.

  But, I still have a lot of questionnaires to answer…

  Speaking of functionality (in subject of being a pilot), the trainers wanted you to fly the aircraft. I mean to really fly it. How? Your decision. Weather ahead? Want to deviate from the flight path? How far you want to deviate? Weather direction? Are you high or are you low on your descent profile? Corrective actions? What if the controller wants to cut you short? All the anticipations and stuffs, from aircraft pushback to taxi in. Any ambiguities, highlight it to the other pilot. Maybe he has better decision. That’s why we have two pilots (three… if one of the two is ..umm… incompetent)

  And trainers will definitely clear you for functional if you did things without any (or the least of) prompting, adhere to the S.O.P. well and having satisfactory decision making ability (of course the last part is gain through experience.)

  As for my 24 hours here in HKG (IATA code for Hong Kong), I’ll make sure that I’ll gain the best of knowledge from resources I have in my notebook and written notes. We keep on learning and getting to know new things just like doctors and engineers. Mentioning that, a circular came out from the company mentioning about the Air France disaster recently and as a result we are to keep updated / refresh on certain procedures and stuffs.

 + = + = +

 I’m aiming myself to have my ‘operational’ status before the Wind Orchestra competition. Or at least, clear for final line check. I haven’t been to my alma mater, STAR Ipoh, as frequent as I did 3-4 years back. In fact, starting when STAR got 3rd placing on 2004 Wind Orchestra Competition, I began to pace myself down due to the pilot career and some very ‘eventful’ happenings during the period. We all have to lose something in our life. Some lose it later in their life and some earlier. It’s life. Nothing is easy. But nothing could be easier if the emotional part of yourself controls you, and not you controlling it.

  Speaking of control, up to an extent, some people got machines to control them. TV, PDA, MP3 player, all the microelectronic stuffs. Like they can’t live without it. The point is, go outside and bask in the sun-lah~ Get healthy… not being unnecessarily geeky. (oh yeah, you don’t have to fully depend on the treadmill for your health, too… you are what you eat…)

  *Suddenly I feel guilty for playing Dance2 Revolution a lot*

  Papepon, the world is advancing. Just don’t forget the basic needs. And the best kind of entertainment, I believe, is doing something that involves a team. Football or futsal for example. I don’t play much sports. Though I played volleyball during my flying school times, which I enjoyed very much. Serving the ball that went up vertically in the sky and knocked rooftiles down. That was serious vandalism there :P…

 + = + = +

  Ok, 1 random statement from me. I can still tolerate people who don’t eat vegetables. But I never came by a person who can eat anything but chicken. Chicken!? X bole makan? Series rugi~~~ Think about it. Anyways, methinks vegans are acceptable. Still, you can eat anything on this world (as long it is halal for me…)

 + = + = +

  And after typing all these stuffs, I’m actually quite clueless on what title should I give to this post? I already felt sleepy… Better doze off before some heavy doses of info input. Oh btw, I don’t always give short posts, although that would be very interesting. Let’s see what I can do with my free time, yah? Free time = Rock Band!~ Finger drills oyeah… And ruthless AC/DC notecharts…

  A bientot… till then…

  “OK, let’s skip the questionnaires… let me ask you a non-technical question here. What’s the aim for this line training?” asked the flight instructor…

  “Have it in your own words…” he added.

  The keyword is ’safely’. Not ’safety’. No typo here. The answer that was built from the discussion sounded something like ’to be able to fly safely, at the same time following S.O.Ps, in the line flight environment, whilst doing things without been prompted.’ Yeah something like that…

  6 hours of flight that departed from Kuala Lumpur to Incheon. Had my Subuh prayers in the aircraft at almost 4 o’clock a.m. KL time. At that time, we (the flight crew and I) were approaching the Taipei airspace. Yeah, the sunrise was blindingly beautiful, and that’s a way to say it…

  And approaching into Incheon did us no justice. I have to redo the FM (short for FMGC = Flight Management Guidance Computer) couple of times to comply with the arrival procedure. Luckily I read and understood the NOTAMs (Notice to Air Men) earlier, instead I would have been screwed up (and eventually will get bad remarks in my training report.)

  Oh yeah, I got to do my 1st real A330 takeoff and landing. And it wasn’t a normal flex thrust takeoff either (had to use TOGA thrust due procedurals)

  The landing wasn’t bad, despite having the feeling of being too fast in the apporach. Welcome to Incheon, for the second time, and making the most of it. The temperature today is 11 degrees celcius with visibility of 7 kilometers in slight haze.

   Off to the hotel part…

  Today, I think I was given the most luxorious room in the airport hotel. Actually nothing much extra, but the office table and the table lamp hits my spot. I like study enviroment (especially in this kind of training condition.) Bad thing is, the LCD TV were positioned strategically 5 meters away from the study table, giving direct view. Not good. Why? It would definitely give impact to my study progress. Especially when they are showing Starcraft LAN Battle all day long. (Take remote and muted the TV… dang.. where’s the Science Vessel? use it!… whoops… too much starcraft…)

  Anything to add from the previous list of TV shows? Let me add some

• Remember ‘Go’ the oriental chess thing? They have ‘World Batoo (Batu?) Championship. Same concept, online, mini-version of enchanced gameplay of ‘Go’ (yeah the gameboard is small compared to normal ‘Go’). And it is just fun to watch those cyber-competitiors fight their way out. Not to mention their taste of fashion, too
• 30-minute handphone advertisement. Whereby a mini-story was made to advertise what can that particular phone do. There was a couple: a girl who likes fancy stuffs and take own pictures, not to mention crazy face mimics, with her handphone; and a guy, who is modest yet romantic (yet metrosexual), who ended up having a normal picture of the girl (you know… ‘normal’… some guys just don’t like crazy poses…) Best part is, when the girl was threatened by some villians, she sent the SOS signal to her guy, and the guy came with a sports car (wow factor!) and whack those ruffians with a kendo stick (why kendo stick? Ask the director…)
• Playing snooker without the holes. Compromises of 1 cue ball, and 2 coloured balls. Objective? Use the cue ball to hit the 2 balls in one shot, and the turn ends when the player is unable to hit them. Fascinating 3-balled game, eh?
• Celebrity artist trying to meddle with gadgets. This time it was an instrument which measures loudness / decibel. What they did is they shouted, screamed, and trying to make high pitched noises.
• The starcraft online battle here seemed to be ongoing as long as there’s electricity.

  Ok. Go study. And I’m about to call housekeeping for the iron and ironing board. And have a bath. And solat jamak (got the kiblat and the timing). And some reading. And some more reading.

  Yeah expect boring posts from me during this line training period, ye~~~ Selamat~~~

  Anyanghaseyo…

  Ok to be frank lah, before I got here, I metaphorically ‘wet my pants’. I spent my last 3 days before this flight studying like hell… Like ’super hell’. Minimum sleep n food consumption. Woke up at 6 in the morning. Read-read-understand-read-read-search-read-read… Took a ‘nap’ at 2 in the morning and after that realizing that I overslept, the cycle starts again…

  Thanks to all my friends for the support. Yeah, I can do it, so can you.

   By the way… here I am… my 1st Incheon. Routing wise is quite direct . From KL -> Ho Chi Minh -> Danang (remember American war stories?) -> Hong Kong -> Taipei -> Jeju (famous for it’s scenery and popular filming location,) and then descend to land at destination. Took bout 6 hours flight time. Although flight wise was quite a mess despite coping up with the real line operations & forgetting several answers for the questionnaires, everything went almost smoothly. Here in Incheon, the air traffic is busy even at 6 in the morning. We landed at around 7. Cruise wind in this region can go past 100kts. Not the surface wind of course, if that’s the case, we can never land.

  I never got to wear my 2-bar coat before. I think I looked elegant despite my ‘muka berkarat’. Sorry no pictures at the moment. Not an appropriate time for that.

  The stay here is short. Really have to make use all the time available. With the study techniques I applied 3 days ago, at the moment I had no problems dealing with it.

  The weather here is clear, cool, 6 degrees celcius morning temperature. But still I had my bath with oh-so-cold water. My own theory : ‘Hot bath makes you feel lazy’ (although I really helps soothe your muscles and what-not.) The thing that I avoid hot bath (occasionally) because I have hairfall problem. Genetically induced, but taking preventive measures. Since then, I can just go to a frozen lake and swim.

  I resided in an airport hotel called Best Western hotel and it feels right at home (I wonder how Pan Pacific KLIA feels like.) I got the sea view. With all the isles and hey~ aircraft landing… they must have changed the runway in use… definitely a good study environment.

  As this is a line training flight. I opt not to go anywhere. So the only interesting thing at the moment is the TV shows. Here are some particular shows that grabbed my attention.

• Live match of ‘Go’ (If u read ‘Hikari No Go’, u’ll know. It’s kinda like oriental chess)
• Live match of ‘Starcraft’ with all-hyped commentators. Seriously, western people can’t manage to go as equally hype as them.
• Teaching add maths. No wonder they are smarter.
• Insurance advertisement that goes as long as a normal TV show. And funny too. (Car accident; macho guy tripped and fell down; a child intentionally breaking mum’s Ming Vase; somebody burnt their hands while handling hot pots; etc etc.)

  That’s about it. And I’m going to enjoy this temporary cold, sunny environment since global warming does no justice. (That previous point, there, I had no idea where it came from… flustered mind of Psyc? :P)

  Till then
 

  P/S : SBP Wind Orchestra starts tomorrow. Good luck all contestants. Sorry, but line training is my 1st priority.

  My 2nd post of the year. And that depends on how people call others lame. Yeah, I’m really not a significant blog updater either. Particularly because I am undergoing simulator (not to mention strenous) training at the moment.

  I did 3 sim sessions up to this point after went for 2 observation flights (which supposed to be 3, but cancelled due to operational reasons.) I went for KL -Penang vv (vice versa) day flight and KL - Bangalore vv night flight. Imagine within 4 hours using direct route, we reached India. Haha a whole different environment to me. The (new) airport represent India (namely Bangalore itself) at its best. Haven’t see Madras yet but will be, during line training of course. Unlike during my B734 days, I’m really prepared to observe the A330 line operation. So, observing attentively was tiring. I never felt that tired during past observation flights. I felt like i want to pass this training at once. Don’t want to delay and don’t want to repeat past incompetence (as I would declare myself.)

  Airbus… as people said, totally different concept than Boeing’s. From the aircraft handling to the extent of marketing strategy. Ok that I exaggerate. To say at least, the automations it have are magnificent. The aircraft systems and panels : Simpler and more comprehensive. Of course, to compensate that, we have to study much much more, we airbus system slaves.

  I’m not complaining though…

  The course is fast and tough. Not a good word to combine with. Forget study smart, to this point, I really studied super hard and only stop for consumption, prayers, bath time and sleep. Yeah, it’s ridiculous, and i did that.

  And so, if training progresses as per schedule, I would be back to my normal, new wide body lifestyle, flying by 3 months.

  Do wish the best of luck and knowledge for me.

Psyc and friend in MAS A330 Sim