Ingo Noka

Archive for 2012|Yearly archive page

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All Well with Port Weld

In Flight Bag on January 29, 2012 at 10:58 pm

Frederic Weld (1823-1891)

Finally the mystery of reporting point Port Well has been resolved.  We know where Port Well is, in fact we know Port Well does not exist.  If it ever existed it would have been Port Weld, which is a name that is not used anymore.  The actual name is Kuala Sepetang, and it must have been that way for quite some time, considering that our 40 years old maps already use it.  ATC in Malaysia is certainly not changing things around in a rush.

For over a year the fearless aviators of the FRAS flying club had to rely on wild guesses to determine where this reporting point “Port Well” might be.  ATC surely never explained it and no map or AIP document mentions the place.  Nevertheless, without fail, Lumpur Info or Ipoh tower would ask for a report at Port Well.  Until now, our chief flight instructor Captain Singh (Kevin Muk got a job that does not allow him to fly anymore) determined that Port Well must be somewhere between Pantai Remis and Bagan Serai, probably at the border of the Ipoh TMA. Read the rest of this entry »

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My Own Chart

In Flight Bag on January 14, 2012 at 8:30 pm

Map of Johor Airspace

A while ago I wrote about the regrettable lack of aeronautic charts for the Malaysian airspace and I half-jokingly remarked that one could draw their own charts. At about the same time I was flying with a friend West of Gunung Pulai, which is one of the training areas at Senai Airport and realized that ATC and pilots do not necessarily agree on the exact borders of the three training areas.

To help with the situation a bit, I actually sat down last weekend and learned to use Inkscape while drawing a map of the airspace around Senai airport.  I am rather pleased with the result, so I thought I make it available for all of you. Obviously, you are not supposed to use this “chart” for actual navigation,but at least if you hear FRAS69 (me) announcing my position you can use the map to determine roughly where I think I am.

The chart is available as vector graphic, PDF and JPEG in the download section of my web site.  The vector graphic version can be edited with Inkscape (and probably with other vector graphic software applications as well.

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Flying in the Dark …

In Airmanship, Flight Log on January 5, 2012 at 9:48 pm

Sunset over Gunung Pulai

A good start into the new year.  I did an hour of night flying yesterday (4 January 2012).  The weather was gorgeous – calm air, an almost full moon and a bright orange sunset.  Night flying is in many ways similar to the normal day flying, but of course there are many differences as well.   For every FRAS member, who has not done the night flying, I would strongly recommend to try it.  The tropical night is truly magical.  Click here for a couple of pictures i took while I was waiting for Paulo to come back from his sortie. Read the rest of this entry »