Ingo Noka

Archive for the ‘Flight Bag’ Category

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KL City Tour

In Flight Bag, Flight Log on February 19, 2012 at 11:10 pm

KL City Tour

On my way back from Langkawi, Captain Aziz (he is based in Subang) was so kind to reveal the secrets of  a proper city tour over Kuala Lumpur.  We flew in loose formation on an anti-clockwise course around the city center with its twin towers, around Batu Caves and back Subang.  The weather was  good and the usual haze  hadn’t descended onto the city yet.  Early morning was “clearly” the right time to marvel at the glory of KL.

From the air, KL doesn’t actually look that big and there are a couple of easy to recognize reporting points. Nevertheless, next time I want to do this on my own and so I created my own  map to remember the reporting points, air spaces and so forth.  As usual the map can be downloaded in the download section of my website. Read the rest of this entry »

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Better Scale

In Flight Bag, Gear on February 12, 2012 at 9:11 pm

Johor Airspace Map

I have updated my “chart” and trimmed it down to A4.  I have also attempted to scale it properly at 1:500,000 (i.e. the Sectional Chart scale).  The actual scale of the printed map depends very much on the printer.  The idea is to print the map on A4 without any resizing.  On my Macbook Pro it works very well with paper size A4 and a scale of 100% (in the printer dialog).

BTW: I have created these maps with Inkscape using an old TPC chart and a couple of other free resources from the Internet.  The maps are available in the source format (SVG), which can be opened with Inkscape and other vector graphic programs.  The other formats are in bitmap formats (JPEG, PNG and PDF) and cannot be edited in the sense that elements of the charts are just bitmaps and cannot be changed in shape etc.

The maps can be downloaded here.

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The one hundred Dollar Fanta

In Flight Bag, Flight Log, Social Life on February 11, 2012 at 10:17 pm

Suyoung, Nigel and Ingo

Is there a good reason to fly to Malacca, have a coffee and a Nasi Lemak and fly back straight away? No! When you find the only coffee shop closed and left with the option to buy a Fanta, there is even less reason to do so.

Is that going to stop us pilots to do exactly that anyway? Of course not.  We do it for the flying and for the surprised looks on our friend’s faces when we tell them that we will fly for a coffee to Malacca on Saturday. Read the rest of this entry »

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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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Grounded

In Flight Bag on April 7, 2011 at 4:15 pm

Unless you want to get shot down and, should you survive, lose your license and go to jail, you won’t be flying from 4 May to 13 May.  The Malaysian airspace is closed almost entirely, because of a military exercise (BERSAMA SHIELD 11). Read the rest of this entry »

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Flight Plan Apple Style

In Flight Bag on February 25, 2011 at 9:45 pm

Malaysia uses the ICAO flight plan form for IFR plans.  Unfortunately, the template itself seems to be buried in some ICAO document, which I cannot locate on the ICAO web site.  Since all the forms I could find elsewhere on the Internet are in Word or PDF format, I had to create my own in Pages. Read the rest of this entry »