#One day pilot subang simulator#

Most of the flight engineers, 40 years and below, were retrained as pilots. There is a bedroom right behind the cockpit for the pilots to rest.

On this long haul flight, we carry two sets of pilots. This aircraft can fly direct from Kuala Lumpur to London.

Eventually, MAS sold the two classic jumbo jets B747-200 and the B747-300 and replaced them with thirteen B747-400s. Two years later MAS bought the B747-400, which has no flight engineer, just 2 pilots in the cockpit. With sufficient flying hours and seniority, I became the captain of the Airbus A300 for two years, captain of the DC-10 for a year and became a jumbo jet captain at a young age of 36. This was the time we started our USA services into Los Angeles. A third jumbo jet that came into service was a B747-300 with an extended upper deck. To be competitive in the aviation market, in addition to a disastrous air accident in America involving the crash of a DC-10 on take-off due to the opening of a cargo door, MAS replaced the DC-10s with two Jumbo jets B747-200 in the mid-1980s. On our actual arrival day, it was announced on the Tongan radio that Malaysian Prime Minister has arrived and proceeding to the King’s palace for a Tongan feast and all the pigs were running about happily! For the Prime Minister’s flight, smoking and alcoholic drinks were not allowed in the aircraft. We politely told them that our Prime Minister is a Muslim and does not eat pork. Lee Kuan Yew, PM of Singapore was supposed to visit Port Moresby.Īnother incident was during our recce trip to Tonga, we were told that there would be a large roasted pig as the centre dish of the traditional Tongan feast. On the lighter side, during our flight to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, when the Prime Minister came down from the aeroplane, our national anthem was played but the Singapore flag was raised!!!! The next day, the newspapers in Port Moresby ran an apology on their front-page headlines, because it seemed the next week, Mr. We do, however, carry our ‘Mat Bonds’ (Malaysian James Bonds), as I like to call them, with us sometimes, all three of them from Bukit Aman. Most of the countries that we flew to would provide security personnel for our King or Prime Minister on arrival. Being operational on the B737, I was promoted to the rank of First Officer. MAS had only ground instructors and classrooms for ground school but did not have any simulators then.

#One day pilot subang simulator#

As part of the course, I was sent to Christchurch, New Zealand for simulator training with the New Zealand National Airline. I was transferred back to Kuala Lumpur and I started my B737-200 conversion course. I was then stationed in Kuching, Sarawak still flying as co-pilot on the F-27. As such, MAS had to recruit a number of expatriate pilots from Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Ireland. In my batch of 12 pilots, only three of us opted for MAS. At that time, only 30 odd Malaysian pilots opted to come back to MAS from MSA. Hassan Ahmad while the second flight from Subang Airport to Penang was piloted by Capt. Utilising brand new B737-200, the first flight was from Subang Airport to Singapore piloted by Capt. On 01 October 1972, MAS became operational with two flights taking off in the early morning. The Singapore government called their airline Mercury Singapore Airline (MSA) but finally changed it to Singapore International Airline (SIA). The Malaysian government used Malaysian Airline System (MAS) since mas in the Malay language means ‘gold’. Both governments wanted to utilise these alphabets in their new airlines. MSA was a very popular airline worldwide. Eventually, MSA was officially split on 30 September 1972 into Malaysian Airline System (MAS) and Singapore International Airlines (SIA). The Singapore government was interested in expansion of international routes whereas the Malaysian government was more interested in expansion of domestic routes for obvious reasons. The aircraft was replaced with a couple of Boeing 707s.Īs early as 1970, there were already differences in opinion between the two governments as to how MSA should be run. Unfortunately, Comet 4 had some metal fatigue cracks in the wing structure, which was a safety concern for the airline. The first jet aircraft was the de Havilland Comet 4 used for regional and international flights. The B737-200 aircrafts were used for flights between East and West Malaysia and Singapore. Most of the aeroplanes stationed in Sabah and Sarawak were Fokker Friendship F-27 that replaced the DC 3s and Britten Norman Islanders (BN-2).