This post is about a boy...

Well, take a good look at him. His name is Sebenaran. He is a survivor of the tsunami and was left an orphan from the tragedy. Sebenaran comes from Batam, Indonesia and lives in an orphanage. So what does Sebenaran have to do with the AirAsia story?

In fact, everything.

Sebenaran came by for a trip to our Academy at Sepang last week and he was here on a pathway of a dream. You see, since the age of seven, the only constant in his has been the fact that Sebenaran wants nothing more than to be a pilot. AirAsia was there to say, yes, like us, Sebenaran is here to tell his story, that nothing is impossible.

In this picture, seen with Sebenaran are his caretakers who made the trip from Singapore, Janet Tan Mui Hwa and Ivan Lee Yuan.

The group were down with us in Kuala Lumpur. Now, Sebenaran has never been on a plane, in fact never left Indonesia and in one day, he's been to two countries, been in two cockpits and who knows, is one step closer to living his dreams in the skies. The social media team was there to witness and maybe be a moment in his life and his dreams. This is his story.

Batch 90 was on hand at the academy to show Sebenaran some AirAsian 'hospitality'.

Sebenaran was invited to be with us here last week to have a go at most of our childhood's dream, to actually fly a plane. Upon arriving at the LCCT, he was ushered to our academy within a stone's throw away to see for himself what reaching for the skies meant. He was slightly dazed perhaps at the first flight in his life but nevertheless excited by the entire intrigue of being here and being exposed to an opportunity to live his dreams.

Sebenaran only knows a few words of English and a thread of aviation knowledge but he has never let this be an excuse for him not being able to be a pilot. He knows that financial sense is not on his side but he does not lack faith. He knows the road is long but here he is agianst all the odds, having a peek at his dreams. Standing by his side for that short glmpse at his ambition and his determination to make it a reality, we say that we are privileged to share this moment in him living his dreams.

Sebenaran before stepping into his 'dreams'. The simulator beckons.

All smiles with Gavin Andrews, the standby engineer before takeoff, we swear that Sebenaran was never nervous. In fact, he was all the while raring to go. Sebenaran took us on a ride through rain, thunderstorm, turbulence and at the end, bursting through the sunshine. Can anyone doubt that this kid will make it one day? :)

It was an experience to remember and we were glad to be the bystander in this experience. We remember Sebenaran saying and summarising it best, "Saya takut tinggi. Tapi lain kali saya nak terbang beratus-ratus nyawa dan saya tak boleh takut. Oleh itu, saya beritahu diri sendiri bahawa saya perlu berani." (I am afraid. I am afraid of heights. But if I am to fly the lives of hundreds of passengers, I can not be afraid. Because of that, I told myself that I have to be brave.) With this conviction, AirAsia says yes, we can get there together. Now, everyone can truly fly.

Social media team signing off with lots of love for Sebenaran and Batam.

Believe the unbelievable,
Dream the impossible,
Never take no for an answer.

Xanadu Calling: Name a Plane and Get your Name on a Plane!

It all happened in March when AirAsia Blog started this competition in conjunction with the delivery of their new planes. Out of boredom I decided to give the competition a try, having gone through words with “ex” prefix, I decided to nominate, “xcellence”.

As fate would have it, AirAsia X did a tie-up with US based NFL Football team The Oakland Raiders and coincidently, their motto was, “commitment to excellence”. Hance, the name that I gave, was chosen for the new plane, an Airbus 340 was painted in a radical Oakland Raider livery, complete with football players on one side, cheerleaders on the other, and spotting an eye-patch no less!

9M-XAC is the second Airbus 340 for AirAsia X, this comes after the first Airbus 340, “xcalibur” made headlines for providing passenger better and low cost option for the KUL-STN (London) route. Now with two long-range aircraft, AirAsia X is able to provide daily flights to the city of London.

Words could not describe what I felt the day I attended the launch of AirAsia X latest plane, to have my name on a plane of a truly Malaysian born company was indeed an honour. As if that wasn’t enough, I was presented with a return ticket to any of AirAsia X’s destination. There is no guessing where I will go. LONDON here I come babe! What a wonderful experience it was!

To top things off, I had the opportunity to brush shoulders with famous celebrities and even strike a pose with the Raiderettes! Oakland Raiders official Cheerleaders! What a blast that was! To Azran Osman-Rani, it was indeed an honour to meet with you and thank you! To Fara, Daisy and Yvonne, thanks for everything! You guys rock! To AirAsia and AirAsia X, keep flying high! You are truly the pride of Malaysia and Asia!

Take care and god bless!

Love,
Kenneth Chong.

Dear Air Asia blog team,

I'm Surendran Nicholas. I am also one of those bloggers who did not make it to the 35 selected list. I have to admit that I am VERY much saddened by this news. However, I wish to thank the team for instigating the urge and determination to pursue in my dream of becoming a pilot.

I stated in my blog previously that I tried for MAS but was rejected at the final interview without providing me a reason. Well, the truth is, that MAS was not my only choice. I also tried for SIA, but due to their economic situation, was declined. I tried in Air Asia 2 years back but got rejected in the first test. It was a written examination basically, science, English and maths. I do not know why I couldn't qualify as I got A2 for physics, add maths, A1 for maths and English. I continued to send in applications for MAS and Air Asia but was not even called or selected. Where did my resume fall to? Slipped off or went missing in transit? Still then, I didn't give up, I went to private institutions, if I could manage to do the license privately. Its just to expensive. I tried to go to Australia, that was not possible either. I tried finding for sponsors, logically, who would?! I tried seeking political help, but to no avail.

That was it, my last nerve wrecked, and I could not go on. So I stopped seeking and continued as a banker.
For two years I had almost given up all my hope and dream of becoming a pilot. I left it......
...but THIS blog contest, and all these bloggers have rekindled the spirit in me again. I had lost hope but was reborn again. Reading all the posts of how much they want to be pilots have encouraged me to keep on trying. The passion, the determinations of everyone brought me to realization.

My dad was more effected than I was, because he knew how much I wanted to be a pilot. So we made a major decision that's gonna change the life of my whole family. My dad decided to sell our house, get a rental and send me to get a pilot license privately. Its gonna cost, but its worth it. So I have quit my job in the bank and will be enrolling soon. I just can't take my chances by waiting anymore as my age is catching up.
With regards to this, I wanna thank each and every1 of you individually, because I read most of your blags and it inspired me. Thanks yo Air Asia team as well. To all who did not make it, try your very best till you know that that's your last drop of sweat, before you decide to give up.

Finally, I know that the competition is over, but I most humble request for the blogteam, to post my entry and all those you still think is good, since you said it was a tough choice. Its not for another chance, but to post it gradually, not only to appreciate their efforts, but it may be an inspiration to many as it did to me, personally. Also as a token of gratitude that these people have taken the effort to send in their post to the best of their ability and creativity.

Regards,

1 voice

The day before 5th June, I was having my leisure reading at the forum on those participants who hike before Mount Kinabalu. After reading one of it, immediately I rushed to purchase an extendable hiking stick. What a last minute!

On 5th June, together with the team, we departed from Penang airport at about 10.20am and reaching Kinabalu airport at 1pm and after that direct heading to Mesilau resort for a rest. Along the way, we stopped by at a Dairy Farm with the hope to approach closer to the cow to snap some photos. But to no avail, we arrived pretty late and were advised to make a visit next time. The greenery field was beautiful. If you were to snap a photo and show it to other people, they might think that it is New Zealand : )

On 6th June, that was the exciting moment everyone was waiting for. Getting our baggage to weigh and after that, go go go!! Our journey to Laban Rata started from Mesilau trail. We were told by our guide that the time taken to reach Laban Rata might be around 8 hours, later or earlier which depend on our ability. Looking at my watch and it was about 8.20am. My goodness, another 8 hours, it means my target time to reach was about 5pm. I can’t imagine how I would look like by that time. Pheww….

Walking up the trail for the first 15 minutes, it seems great as everyone walked pretty smoothly. By the time reaching the first signage indicating “KM0.5”, everyone was so excited at the number and posted for a photo. After that, everyone was counting the time when will the next signage be arrived. How come after walking for so long and yet the signage still hasn’t arrive yet…arghhhh. When hours passed by, it was a challenge not only to the physical but mental as well. For the first few KM, we rewarded ourselves by resting at each signage for photo capturing. When the distance went longer, the hike duration grew longer, the fatigue experienced grew greater. By that time, some walked faster, some walked slower. We were separated and became a smaller group.

The part I enjoyed the most along the Mesilau trail was the view. It is like a wonder world. If you watch “The Chronicles of Nardia” before, certain part of the forest is just like what I observed along the Mesilau trail. Once hiked until certain height, you will observe that the landscape is different. There is full of Bonzai a long the way. If you were to purchase a Bonzai locally, you will need to take care of it, trim and prune it. Just imagine, over the hill, it is full of Bonzai with different sizes being big and small, tall and short….and yet all of it is taken care by nature. That is the power of nature! I was amazed and appreciated the art of nature that shaping the trees to different sizes.

After 4 to 5 hours of hiking, I started to realize that the hiking stick was my best companion in the world! Never had I felt so contented that the decision I made to purchase it was perfectly right even though it was a last minute decision. Now I really understand the usage of it to support me not only up hill, but down hill as well. Wow…I just love it so much. Together with my teammate, we floundered with the stick and managed to reach Laban Rata at about 5.10pm which took us about 8.5 hours. Without the hiking stick, I am sure we will stretch even longer to reach. What a super tiring journey. What’s more I can do in Laban Rata but to rest, rest & rest to recuperate my fitness. Although I experienced slight headache, Panadol did a great job!

At 2am morning the next day, we were ready. Chockfull of energy bars were loaded into our smaller bag for half-way re-fuel. We started the next mission at 2.30am headed up. Weather was pretty great with windy but was advised again if there were to rain, we will need to revert back to the camp for safety purposes. God bless that the no rain pelted down and we moved on slow and steady with multiple stop to rest. Some of my teams managed to reach earlier. As for me, I took my own sweet time to rest and hike. Well, I was happy that I managed to reach about 6.15am morning. Cool…a small platform with signage indicating altitude 4095.2m from sea level, a platform that most people wanted to take photo with. Yeah, together we took a group photo which will engrave in my mind for very long time to come. Standing on the peak viewing down, it was like heaven. The view was awesome and I was very happy that I made it to the peak.

Life is about journey and not a destination. Same goes to hiking, I am very happy to reach the peak. But I felt even greater by having the opportunity to view what nature had endowed us along the journey which I enjoyed very much. We were very lucky that during our journey from bottom to the top, no rain pelted down that hindering our journey. By the time descending down the hill, it was the most challenging moment as compared to hiking up. My leg was so tired but to endure the pain going down via Timpohon trail. Pheww…thanks to my hiking stick that supported me to brace through the impact. Together with some of my teammates, we reached safely at 3.50pm via Timpohon station and headed back to Kinabalu Park for a rest and certificate purchased.

Well, the hike was no easy for sure. It was pretty challenging on certain area that needed the rope to hike at a steep angle. It was a wonderful experience after all. With normal training, I am sure everyone who wishes to conquer Mount Kinabalu is not an issue at all. Overall, we had an enjoyable trip after the hike where we rested our self in Poring and enjoyed a dip in the hot spring relaxing our muscles before a night stay in KK town.

Well, I waited for this moment and the moment waited for me.
I just wanted to shout that “YES….I MADE IT FINALLY!!”

Have a nice day!

As an airline pilot under training, I was fortunate to have been assigned the observer seat on my return back to the Gold Coast from Kuala Lumpur last week with Captain Wong & First Officer Raveen. Big shoutout to Capt. Hans who heads AirAsia X’s Flight Operations for making it happen for me! Capt. Hans, you really gave me that extra drive to continue pursuing one of the most challenging careers in the world. Now too, I believe could be, the most under-rated and taken-for-granted occupations too.

Most of us had once (if not still) have the misconception that pilots are there in the cockpit merely for show. I mean, with this age of technology, theoretically the big tin can fly itself through the skies right??? Well... with the above statement being partially true, I have had countless statements thrown at me, going along the lines of... “Eh! You pilots don’t really do anything right... everything is all on AUTO-PILOT”. Then they would go on to the infamous query... “So, what do you really do in the cockpit ah?”

What doesn’t help my case in defense is that, recent stats show that 80% of all accidents and incidents result from “pilot error” or now, known as “human error”. I am writing this blog to share with you a world without pilots. Then, show you a world with. My objective would be to give you both sides of the coin, for you to draw your own value then, take to the bank.

With the advancement of Airbus Technologies through the years standing more towards taking the side on computers rather than Boeing Technologies views which believe that “the human should have the final say”, a lot has been debated between the Computer vs. Human. Without going too much into detail, just in case you weren’t familiar, Boeing believes that if the pilot flying a 747 Jumbo inverted is the only way required to save the life of all its passengers (say to avoid a collision with another aircraft) then so be it— of course this would possibly mean exceeding the 747’s structural limitations. The Boeing plane might break apart.

Airbus on the other hand believes that, by building in “hard limits” to the airplanes fly-by-wire controls (for example), you could never exceed these structural limitations ie. a specific angle of bank of 67”; therefore, the aircraft should never break apart.

As student pilots, we should work not towards a continuous debate but towards utilizing all our resources for the benefit of safety while maximizing situational awareness.

Let me share with you some points we cover in flight-training, which prepare us pilots, with the right knowledge and experience, to help battle the “human errors” in flying and, when those sophisticated electronics and computer systems—fail.

It is widely accepted and proven, that any incident or accident is caused not by one particular event but a chain of events. In flight training, we the student pilot are equipped with the knowledge to a) identify the events which could lead to an undesirable outcome, b) break the chain of events that could have already begun and/or more importantly c) manage the undesirable outcome successfully should the undesirable outcome—become even more undesirable.

This is known to many veteran aviators as “Threat Error Management”. Google it. Big shout out to Captain Hassan for also sharing me his thoughts on T.E.M. over a Teh-Tarik session last week before I left back to Australia.

The better you are at T.E.M., the more aware you are of your surroundings and/or understand what is going on around you and your airplane. Here is another string for you to Google—Situational Awareness.

Situational Awareness and Threat Error Management (T.E.M.) are essential to safety and are preached religiously all throughout flight training. Let’s face it, as a captain of an aircraft, if on a normal day with a full night’s sleep we know we could do a low visibility approach onto a wet runway in light rain without too much hassle however; if the same approach conditions exist and prior before setting up to land, our landing lights become inoperative, the radio becomes wonky, other aircraft/traffic in the area begin to lose their sense of direction due weather (happens quite often as a student pilot) then... ‘nuff said.

Clearly we were aware of the situation, but if we proceeded with the approach, we would have disregarded all the threats and could eventually be another statistic in aviation tragedy.

Without going too much into the flying aspect just yet, I’d also like to share that, there are just so many details which go into any flight that as a student pilot still in flying school, you have to do it all yourself too!

From obtaining the weather report from the meteorology department to deciphering what it actually means, planning the performance load sheets for your aircraft and all its thousands of calculations, a lot of work is being put into flying that, unless you are a pilot of have read this blog, really wouldn’t know!

Captain Lim and Captain Dom will probably share with you their appreciation to having most of all their “pre-flight” material and reports submitted to them before their international commercial flights. This allows them time to focus on other important issues which would be getting AirAsia passengers to their destinations a) safely, b) on time and c) with more spending more to spare (having saved so much by paying lower ticket prices!).

Regardless, if push comes to shove, these veteran captains should still able to do all the “dirty” work of flight planning, report deciphering etc, all by themselves, as they are thought in flight school. So Captain Dom, Captain Lim, do you still remember how to calculate Pressure and Density Heights? Hehe.

Back to life as a student pilot here in Australia, I must admit, it does have both its pros and challenges. The pros are pretty obvious, you are in a foreign land, you get to meet new people and experience new cultures, you get to really focus on your goals (as being away from home, you somewhat get to leave your troubles and worries behind... somewhat), and yeah, here at the Australian Wings Academy on the Gold Coast, you get to go to the beach ever so often and hunt kangaroos up the hill with a plastic boomerang. Hehe.. just kidding.

The challenges would always be similar to moving to any new environment, experiencing foreign cultures etc but, the biggest challenge for me personally which stuck out like a sore thumb to me was, the food.

But it’s all good, i’ve learnt how to cook and that helps a lot. So I can “masak” my own roti-canai lah when I have to or make some nice bee hoon goreng ker... Anyways, thinking of food is now making me hungry. Am going to cook something up!

Catch me next week when we really get into the flying of things. In the meantime don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.com/jfkjohan and checkout more pics and videos as well on www.johanfaridkhairuddin.com. Facebook is active, link to adding me is there on www.facebook.com/jfkjohan too! Oh, and i’ve even got videos from the take off from KLIA, enroute and approach into the Gold Coast from last week’s Xanadu 2702 flight on file.

Till the next posting, take care and be safe!

Remember, always anticipate.

Sincerely,
JFK