Monday Hash Runs.....Every Mondays

Monday evenings are my sacred days. yes.. for whether it rains or shine, a group of like minded people will meet up at a pre arranged place for our "hash run" at 1800 hrs. We are members of the Kerteh Hash House Harriers, a group of wild men and ladies who are in this running club with a drinking problem. The run sites are normally in the jungles and plantations within half an hour's drive from Chukai. Hashing origionally started in Kuala Lumpur many years ago and has spread to all corners of the world. Each week a different "hare" sets the run. When I began hashing in the late 1970s while I was based in Kuching we had a "Life hare" system where the hare sets a paper trail only 2 hours before the run. If the other hashers catch up with him the dinners will be on him. So we have devised a system of false trails, checks (where the trail ends and hashers will have to search for the trail continuation) and back trails to "slow" down the fast runners and allow the rest to catch up. Nowadays, it is much easier..the trail is normally set two days before hand.
Normally by 1730 hrs the crowd starts to build up. An average of 60 members turn up for the run. The "On sec" normally calls the chatting crowd to order for announcements 5 min before the run. The next week's runsite is also announced.

Sometimes I bring guest to the run ..like in this week's run I brought my daughter Alicia and nephew Jian Siang along



The trail is normally laid with square or shredded white paper. Sometimes, flour could be used. Normally the first km starts on good grounds to facilate the runners to warm up. Then it is uphills, down hills, through jungles and estates. Sometimes if the hare is a bad guy the trail could be set on a wild boar route and that includes crawling through a wild boar tunnel!

If it is the rainy season always be prepared to get wet. There was once in Kuching many years ago when the run site was in a flood prone estate and there was a heavy down pour. I remembered swimming out as it was too far to turn around.

Downhills can be tricky. We have had many humty dumpties.....

Hill climbs are always on the run menu.

To keep the runners know where you are you are expected to shout "ON ON" as you run.

Normally the the first runner comes in by 1900 hrs and the last runner 20 mins later. The hare is responsible for helping the strayed runners back.

We have a system of signing OUT before the run and SIGNING IN when we return so we know who is missing.

After the run it is going to the ON DOWN where a good dinner and beers are organised. Sinners who had taken short cuts, stolens fruits along the way are punished here. The punishment is drinking beer while standing on a chair!

So you see, this is good life again and it only cost us RM4.00 per run. We get pewters for completing 50 runs. I had done about 350 runs with this group. It is always an enjoyable event even though I do not drink nor do I attend the ON DOWNS ( ai yah will get fat lah).

My perfect host in Melbourne (Nov 2009)

About 2 weeks before our departure to Melbourne, Cheong told us that one of his long lost classmate from Malacca by the name of Max Tan would like to host us while we are in Melbourne. I was a bit skeptical at first because we are strangers but Cheong asssured us that it is ok. Max Tan like myself had been a scout in his school days and had done a lot of back packing in Europe in his younger days. So I started to correspond with Max Tan by emails to get to know him better. I used google earth to locate his house which is located in Bundoora and is on the Bundoora Park itself. Perfect location! After several emails we were talking like old friends and we seem to be on the same wavelength.

Armed with my Garmin Nuvi GPS we managed to locate his house at 16 Prospect Hill, Bundoora. Max and his wife Jeannie had even prepared some good food for us. It was really wonderful.

Max and Jeannie has a son Jonalton. He is 13 years old (the kid under the bed) and he seems to get along with all our kids.

Max managed to locate a few of Cheong's school and class mates residing in Melbourne to his house and we had a pot luck BBQ. Most of them have not met each other since they left school 30 odd years ago. They are all very successful and some of them have became Australian citizens

Max, the host was also the chief cook for the occasion. I believe he enjoys cooking for a crowd! But of course there are the ladies helping out too .

The kids too had a gala time with all the good food.

This is the crowd that was hosted by Max. We are very thankful to him and his wife for hosting us during our stay in Melbourne. Max, you have been a perfect host. More on our trips around Melbourne in my later blogs.

Flying to Melbourne, Australia by Air Asia (Nov 2009)

"Hey Wong, Would you like to go down to Melbourne for a holiday at the end of the year. Air Asia is having some fantastic offers".....Sunny Cheong my brother in law called me one fine day somewhere in June. Yes please but first I will have to get my leave approved. By the time my leave had been approved a few days later, the fare was not so cheap anymore. I had to pay RM 7900.00 for a family of 4 for all inclusive return fares. So, on 22 Nov 2009 three families (all our wives are sisters) flew to Melbourne for a vacation.
This is the first time I travel by Air Asia and of course the first trip to the Low Cost carrier terminal in KLIA. I would say I am quite impressed with the LCCT. The food here is much cheaper as compared to the main terminal. There seem to be a lot of bargain hunters around this "low cost" terminal. I tried to ask the taximan who brought us to the air port for a "low cost" taxifare but I was unsuccessful!

I was rather suprised that there was no delay for this flight as I have heard about their frequent delays. To be on the safe side I had actually purchased a travel insurance so that I can get some money back if there are delays. but of course when you have bought insurance everything will run smoothly so that no claims can be made!

The flight from KLIA to Tullamarine airport took about 7 hrs 30 mins on the Airbus 330. One thing for sure is that the seats on the Airbus 330 is most uncomfortable. It cannot be reclined and for the flight outbound I was "trapped" in the middle. However Air Asia has made plans to improve the seating on the 330s by next year.

When I was a bush pilot in 1985

A bush pilot is a pilot who flies a minimal aircraft (helicopter or light fixed wing) normally doing charters to satisfy the unlimited desires of the charterer with his limited resources and aircraft performance. The terrain that bush pilots flies through are normally most inhospitable. On top of that we are expected to make money for the company. See, it takes someone with the ability of almost of a superman ( a man wearing red underwear on the OUTSIDE) to fit to this category of piloting. At the end of my Air Force service in early 1985 I was a bush pilot flying for a Singapore based company named HELISERVICES. This company in turn operates in Malaysia under the banner of Pan Malaysian Air Transport. The life of a bush pilot is an exciting one. One day we could be landing on top of Gunong Gagau (like in the photo above) and another day we could be flying VIPs. There is never a dull moment.The helicopter that I flew was a Bell 206 B, a single engine 400 shaft horsepower 5 seater helicopter. Our missions consist of aerial filming/photography, checking the rainfall and climatic conditions in the interiors of the country, timber surveys, medivac and bodevacs. In those days even the ministers and VIPs had to use our machines as there were not many charter companies around.Due to the maneuverability of the helicopter, very often we are required to land in landing pads deep in the jungle. This photo shows one of our typical landing pads. In those days, there were no GPS invented yet so navigation is by a 1:250 000 maps and sometimes when the weather is marginal it can be a challenge trying locate our destination.

This is how a landing pad may be like. The location here has just been prepared and in the 1980s we were called in to assist in the location and construction of the ATUR (Automatic telephony using radio) stations. That was way before we had Maxis and Celcom.This photo s not taken in deep Africa but in the interiors of our country. The Negrito tribes normally lives in bamboo huts in the Main Range of the country. And most families tend to have a lot of kids!The Drainage and Irrigation Dept keeps a record of the rainfall in the country. Every month we have a flight to the many stations deep in the jungle to collect the datas and also to change the batteries required to operate the instruments. This is one of the station in the Main Range.Sometimes we are hired to do construction work. Here we were fixing an antenna to one of the high rise in Kuala Lumpur. This particular job was flown by my chief pilot at that time, Capt Eddy Yong. Of course we were also hired to send personnel and mail to passing ships on the Straits of Malacca. We had a contract to send in marine pilots to guide super tankers passing the Straits of Malacca.On long trips away from base I normally carry along an engineer to help service the helicopter. The man in blue coverall was the engineer when I was in the company. He is Pheh San Choon, a very good engineer and I always call him Babi Hutan (Wild Boar). If he tells me the helicopter is good enough for flight I will have no doubts about that.Most of my customers are good guys but the gentlemen inthis photo Mr KM Partells is one guy that I will never forget. I was tasked to fly to Tasek kenyir to transport several tons of timber to a forward base to be used for building an office. Upon my arrival to meet up with Mr Partells of Testeel (India) Ltd Co I found that he had already tied all the timber into several piles each about half a timber ton. I said I cannot lift the lot as it is too heavy. Every word that came out from him was "But you boss said youcan lift half a ton..". True AMOST half a ton over a short distance and not half a timber ton (Timber ton is based on volume and is MUCH heavier than 500 kg!) . Only with a lot of persuasion that he agreed to retie the bundles again and the job requires many more trips that he had anticipated.

See, I told you all that I have had a very good life. I had enjoyed my tour as a bush pilot very much..maybe I may go back to bush flying later but for now it is flying modern twin engine machines over the South China Sea for the oil and gas industry.

European Tour With a Dahon Folding Bike (Oct 2009)

OK, Before I proceed, please note that it is a European Tour WITH a folding bike and not BY a folding bike. The original plan was to tour the Alps and cycle down to Southern France but due to the HINI scare the trip was delayed and by the time of my journey the area is getting too cold. Nevertheless, I brought along my Dahon Mu 8 bike so that I can tour the cities that I will be visiting. Reasons why I wantd a bike are that I can save quite a bit on transport, the ability to mix and mingle with the local people and it is great fun. With a bicycle one can blend in to the locals and if you travel with a nice looking bike like the Dahon you always get stares and admiration from people around! The sight, sound and smells are much better when one is on a bicycle.

This is what my baggage looks like. The bike is folded and checked in as luggage and I use a haversack instead of a suitcase for my personal luggage. The Dahon weighs about 12 kilos and the haversack another few kilos so I still have a lot of weight to spare. One must learn to travel light.

My first destination is Rome in Italy. It is always a good idea to deflate the tyres about 30 % when air transporting bicycles due to expansion and contraction as we go up and down. Most of the airliners have their cabin and cargo areas pressurised to 8000 ft. Upon arrival at Rome, I have to unfold and inflate the bicycle.This picture will make a good sales promotion for Dahon bikes!Navigation around the foreign cities is primarily by tourist maps (free) and I had brought along my Garmn Nuvi 200 GPS. The wonderful thing about having a GPS is I can wander around where I like enjoying the sights and the ride without having to worry about the way home. At the end of the ride, just turn on the GPS and follow the way home. This is cyber age exploring.

On Sundays in Rome the roads are closed to all private motorised vehicles to the major tourist destinations. The only vehicles on the roads are tour buses and horse carts and of course bicycles! Make sure if you only have one day in Rome it is a Sunday. Because of it's Mediterranean climate influence, Rome is relatively warm compared to the French and English counterparts.

With a bicycle it is easy to know that Rome is built on a hill. Going away from the city centre (Termini Roma Area) is so easy..no need to pedal. Coming home is another story but with my 8 speeds on the Dahon it makes life a little easier.

From Rome I took a night sleeper train to to Aixen Provence in Southern France so in goes the bike to its bag again. Before I forget, I fold up my bicycle after every ride and keep it in my hotel room. A peace of mind and another advantage of a folding bike.See, my bicycle gets to sleep with me. How convenient! And the bike goes along for free too.I met a lady postman (or is it post woman) on this interesting bicycle just outside my hotel at Citardine, Aixen Provence. That place is quite hilly and I wonder where she got the strength to do her rounds. I convinced her to "loan" me the bicycle in exchange for delivering some letters nearby for her. To my suprise, the bicycle can easily be pedalled. It has a small "electric motor assist" which boost the pedal power when speed or uphill power is required. The cost of the bike is about 2000 Euros (RM10,000/). It handles very well even with a load. just like driving a super motor bike!I spent a few days in this part of France. It is beautiful and I like the rural setting. Most days I ride to the Ville Centre and explore the surroundings. I push my bike into shops to do shopping and ride along with the locals. It is so easy to make friends on a bicycle. By the third day I had became a familiar sight to some of the shop keepers ( I always buy fresh fruits to provide fuel for riding bicycles). The temperature is about 12 C most ofthe days and sometimes the "Mistral" blows. Mistrals are strong wind with speed up to about 110 km/hr. Under these conditions it is very difficult to ride.Going to the open air markets (Pasar malam) was no hassle with a bike. No worries about parking. Just push the bike along.I spent the last three nights of my tour in London. London is quite bicycle friendly too. One can bring a folder along in the underground trains FOC provided it can be folded. In London it cost 32 pounds to rent a bike and my Dahon cost almost twice of what I paid in Malaysia (580 pounds). Hmmm ...must start a Dahon bicycle export business to London.!

I am sure all these "tourist" attractions looks very familiar to most of you.

Even in all the parks in London a bicycle is welcomed. If one were to walk it may take hours to explore Hyde Park but with a bike it is just "a walk through the park"!

The real horse staring at my iron horse at Horse park in London. I think my iron horse has got more "horse power" and is more manageable!
See, I told you..my bicycle is light.

This policeman came along after the previous picture was taken. He wanted to know if I was doing a commercial for the bicycle by lifting it up for a photo. Anyway, I politely invited him to be in the picture for a commercial too and that is how this photo was taken with the policeman

After 14 days of good life, it is time to go home again. More adventures coming along...life is an adventure on a journey!

My French Connection

About 5 years ago when my company decided to replace the ageing S61N fleet with the modern Super Puma L2 helicopters I had to do a simulator training on the SuperPuma L2 at Helisim in Marseille. France. Helisim is equiped with the state of art simulators and during my training I met a very interesting French gentleman by the name of Michel Zing. He was ex French military and had flown for Bristow Helicopters. We found that we had many common interest ..from sailing, farming, dogs and not afraid of getting our hands dirty to get a job done. I got to know him much better on my second trip two years later. We had been in contact all the while through emails and I had been brain digging him on a lot of flying matters. He had unselfishly been sharing his knowledge with me. I was invited to have dinner and to stay in his house which is in Rognac. Rognac is quite remote..just like our kampong and yes he is staying in a farm surrounded with olive trees and fruit trees and is quite self sufficient with vegetables too.His girl friend Anne Marie cooked us a delicious French dinner..complete with cheese and ice cream at the end of the meal. Now I know why the French people are so healthy. It is the low carbohydrate food and the daily dosage of wine which they consume.
This is the farm house which they are staying..just like in the story books. Most of the things are very well preserved in the house.

There is plenty to do staying there. The heater for winter utilises log and fallen timber from the property. A tractor is always handy.
So last week when I went to France, I was invited to stay in his little guest house. next to his house. I had planned to arrive his place well before I start "work" on the simulators.This time I brought along another of my friend Capt Eric Ng. We were catching up until well into the night. Capt Eric with Michel and Anne Marie
Fruits just outside the little guest house. We helped ourselves to a few fruits each. This time of the year is cold ...about 12 C day time so the fruits are like just out of the fridge. And they are yummy too...

I suggested that the next night we will cook a Malaysian Dinner and have it in his house. We had brought along some special ingredients for this occasion. I will cook the famous pork rib soup..BAK KUT TEH while Eric prepares curry chicken. At the same time we were trying to explain to Anne Marie about our cooking..see it is quite easily done! Unfortunately we were so busy eating and talking that we did not take any photos during our dinner. I think they must have enjoyed the meal because the left over curry was kept for the next day!
I had brought along my Dahon bike and had a lovely ride round the Rognac neighbourhood. The mistral wind (up to 110 km/hr) wind died off in the morning otherwise I will be blown backwards!

These olives are about ready to be harvested in 10 days time. How I wish I could stay back and help. It should be fun.So hope to see Michel and Anne Marie again soon. Next time I will cook satay and maybe some Tim Sum.! Thank you for the hospitality and the good time we have had had. You have been the "perfect host"!

Tail rotor malfunction on S 61 A 4 Nuri Helicopter

Many of my friend asked if I have ever experienced a real emergency while flying. The asnwer is a YES. I have todate about 18,000 plus hours on helicopters and another thousand on light fixed wing so the law of averages catches up once a while. One very serious emergency happened to me 29 years ago when I was serving in 7 Squadron, RMAF Kuching. The date was 9 Oct 1980 and I was a new "C" category captain on the Sikorsky S 61 A4 (Nuri) helicopter in the Royal Malaysian Air Force. Looking back at my log book I had just accumulated 1000 hrs at that time. On that eventful day, I was tasked to do a training flight with a co pilot. This is the time when we polish up our flying skills and in those days every pilot has to do 3 hours of training flight per month.
The sortie was a running change with my squadron commander. Running change means the aircraft has been started and flown and I just hop in to take the aircraft to continue my flight. When the squadron commander handed me the aircraft he told me the aircraft had some vibrations and I will have to enter the defect in the tech log after my sortie. So away I went to the training area in Santubong , North of Kuching airport. One of the exercises that we practice is an autorotation..you know just in case both the engines flame out together. I selected an area and did a practice autorotation aiming for that cleared patch. By 500 ft above ground level, I initiated power to recover from the autorotation. Suddenly, there was a "cracking" sound and the whole aircraft and the controls vibrated violently. Pedals vibrations were severe and there was limited control and instruments could not be read. I lowered the collective level and re entered into autorotaion and this time to land. Things happened very fast but suddenly everthing seem to come in slow motion. Flashes of family and boyhood seems to come and go. Several MAYDAY calls were made and it was acknowledged by an MAS aircraft.
What seemed like a nice carpet of grass at 1000 ft now looks like a swamp and worst of all there were a lot of abandoned poles sticking upright. These poles were for the pepper farm and it is solid hard wood. Using all the skill that I had been taught in the Air Force, I managed to avoid the poles (otherwise ity will be a satay helecopter!). Of couses, my co pilot Lt M (u) Kamal (at that time) and Sgt Sharom played an important part in the sucessful forced landing.
After securing the helicopter we found the tail rotor blades had self destructed leaving only the spar. In those days, the tail was made of several rib pockets but after my incident (maybe a few more in the world) the blades were changed to honeycomb structures type .
The man in this picture is the first person to come over to the aircraft after I force landed. He gave us some hot Chinese tea which was very much appreciated. I revisited hima few days later and took this photo. Within an hour another Nuri helicopter came to our rescue and we were flown back to the base. In oreder for me to maintain my confidence, they made me do another flight the next day..a good idea.

The department of Flight Safety recognised that I had done a very good job and awarded me the Green Endorsement. This is the highest award for display of airmanship and skill in avoiding major disaster. I had been truely very lucky. However, throughout the later years I had several engine failures (seven in multi engine helicopters) and many more emergencies when I was flying microlights. I will write about it in this blog later. What all these emergencies had done to me is to make me a more matured and conservative pilot and not to take things for granted. In flying, there may be no second chance and as pilots we must take our chosen profession seriously.