This is my rambling during the flight home from Hong Kong. Call me out for a Starbucks / any coffee and I’ll show you the rest of the photos I took 🙂
Thoughts are scattered and somewhat technical! Cheers =)
Hong Kong to Penang
Take off 3:55 pm local, slight 45 min delay due to traffic at HKG.
04 Sept 2019
Departed HkG 3:55pm a little late compared to scheduled time of 4:30 pm we are 1900 km from PEN track 210 speed due West of Sanya over
1800 km T-35 min
4:35 pm track 220 and the beautiful sunset is in sight. Since it’s 5pm now it is still glaring and hot! Never mind we are scheduled for a spectacular sunset come 7:00 pm local time as we descend over Vietnam and Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Now 1150 miles 4:35 pm T-35 min since TakeOff! Track seems to be 230 as we hit Phnom Penh (aiming over the skies and airspace of Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh city) where my ex-colleague Luiz Huong from Thomson Reuters (now with auditors Deloitte Vietnam)
Now 1100 miles T-40 min since take off track maintainability at 230 aiming for the land of Vietnam, engine roaring very very loudly with 2:15 of the flight left before touch down in Penang. Local time 4:35pm
Now 1800 km away from Penang T-45 min since takeoff Local time 4:40pm track still 230 aiming for land bailout 600 km away! 1700 km away from Penang!
T-1 hour since takeoff 4:50pm now we are tracking 230 about 350 km from land and about 1650 km away from PEN. We will fly over WEST of HCM city about 200 km west of HCM just enough so that we have the option of doing an emergency landing if there is a need to!
T-1h10min local tome 5:00pm here is the update! Sunset is nearer and nearer as the sun goes from unbearable scorching to somewhat a pleasant hue of orange and light yellow! So we are 1400 km from Penang with only 1 h 30 min left of flying time. Boy, flying with Cathay Pacific sure is fun and never boring ! I will never fly budget ever again. Goodbye AirAsia and scoot! Lol!
About 100 km from Vietnamese land and airspace! Excited as we could be diverted about 1200 km from Penang. Time check 5:05 pm and still tracking 220 and getting overland is quite exciting as we video record the Vietnamese coast line if the cloud covering is alright 🙂 #hopeful #getLucky
Haha
Track 240 still pointing towards Phnom Penh as our final route marker before adjusting for Penang. Time is 5:10 pm about 1250 km from Penang as we start to think about descending via East Thailand 😉
Entering land now. Yes, Tom Yum Kung! Entering Penang and Malaysian airspace! Now quite , first we have to navigate east Thailand or Ho Chi Minh City now at 5:15 pm local. Hope we don’t become like MH370 and lose radio! @ bad joke 😉 haha
5:10pm distance from Penang has dropped to sub-1250km Eureka we have achieved hovering over land. Time elapsed is T-1h 25 min from HKG airport. Already we are coming in from due East of HCMC Vietnam track is 230 pointing towards beautiful Penang!
5:30pm entering East Thailand, South Vietnam, starting our descent and the pilot has come on the P.A system to address the passengers! Looking good for a 6:15 pm Landing at Char Koay Teow land. Damn, it feels good to be home. 🙂
6:00pm rapid descent towards east of Phuket. We are in final approach as the sun sets over Asia and Malaysia. It has been a good 4 day trip at HKG and Macau although I am slightly disappointed at the lack of action of street demonstrations but fortunately I got back some souvenirs and some printed materials of propaganda and ideology and justification of the street protests in HK. Will find a framing shop to get it framed. Now just 350 km into Malaysian airspace!! I can smell CKT oh yeah.
And we have landed at PEN right on time 6:30pm ahhh feels good to be home. Our descent was fast and final approach was from Georgetown due South West track 220 from south Vietnam and Kota Bahru.
Did you know that at 800 kph full speed airplane mode , Kota Bahru 250 km can be covered in 15 minutes of flying time. We slow down to final touch down speeds of 250 kph before rolling to a final stop stand still at Penang airport and clear immigration by 7:15 before Grabbing to My office where I get my car to drive home and reach 8:15 pm. Home sweet home!
