Friday, December 14, 2007

...howwwzattt for once in a while...


The towering Twin Tower

Last Saturday, I took the family for a simple outing at the KLCC Park. My children were in their best manner and having such a wonderful and wet time at the public pool.


The public pool

Though it was a school holiday this year around, not many people were there or perhaps it was still early.


The pool was meant for the children


Fatiha, Fatimah, Farah, Adam, Farina and Fitrah


Irfan was a bit disappointed for not having the opportunity
to join his other sibling dipping themselves in the pool

The handsome Adam was flanked by his sisters

Anyway, just for your information... MAS won the second game against the Old Putra (RMC oldboys) by 8 wickets, so how was that my fellow cricketer?





Friday, December 7, 2007

...howwwzattt to begin with...




Do you realize that the aircraft skin thickness is just about 63 thousandth of an inch (0.063 inch)? Well, it’s that kind of thickness that separates us in the comfort of the cabin from the ambient air outside while in flight.

Basically aircraft fuselages (from the French fuselé "spindle-shaped") are of a tubular shape hence to give less resistance from the airflow and known as a monocoque or a semi-monocoque fuselage (stressed skin). Monocoque is a French word meaning a “single shell” just like the shell of an egg. A true monocoque fuselage has no internal structure members except for the tranverse rings and Bulkheads which serve to give contour to the outer skin or shell. All loads are impose on the skin only and a typical example of this can be found on the shell of the F1 cars.

Nowadays modern aircraft fuselages are of a semi-monocoque (stressed skin) where the loads imposed are evenly distributed to the skin and the adjacent structures such as longerons, stringers and frames. These give a much stronger fuselage if it is to compare to the olden age aircraft which traveled on a lot less speed than the modern aircraft.



The image above shows how the skin on the belly just below the aft cargo being cut due to corrosion formed on the inner skin affected by moisture from the cargos or leakage from the galley/lavatory in the cabin. The repair done is to remove the effected area and put a 2 pieces 0.050 and 0.063 inch doublers of a 2024T3 aluminum clad material. Upon look closely, you could find how thin the skin is.




The second image shows how the doublers looked after fabrication and coated with an anti-corrosive primer while being temporarily installed by using skin-pins according to the size of the fastener holes.


The last image shows that the job is halfway done where the fasteners such as rivets and hi-loks being installed permanently on the repair and after the whole process was done, the painter will apply the normal white topcoat use by MAS aircrafts.

So, how was that?

Wednesday, December 5, 2007

...howwwzattt... i'm good, yeah i'm good...


With my fellow cricketer/blogger right before the morning match.


Nava Shield Cricket Tournament 2008 has just begun last Sunday for me. The tourney was conducted in such a way so that each game will be played during the weekend since many of us have a day job to attend to apart from our passion toward cricket which can only be fulfilled during the weekend. I managed to be at the field in the morning though MAS Cricket’s match will only be started in the afternoon just to give my support to my other team, Staroba Orange Cricket Club. I love to play with them but as a secretary to MAS Cricket let just say that I have to put aside that kind of thought and help my company’s team to win our first 3 points and to be on top of the group. Anyway, SOCC lost their first match. What can I say, better luck guys for this weekend’s match at Kelab Aman. Hey, come to think of it MAS also will be in Kelab Aman for the afternoon match…
Due to insufficient number of players in the opponent's camp, MAS was awarded a walkover and managed to grabbed 3 points that afternoon against the SSR (Sunway Residence whatever…). Anyway since the pitch was at our disposal, we carry on with a friendly match by dividing the team by an equal strengh so that our afternoon won't be wasted. MAS batted first and got 120 for 5 and managed to restrict the opponent by a mere 70 odd runs. After a long spell of under-performed batting, yours truly managed to outlived most of his peers by scoring a Not out double figure (batted number 5) and was hoping for this weekend’s game the same output could be delivered by him. So, how was that my fellow cricketer???