Catching Panda

Found out that -MUD was arriving from Narita on that day, and boy was I excited. Got all the stuffs ready and off I went. It was about 2 hours before the arrival, sometime around 630pm. It was a little bit risky as the flight was showing that it slowed down and would not reach till sometime about 7. After some thought, it was a GO. After all, a China Airlines Cargo was scheduled anyway, so even IF I were to miss -MUD, at least I would have something. Being the beginning of the year, darkness doesn't fall till about 7.30pm, so that was also a driving factor.

Anyway, arrived to see 9M-MXV arriving. Gear was not up so it was just a feast to the eyes. Was greeted non-stop by 4 turboprops. Intervals between arrivals were slightly longer than that of the morning sessions.

Firefly ATR72-500 (9M-FYG)

Firefly ATR72-500 (9M-FYA)

As time progressed, the sun set more and more, moving towards the horizon and the big hill. Skies were quite clear, giving great lighting to the arriving planes.

Malindo ATR72-600 (9M-LMM)

Malindo ATR72-600 (9M-LMQ)

On the outside, the -500 and -600 series look completely identical. It is on the insides where the changes are more apparent, the cockpit being one of them.

Then came AirAsia's special. One specially painted for the concert. A nice surprise I must say. This one is inbound from Langkawi.

AirAsia A320-216 (9M-AHM)

The silhouette appeared, gracefully descending to its destination. 2 engines with a blister on the nose.

MASKargo A330-223F (9M-MUD)

"Malaysia Welcomes Fu Wa & Feng Yi". I, welcome 9M-MUD with open arms and smiles.

Malaysia Airlines B737-8GQ (9M-MLD)

MAS comes in to end the day. This one still in the older livery. 

Thanks for enjoying.

SSLee

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New Year Spotting Part 2

Part 2,

This is where things start to get more interesting with some new angles

China Southern Airlines A319-112 (B-6209)

For the past few weeks, China Southern has been sending the A319s here to Penang, a shorter derivative of the A320. Who knows, they might even go back to sending their 737s here. Regardless, shall accept with open arms anyway.

Firefly ATR72-600 (9M-FIB)

Next up was Firefly. I guess it is either for maintenance purposes or something to that matter, but I am seeing more and more of their aircraft without the landing gear door. This is the first of 2 of that day.

While reviewing through some of the shots, from a distance, you could hear a loud sound of engines approaching. Looked up and was greeted by a tri-holer, the first FedEx of the day.

FedEx MD-11F (N572FE)

Since it was a fairly large aircraft, this MD had to travel a wee bit further down the runway before turning on to the taxiway (since large aircraft aren't allowed to use the high-speed taxiway exit). I am rarely this close to such an aircraft due to the spotting location that I am at. This inspired me to try on something different.

AirAsia A320-216 (9M-AQV)

And voila..... a close-up of the front section of this AirAsia. Quite happy with the turnout, so decision was made to continue this for the consecutive shots.

FedEx MD-11F (N612FE)

AirAsia A320 (9M-AQM)

FedEx A300B4-622R(F) (N723FE)

This last FedEx has had some paint missing from the tip of the nose. Time for some short repaint work. Like most widebodied Airbus, this one too has a nose-down angle.

Being close to these feels just so great. I have always been spotting them from afar, getting the bottom/front/right view of 'em. But this spot is just great.

N723FE on the taxiway

Firefly ATR72-500 (9M-FYL)

I guess now the landing gear doors are becoming more and more scarce, or they are too easily damaged. Here's the second firefly departing without it. Most probably being removed for maintenance.

Tiger Airways A320 (9V-TAO)

Turbotiger jetting away to Singapore. Rather surprised that they have not changed the Tiger Airways to tigerair, unless they are only using that for their new aircraft, much like what MAS is doing now to their new 9M-MX- fleet.

Silkair B737-8SA (9V-MGC)

And to end this trip is Silkair's 3rd 738, flying off with a little bit of Penang below.

Well that's all for this segment. Really had a great time, with the closeups, and of course, Air New Zealand and the Military Beech.



SSLee

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