G550 Airborne Early Warning Aircraft

Another very expensive aircraft. This is one of four (information as of today) G550 Airborne Early Warning aircraft. These are military variants of the G550 business jet, which start from 50 million dollars.

F-16D+

Apache AH-64D Attack Helicopter







Currently the only female AH-64D pilot in the RSAF.

Super Puma

Fokker F-50 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA)

C-130H







Few has the patience to queue for over half an hour to get onboard the C-130H.



And a few lucky ones got to fly in one.

Some older photos of Singapore’s Chinatown, 4 years ago.

The only economy class seats on the upper deck are way at the back, rows 71-83. That’s just a tad over only 80 economy class seats on the upper deck of the SQ A380.

I can’t see the excitement in the experience of flying this new aircraft if I was crammed into a economy class seat in the lower deck. The experience would be no different from flying the goold old beauty, the Boeing 747.

But then again, I can’t possibly afford (or atleast not yet) those neat business class (J Class) seats taking up two thirds of the upper deck

The first commercial flight of the SQ A380 takes off with a lot of happy people on board (471 from what i gather) in about 10 minutes from now, not more than 5 kilometres from where I am right now. The cheapest ticket for this flight sold on eBay for US$560.00!

There once was a very good old barber in New York.

One day a florist goes to him for a haircut. After the cut, he goes to pay the barber and the barber replies: “I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service.”

The Florist is happy and leaves the shop. The next morning when the barber goes to open his shop, there is a thank you card and a dozen roses waiting at his door.

A policeman goes for a haircut and he also goes to pay the barber after the cut. But the barber replies: “I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service.”

The cop is happy and leaves the shop. The next morning the barber goes to open his shop, there is a thank you card and a dozen donuts waiting at his door.

A Singaporean software engineer goes for a haircut and he also goes to pay the barber after the cut. But the barber replies: “I am sorry. I cannot accept money from you. I am doing community service.”

The Singaporean software engineer is happy and leaves.

The next morning when the barber goes to open his shop, guess what he finds there…………

Can you guess?

Come on, think like a Singaporean….

have you got the answer ………..

come on ………….

guess………………………………………….

…

a dozen Singaporeans waiting for a free haircut!

So, Singapore Airlines has been offering free in-flight internet access since the past week or so. This free service will continue until 4am (Singapore time) on 31 December 2006.

At present, Singapore Airlines offers this service only on flights between Singapore and

• London
• Los Angeles,
• Frankfurt
• New York
• San Francisco
• Sydney
• Tokyo

[Complete list of flight numbers on which this service is offered]

Typical SMS cost approximately USD 0.10. I checked a few countries for comparison purposes (see table below),

As you can see, anyone can send SMS cheaper than the rates above. For example someone owning a Starhub Prepaid SIM card in Singapore can send 5 global SMS @ SGD 0.1500 and get 10 free global SMS, thus being able to send a global SMS for as low as SGD 0.0750!

In Indonesia, its even cheaper. Depending on the operator, it can be as low as 99 Indonesian Rupiah (USD 0.0001), to 500 Indonesian Rupiah (USD 0.0550)!

So, which brings me to question the usefulness of this service for users in Asia (South East Asia to be more specific).

For those who’d like to give it a try, do take note that whilst Skype (Version 2.5) allows you to send SMS using your Skype name (username) or your own mobile number, registering your number is not free.

Update [13-Oct-2006],
Recently heard about this website called SMSZilla, whose rates are quite low for the countries I used for comparison above. Typical rates looks like:

Looks like a very good deal to me and they let me sign up and send SMS using my own mobile number and registering my number was free using SMSZilla! No wonder they advertise themselves as the “Cheapest SMS In The World!”

Well, what happened was that he called them, wanting to change the address for his credit card & savings accounts. They apparently allow the change of address for a credit card over the phone, but they require him to come down in person (or mail in a signed form) for the savings account. And then they mailed him the form at his new address!

What’s point in mailing a form to the new address if the bank’s system already recorded the new address?

Actually, this is quite common here. Two years ago, my previous phone company was sending my bills, as well as reminders for outstanding bills to my OLD address for 3 months before sending me a threatening letter from their lawyers to my NEW address! And all this despite my calling them up to inform them of my address change, etc.. Needless to say that in addition to paying the outstanding bills, I had to cough up the amount they paid their lawyers for the threatening letter and all this for something that (in my opinion) was their mistake.

Everything is huge on this aircraft. To the left is a closeup view of 1 of the 4 Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines that power this aircraft. I remember reading somewhere that just 2 of these are sufficient to fly this giant and I’m not surprised. They are so huge! To the right is a closeup view of 20 of the 22 wheels on an A380, the most number of wheels on any passenger aircraft. The A380′s tail (see below) is the largest aircraft tail amongst all commercial aircraft.
We weren’t allowed to get inside the A380 on the days it was open to public, however there were a lucky few who were allowed inside last week. You can find some of those photos here.

But thats ok, considering we got to see (what atleast to me was) the highlight of the day, the Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 approaching for a flypast earlier that day!
Executing the first of many sharp turns.. I have never seen any commercial aircraft turn like that before
And finally meet (and shake hands with) Mr. Peter Chandler, the test pilot who flew the A380, just an hour ago!
There are several sites/blogs where you can find more (better?) photographs of the A380 flypast. Here are a few (probably a professional) taken during the week (when it wasn’t open to public), http://www.radarvector.com/2006/02/a380-flying-display-at-aa06.html Also came across this blog dedicated to stamps dedicated to the Airbus A380! http://a380onstamps.iblogs.com/

Update [11-March-2006]
I have some videos of the A380 doing the flypast at the Asian Aerospace 2006. If you’d like to view them, just drop by a comment. [Your email is protected].