Asia Pacific Airline Engineering & Maintenance, Conferences18-19 June 2008Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I was part of the Asia Pacific Airline Engineering & Maintenance/Purchasing & Supply Chain Conferences held on 18-19 June 2008Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on behalf of my company Ramco Systems.

Crowne Plaza Mutiara Kuala LumpurJalan Sultan IsmailP.O. Box 1057750718 Kuala LumpurMalaysiaTel: +60 3 2148 2322Web: http://www.crowneplaza.com/

Taxi: A taxi from the airport costs about RM70 and takes approximately 1 hour.

Train: a train from the airport takes about 30 minutes. The nearest station is Putra KLCC, 1 Kilometre from the hotel. and nearest monorail station is Raja Chulan.

Ramco Aviation Solution is an offering from Ramco's Enterprise Series of vertical solutions crafted exclusively for the global airline, MRO, helicopter and similar aircraft maintenance organizations. The aviation solution represents over 150 person years of research, product development, implementation and customer experience built into the offering for providing lasting value and competitive edge to its customers

Ramco Aviation is the Number One Global provider of Web, Component and Business Process Centric Aviation & MRO Software. Ramco's Aviation Suite offers comprehensive, end-to-end, Maintenance & Engineering (M&E) and Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) Enterprise Software for Fleet Operators, MRO providers and OEM organizations. Customers include; Pinnacle Airlines, Caribbean Airlines, Vueling, Aerolitoral (Part of Aero Mexico), Virgin America Inc., PHI, Air Methods, Conair, Air Lloyd Luftfahrt, Indian Airlines, Air New Zealand’s Safe Air Limited MRO operation, Alsalam Aircraft, JeJu Air Co.,and many others.

Ramco's Aviation Suite helps organizations reduce operating and overhead costs, optimize inventory, increase operational performance, incremental revenue and maintain regulatory and maintenance safety standards. Through Ramco’s state of the art performance and business management reporting, Ramco's DecisionWorks provides the digital dashboards to Aviation & MRO business intelligence via performance indicators, for management & monitoring of direct operating costs (DOC) and direct maintenance costs (DMC).

Here are some of the pictures taken during the conference reception. This happened on the 30th floor.. of the hotel.. and the place had a nice view of the city centre..

I was fortunate to visit the Malaysian Airlines facility where we had a warm reception from Senior people from Malaysian airlines & we were given a round of the MAS facility & it was a wonderful learning experience for me and lot of others who had come along. almost about 50 of us.. Mostly people in aviation business..related in some way or the other...

An evacuation device which inflates automatically upon opening of the door of an aircraft unless predetermined actions are accomplished before the door is opened. The device comprises individually operable and pneumatically distinct upper and lower inflation tube assemblies which support a slide surface therebetween across which persons jumping from the aircraft may slide to ground level. A canopy is provided which may be fastened across the slide surface so that the device can be utilized as a raft in an aircraft ditching situation. If desired, the capacity of the raft can be increased by the provision of sponsons integral with each of the inflatable tube assemblies and extending laterally therefrom.

Applicable to certain Boeing Model 747-100, 747-100B, 747-100B SUD, 747-200B, 747-200C, 747-200F, 747-300, 747SP, and 747SR series airplanes, that requires a one-time inspection of each emergency evacuation slide or slide/raft to determine if a certain discrepant hose assembly

is installed, and replacement of the hose assembly with a new or serviceable assembly if necessary. This action is necessary to prevent the failure of an emergency evacuation slide or slide/raft to fully inflate during an emergency situation, which could impede an evacuation and result in injury to passengers or airplane crewmembers. This action is intended to address the identified unsafe condition.

It was a good conference.. and I specially had fun meeting lot of experienced people from well known airlines and also had this fantastic opportunity to visit the Malaysian airlines facility...

Who Needs Sleep?

Sleep is important. This is common knowledge. However, when work, kids and schedules factor into the equation, sleep is often one of the first things quickly shuffled to the bottom of the priority list. the question is why?

Sleep is a physical and mental resting state in which we become almost totally inactive and unaware of the environment. Unlike a coma, we can be aroused from this detached state (depending on how light or heavy a sleeper you are), but for the most part , our senses block external stimuli. Body temperature, blood pressure, and breathing rate all decrease, but interestingly, the brain remains active.

Why do we sleep?

Your biological clock is always ticking and that internal sense of time plays a major role in sleep. technically known as circadian rhythms, the biological clock tells the body when to be asleep and awake, a cycle that is typically 24 hours. science shows that in humans, the brain's metabolic activity decreases significantly after 24 hours of non-stop wakefulness. This means that the chemical process by which brain cells produce the substances and energy needed to sustain life suffers with prolonged sleep-deprivation.

Why is sleep important?

The US institute of Medicine has reported confirmed links between sleep deprivation and an increase in hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack and stroke. In addition to allowing us to function normally throughout the day, proper sleep is linked to restorative processes in the immune system. If sleep deprivation is persistent, the person can experience even more severe consequences, including significant mood swings, obesity, diabetes, erratic behaviour, hallucinations and in the most extreme cases, a shortened life-span.

How much sleep do we need?

The answer to this question varies with age. Infants pretty much sleep all the time, racking up around 16 hours a day. Teenagers need about 9 hours to keep them from being bratty nightmares. The number varies as well, with some people needing only 5 and others requiring 10 hours sleep each day. Last year a study from the university of Chicago suggested that the average figure required was 7.2 hours, but recent studies have shown improved performance of people that sleep more than 8 hours a night over those that don't.

How to get better sleep?

Make a conscious effort to go to bed and get up at the same time every day even on the weekends.

Nicotine, caffeine and alcohol are stimulants that can keep you awake. So avoid these when it is sleep time.

Cut down your commute. Not sure if everyone can do it.

Make use of the weekends - reduce your sleep debt by getting at least a couple of extra hours on Saturday and Sunday.

Slow down your snooze - However tired you are, spend some time in a dimmer light prior to trying to achieve sleep.

So hope you have a good sleep.. nighty night....