Behind the Cockpit: My Experience Flying in Taiwan's Airspace & TransAsia Airways

Hello aviators, how are you today? My name is Manga Nudal. Some time ago, a viewer asked me to tell about how it was to fly in Taiwan. I spent 15 months there. And before I start to tell about my flying experience, I just want to recall the history of Taiwan. Taiwan is officially Republic of China while China mainland is People's Republic of China. After the second world war, there was a civil war in China and the communists won. They still in power and the former government led by Shanghai moved to Taiwan in 1949. There's a dispute between China and Taiwan because both of them claimed the territory of the other. Initially Taiwan was a member of United Nations while mainland China was not. This changed in 1971 due to political factors and also economical factors and UN decided that we only recognize PRC as the representative of China. Very few UN members recognize Taiwan as a nation today, but many nations maintain strong and official ties. Because Taiwan is not member of UN, they are not member of ICO. Therefore, Taiwan is the only country in the world that are not issuing ICO licenses. There's a bit confusion about licensing. For example, I have an ASA license. And here it's written. The license complies with the ICO standards, which means this is an ICO license. Even people say you either have an ICO license, ASA or FAA license. But all of those licenses are based on ICO recommendations. Taiwan is the only one not issued as an ICO license, even they follow ICO's recommendations more than most member nations. That's a paradox. And if you look at the so-called ICO license here, I have a license from Fiji. They don't even mention I cow at all in the license. It's written this document is issued in accordance with the civil aviation act 1976. So I is not mentioned but they still call it ano license but okay I digress. Let's continue. I was hired by Transasia Airways uh and this company was quite old. It was funded in 1951 as airlines. It was the first private airline in Taiwan and they had the first ATF42 from 1988 and the first AT72 in 1990 which means they were early customers of ATI aircraft. They also acquired Airbus 320, 321 and 330. The company expanded rapidly in the 2000s and they were listed on the Taiwan stock exchange in 2011. In 2014 they launched Burchchet Airline Vair and strangely enough they competed against the mother company on some routes. as or should I say Transasia had a sad story when it comes to the ATR. They had four fatal accidents. The first was in January 1995. This was an empty flight with four crew members and they flew into high terrain near Taipei. and the accident report blamed the crew for loss of situational awareness. In December 2002, a loss of control killed both crew members on a cargo flight from Taiwan to Macau. And again, the crew members were uh blamed for uh losing control because they didn't follow procedure for icing. The company survived this. But then in [clears throat] July 2014, there was an fatal accident on approach to Mong where the crew descend

instrument approach Minima. In fact, the captain asked for 100 ft on 100 ft on below minima. They didn't see anything. And then they disconnected autopilot and both pilots are looking out looking for the runway. They hit trees and buildings and 48 were killed, 11 survived. Then in February 2015, the aircraft experienced an uncommanded autofather after takeoff. And despite the information glared to them on the procedure screen, engine two out, there was no communication between the pilots and they ended up shutting down engine number one, which meant they have no power at all. It took one minute for them to discover a mistake and then it was too late to try to restart engine. And this accident killed 43 people. There were 14 survivors. And you may remember this picture from a dash cam showing the aircraft stalling, hitting a taxi and the bridge before uh plunging into a river. And that image killed the company. So two accidents within seven months that's really bad and the reason for both were lack of operation standard each captain made the things in their own way and they did not respect the standard operating procedures at all which meant each co-pilot had to adjust to each captain and during simulated training and checking the captains were not correct. ed for not following the procedures. So it started with a company culture followed up by the captains not adhering to the procedures. No actions were taken after first of those two accidents but they grounded the fleet after the second accidents because they happened only seven months apart. Now the captains had to go through one evaluation. First an interview with the I think there was the chief pilot of um rival company uni air and some older captains refused to be endured by a person who was younger than them. This is about loss of faith. So they were given um early retirement. The remaining captains undertook an evaluation in a simulator in Bangkok and some of the captains they failed and they were also given retirement. To replace them the company hired five expert captains. I was one of them and we came from five different countries but we were all in a way synchronized because we follow the com ATRS flight grid training manual which uh most company follow 95%. So it was easy to us to get adapted to this Transasia. But for Transasia's captains, it was hard because they in they uh introduced the flight train manual after the second accident. So for an old captain like my age, it's really hard to adapt to a new procedure. The co-pilots were young. They adapted quickly and I was hired to fly the 72500. They above the 500 and 600 in the fleet. And shortly after our arrival, the company decided to ground the 72500s. So I was sent to Singapore for a so-called delta course on the 600. That took one week. Also the process to get hired included a medical check which took two days. One of the days was on psychological evaluation where they even scan my brain. Never experienced that before but okay I passed and then there was a written exam to get the Taiwanese license. We also underwent very good emergency training which uh we did together with the cabin crew. And by the way, here is their guy. We met a couple of days ago here in Dubai. Funny, it's a small world. There are many positive aspects with flying with Transasia. I have great

colleagues and for example if I one morning call in say I'm not fit to fly they just say have a good rest no pressure whatsoever I wish every company could do that and first time I diverted to an alternate airport after a missed approach due to fog I got a message good job that's really good And also the destinations are quite interesting. But let me talk about uh Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, because I was based there. And it's called the Singapore of East Asia. It's safe. There almost no traffic jams. They have bus and metro. The food is good. They have street food, but they have a tendency to put sugar in everything, even the bread, which uh I didn't like. I rented an apartment, two bedrooms with a nice view. And my family stayed in me. My wife traveled back and forth to Bangkok because she had business there. And one of my daughters, she attended the university and studied Chinese language. So, she stayed with me most of the time. I experienced two typhoons, a few light earthquakes you barely can feel, but the typhoons are really strong and you didn't want to go outside. But the country is well prepared for typhoons and they uh spent one day cleaning up and then everything was nice again. Taipei is known for the until 2010 they had the tallest tower in the world Taipei 101. They also had the fastest elevator. It used 37 seconds up to 91st floor 390 m up. The Torah has a huge steel ball what called what is called a tune mass damper. moves opposite of movements of the building in typhoons and earthquakes and reducing the movement by 40%. Is very heavy 660 metric tons. We had other attractions uh maong gondola where you go up into the mountains near the city and some other gondolas has a glass floor that's really nice and you look down on tea plantations and when you reach the top you should absolute go to one of the saloons serving tea because it's really delicious because it's made of fresh tea leaves not far Okay, we have Yelu Park with some uh very interesting rock formations. This rock is called Cleopatra. All in all, a pleasant city to live in. When it comes to flying, I flew for Trans Asia and we flew in competition with Uni Air. They have ATR 72600. Mandarin they operated Empire 190. Today they fly ATR 70 to600 because they're more economical on short routes which we have in Taiwan. Then we had Far Eastern Air Transport and they flew old MD80s. They late they changed to ATA76 but they ceased operations in 2019. At the airport you will find uh posters of the cabin crew welcoming you. So this is Trans Asia Mandarin Far Eastern and Uni Air. I stayed in an apartment 5 minutes from the metro and I took the metro all the way to a station at the terminal. check in 45 minutes before departure. That's really short. But we were wind in walking distance to the aircraft. This was first time I flan where the weight was not in kilograms but in pounds. So I had to adapt to the new numbers. I also noticed they used to fly very low. Even the longest routes which could be about 300 nautical miles, they stayed at 10 or 11,000 ft. I didn't know why. So, it's more efficient to fly higher, right? Because the fuel burn is less and you crisp this at the highest at level 160 more or less. And it's a small country. So, on the way back from

Kinman, which is close to mainland China, you could see entire Taiwan on your uh screen. Taipei, Sunan was the base and this airport is in the middle of the city. So commuting to work was super easy. As I mentioned, there could be some turbulence because of the high terrain around the airport. And in the winter especially, there could be low clouds. And this image show a situation that can be a bit difficult because you're in an open area, but there are lower clouds ahead on the sides and they can suddenly close in and obstruct the view. Right. Our second base was Kawong. It's the second largest city in Taiwan. It's in the south and the climate is very different from Taipei in the north. Even as a short distance between them, the winter especially were much warmer in Kong. And um there are no direct flights between Taipei and Kachong because they built a high speeded train which at top speed up to 300 km/h and with one stop in route it took one and a half hour with the train. Um I also experienced there practice to clear the land as number two which means either an air aircraft taking off or landing ahead of you. So you better look out. Yeah. I also remember departing and heading uh east. No, most departures were towards east but our destination were opposite direction. And the departure took us over an industrial park and through some really nasty emissions from those factories. It smell really bad. So we switch off the air condition [snorts] as we flew. Not far away there is an air force museum and I like historic aircraft and I found some interesting aircraft. Most of them built in United States but also some local built. This is an AIDC meaning aerospace industrial development corporation model PL1B shoo a primary trainer and this was a licensed variant of the Rasmani PL1 powered by 150 horsepower engine and they built 58 of those. Then they have their own designs. A CH1 Shong Singh. This was a light attack aircraft variant of the TCH1 trainer. The airframe is based on the T28 Troyan, but instead of a big radial engine, they put in a turborop engine developing 1450 horsepower. And they built 52 of them. Then X83 Leo Mang. This was a proposed attack version of the 83 advanced jet trainer and they built two prototypes and then they cancelled the project in favor of their aircraft. Then they had a nice collection of MIG, we could call it the MIG Ali Mig 15B built in China as J2 flown to Taiwan by a pilot who defected in 1962. This is a MIG 17 J5 in China. The pilot defected in 1983. MIG 19 called F6 or J6. This was flown by a pilot who defected in 1987. Then they had a MIG 21 F13 variant from Hungary. The story is a bit uh blurred, but it was confiscated by uh customs officers in 1990 and given to the museum. And finally, an illusion EL28 light bomber flown in by a crew who defected in 1965. We proceed to another airport, Mong located on the islands halfway between Taiwan and mainland. And in the winter, it's very windy. It can be 40 to 50 knots wind thankfully down the runway. But air traffic control used to tell us to descend very early on approach. So we flow at 2,000 ft or 1500. I don't remember exactly, but because of the wind, a lot of salt was uh blown up into the air and we landed with tons of salt on the windscreen. You see here, they started to clean the windscreen. Not easy to land with that.

I also remember we had a push back where we got this wind from the left and uh the runway was wet also the apron and as they push us back suddenly nose wheel lost the grip and the nose weather went into the wind with the tow truck attached that was not fun. Magong is also a summer base for FKC1 Shinq fighters and they are look a bit like F-16 on the nose section. They use the same avionics but it has two engines. It was built when uh Taiwan was not allowed to buy F20 or F-16s from United States but later that embargo was lifted. And then we have Kinman. It's uh an island very close to mainland China. So on approach we can see over to China. And it was very important for us to stay on the track. Absolute. There could be fog. So as I said earlier, sometimes you had to divert back to your alternate airport. Then we had Taiishong, a huge airport, long runway, very long taxi route because the terminal is far away from the runway. And what they remember here is the long taxi. And also one day in the control zone, we saw a powered tiger glider flying next to us. And my first officer commented, "Oh, they know who he is. He's done that before. Of course, he reported the tower. Thankfully, no conflict, but it was not fun to see. Um, another day we taxi towards Holly and a man run across the taxi way. Okay. Finally, we have Haleen at the east coast. This is an air force base and they have hungars inside the mountain. Wian is at the base of a very tall mountains and because of a hill there was a very long approach for the ILS. We came from north from Taipei had to fly a very long pattern to cross over the hill and onto the ILS in good weather. They can fly an LDA approach into S correction runway 21 either land there or make a wish pattern into S3. I remember one day we were told to expedite. Um so we flew u we declared a circling and I cut it off visually. So I joined the last part of the circling procedure and landed. I not this was an F-16 on holding and this was a demonstration flight by the F F16. They took off just as we taxi in. And we got this display over the head of us and then a Mirage 2000 and then a FCK1 and when they finished we could depart. One thing about East Asia, China also Taiwan, there is a punishment culture. So earlier as I said they had two accident because nobody were accountable for what happened and now it changed into punishment culture and this was feeding fear among the pilots especially after one crew lined up without clearance and the captain asked the co-pilot are we clear to line up co-pilot said yes but in fact they were clear to taxi to holding Captain again and again. The first office said yes, we're clear to line up. It could would be very easy to ask the to for confirmation, but they didn't. So, they lined up and traffic on final had to go around. And the company fired both pilots, no pardon. And of course, every pilot had that fear hanging over them, that threat that if I do [clears throat] a mistake, I lose my job. And when you have that fear, what do you think happened? Your focus is on the wrong place. Right. And one day I was asked to come to the office next morning at 9:00. Okay. I went to the office and I was shown into a meeting room where head of training, chief pilot, head of

flight operations and several instructors were seated and they asked me to sit on in front of them. I have absolutely no idea what this was about. And then they said uh two weeks ago I had not been stabilized on approach into Halian airport. I was thinking how come and asked can you please specify exactly what happened because I have absolutely no idea. And I said I have been stabilized on 400 ft and I had flown a visual approach inter runway 03 and um the criteria is you have to be stabilized at 500 ft or you go around which I hadn't done and then I understood that was that day they had this fighter waiting on a holding and to save time we asked for an LD approach. 21 for circling to land on 03 that we set time and then the toa asked us please expedite and to save time I headed straight for base and joined the circling there and on a circling approach the criteria is to be stabilized at 300 ft which I was and I said but you didn't fly the circling don and I said correct because I did a visual approach And the definition for a visual approach according to a cow is an approach by an IFR flight when either part or all of an instrument approach procedure is not completed and the approach is executed in visual reference to terrain and I did not do the doning part. I went straight for the base. Thankfully, they accepted that explanation. But if I didn't know this rule, it would have been consequences for me. I also made it clear that this was my responsibility. So, if they would respond to anyone, it should be me, not my first officer. Well, that was how it was. But things didn't go well for the company because this image killed the company. They lost public trust. We carried very few passengers compared to the others. Uni Air also flying ATR could have full flight. We may have 20 passengers. Even we sold the tickets as a lower price. It also affected the Airbus fleet. Even they shouldn't be affected at all. But this was a public mistrust in the company as a whole. They shut down V air in October 2016 and the last flight I did was on 21st of November. Then we were told you park your aircraft in Kong which was our final destination for the day. You take the train back to Taipei. The day after they announced they stopped operations. It was a surprise for us, but for most people it was. But they said they have lost 10 million new Taiwan dollar. That's $316,000 US per day. So I fully understand why they shut it down. But the main reason was the two accidents in seven months that killed the company. I was very lucky because one week earlier I had been given yes from Bangkok Airways in Thailand and I will start working for them in January the next year. But that's another story. As always, thank you to all of the members of the channel who's supporting me and to all other of you. Thank you for watching. Have a wonderful day and happy learning. Heat.

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