Thailand

Do you miss the days of flying into Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Airport? Flying between the tower blocks of Kowloon before making the sharp right turn for a very short final to line up with runway 13.

Next time you are in Bangkok take a drive out to Thai Flying Club at Bang Phra Airfield, about an hour south of Bangkok, and have a go at runway 23.

While complaining about the lack of VMC weather in the UK an American pilot friend of mine in Bangkok had suggested that I went and enjoyed some good weather flying down Thai Flying Club. The next time I was to be in the region I arranged a few days stop over in Thailand on the way back from Indonesia. Armed with a letter of introduction from our CFI at Wycombe Air Park and my log book I headed off to TFC.

My first flight was to be a trip south along the coast for the Major to size me up and for me to become familiar with the plane and. We would fly west from Bang Phra towards the large island in the Gulf of Thailand, Ban Tha Phanu Rangsiand then turn south to fly over Ba Ko Lan and turn round just before reaching the restricted area over Sattahip Naval Base. And just to keep my hand in we would do couple of practice forced landings on the way back. Fine.

The Club C150, HSATC, was parked in the shade to keep it cool in the mid-summer sun and I was told that the plane had been checked by the mechanics and that I didn’t need to do the external checks. But as it was they who were staying on the ground I decided that I would do my own checks from scratch. From the giggles behind me I guessed that no-one had ever been seen to check the stall warner before.

The plane was wheeled out onto the apron and we climbed in. Pre-start, start-up and post-start checks all OK. Call up the tower for a radio check and departure information. Radio is OK, runway 23 and cleared for taxi. But why no QFE or QNH? Well there are two altimeters on the control panel; one is set to 0 feet and the other to the present altitude, 90 feet. What more did I want?. Ready to taxi from the apron to the end of the runway; visual check behind, to the front and to the sides. Noted that there was a mechanic standing out beyond and clear of the left wingtip. Release the brakes and gently put on the power. We move not an inch. Those bits of rope in the mechanic's hand are connected to some craftily placed chocks! He gave a tugging gesture and I nodded and smiled and out they came. Now be honest, when was the last time you used the cockpit 'chocks away' signal? They say that Thailand is the land of smiles, it certainly worked that time. It was good to be up in the air again. The coastline looked wonderful from 2,500 ft under a clear blue sky and almost perfect visibility. The two practice forced landings at Sri Ra Cha airfield were out of the way and now it was time for runway 23. Fly in over the lake and head between the hills, pointing the nose at the house in the woods; the airfield was still hidden behind the hills on my left. At last, there it was. A bit of a nudge from the Major had us on line and we were into the last stages of final and down on the ground.

The second flight was a 120 nm round trip up to the mouth of the Bang Pakong and then west to the mouth of the Chao Praya River south of Bangkok. Much of the time in Bangkok’s Don Muang Intenational Airport Control Area.

The third flight was to be a 170 nm trip to the island of Ko Samet. By this time the power lines across the end of the runway did not look as daunting as the first flight. Staying on a heading of 230M we climbed to 2,000 ft and crossed the coast and headed to the southern tip of the Island of Tha Panu where we turned south towards the Island of Ko Lan and Sattahip Naval Base. At Ko Lan we called up U-Tapao combined civilian and military airfield for clearance to cross their control area. We had telephoned ahead so they were expecting us but I had to carry out three orbits over bay before being given clearance to cross at 2500 ft an a radian of 130 degrees. Thumbs up and smiles of approval from the Major as I maintained a perfect straight and level course – I felt that George could not have done it better. Once over U-Tapao we continued on the same heading until we were clear of the coast where I set a course of 110M for the southern tip of Ko Samet. The visibility was such that at this point it was not possible to see the island and so I needed some intermediate reference points, below me was the open sea with the southern coastline of Rayong Province to my left. I decide to look for a suitable ship for my reference point and it needed to be one that was not smoking and was not leaving a ‘V-wake’ in the sea. The port of Map Ta Phut which lies within a restricted area from ground up to 2,000 ft had a number of ships at anchor off-shore and so it was easy enough to step along these until the southern tip of the island was in sight. The island looked like a tropical paradise. Crystal clear blue water with off-shore reefs, white beach with arching palm trees providing the shade and bungalows set just back from the beach. Circle round the island and set course back to U Tapao using the ships as stepping stones. This time we were cleared for a direct transit overhead the airport, over to the bay north of Sattahip and back up to Bang Phra.

Sitting in the club house at the end of the day is an experience to be remembered. Open to the setting sun and evening breeze bringing in the scent of the tropical flowers. A cool local beer while writing up the flight diary.

TFC is the home airfield of photographer Tom Claytor, his Vilga tail dragger looking very much like the preying mantis painted on the fuselage. For those of you who have tail dragger experience it is available for hire. While I was at the Club there were a couple of Polish guys who had traveled to Thailand to take it for s trip.

TFC has a great web site http://www.thaiflyingclub.com/

Give it a visit, even better go there.

Clubhouse and Control Tower