I touched down at Sydney airport, and after a short wait was on a tiny Rex airplane out to the city of Albury, New South Wales, where the rental 206 was based. I walked straight around to the aviation business of the owner, Stephen, and we jumped in the aircraft to do a quick flight checkout as I’d not flown a 206 before. It was not at all difficult to get the hang of, being very similar indeed to the…
I had arranged with the water-sports crew for a ride to the airport; they offered many services. The price mysteriously quadrupled between the original agreement and the pick-up, but I managed to negotiate it down again. I arrived at the airport at 0730, for my 0800 take-off; this was in line with the suggestions of my handling agent given that fueling was done. Unfortunately, the agent didn’t appear until 0800, and then immigration were nowhere to be found. They took…
There was no fuel available at Yogyakarta, and this next leg would be a domestic flight. All paperwork and fees were being taken care of by the handling agent. All we had to do was turn up, stroll through security, and get going. It slightly made up for the enormous costs of flying in Indonesia (around $1,500 in fees for a 3 night stop) – but only slightly. Now much lighter in fuel load, we shot off the runway and…
Most countries will send the flight permit, if it is required, days or even weeks in advance. Not so with Indonesia. I received the permit at 9pm the evening before the flight and I was told by my contact at Wings of Asia that this was considered early; usually, they come in the early hours of the morning on the day of departure! I like to have everything ready in advance so this had been rather stressful, with me checking…
The next flight, to Singapore, would only take just over an hour. That left some time in the morning for a leisurely breakfast, and a little more sightseeing; I elected to take the boat tour that ran back and forth on the diminutive Malacca river. I sat next to a Malaysian family who were surprised to see a westerner, and asked me how I had heard about the tour. Given that it was on Google Maps and close to my…
I took a “Grab” back to the Langkawi airport, where my handling agent Mr Musa was waiting to meet me. He had filed the flight plan I sent him the night before, so all that was left to do was take a quick walk through security (no immigration needed for this next domestic leg), and walk down to the aircraft. With no need to fuel, it didn’t take long to remove the covers and pre-flight the aircraft. I called for…
With Don Mueang airport’s busy schedule, it was important for me to be ready to go in time for my scheduled departure slot at 10:25am. After breakfast at my hotel in Asoke I took a “Grab” (southeast Asia’s version of Uber) to the airport. Things nearly fell apart at that stage as my driver got entirely lost, and spent about 30 minutes driving around trying to find the jet center. Luckily, after arrival, M-Jets were as quick and efficient as…
We were back at Luang Prabang airport by 7am. The agent that we had used for our permit, “Asia Flight Services” (also known as “Indochina Aviation Centre”) had given us a quote in advance that featured a number of very high third party “overtime” charges; such as $500 for Air Navigation overtime. These had seemed odd to me, with nothing mentioned in the AIP, so I had emailed the Laos Department of Civil Aviation to check. They responded, to say…
We left the hotel at 0730, and were back at Nok airfield a little after 0800. There was more activity today; a Light Sport Aircraft had been pulled out to go flying (and then cancelled due to avionic failure), and what looked like a large kite with a couple of seats strapped on was doing circuits to the neighbouring airfield (an aircraft type known as a “Breezy”). I called Chiang Mai Approach to get permission to depart and, in a…
We had a day in Bangkok to recover from our respective flights before setting off again on the next section of the trip. We spent a fairly lazy day, visiting the Temple of the Reclining Buddha (which was excellent) and the Siam Museum (which was not). We rounded the day off with a visit to The Animal Cafe, where one can enjoy a light meal in the company of a multitude of cats, chinchillas, a possum, a raccoon, and even…