Thailand Tour (Sep 18, 2011)
Our trip to Thailand had been long awaited, originally planned for winter 94/95. My wife Karin had bought maps and books and even packed and we had to leave. The balloon was ready at Thunder and Colt with a heavy basket adapted for hard use overseas. And then they went bust. The delay meant that we missed quite a short window for the flight to Thailand. It was rainy old England for most of the winter and a rethinking of the plan for us. I was invited to go there, John Nunns, formerly worked for him in South Africa flying passenger ride balloons. Jon interest in Thailand of several business trips he probably had the most experience of flying in Thailand. The sky balloons agent in Thailand managed to sell one of the balloons leave the production line for a couple of business men who wanted to learn to fly, and fly in the advertising banners, I will come again, this time on the train and point them the right way. So, after a fantastic summer passenger flying to England, he had to leave at the Quantas Jumbo from snowy December Heathrow. We caught a connecting flight in Bangkok to Chaing Mai, a city in the North which is situated in south-east Asia Games (SEA Games), our first port of call. John, returning from SAGA, was there for three days in order to facilitate us to understand things. Our hosts were able to find a sponsor of the mobile phone company, and we had a heavy schedule in the future. The city was humming with the activities related to games, and it was a great pleasure to be there. In general, we flew through the town in the mornings and in the main stadium in the evening. At the stadium itself was about 10 km from the city center and lay under the east facing slope, which, of course, moved in the shadows in the evening to fly over the stadium, rather than in open countryside, in the morning were able to take us to the slope, rather than from the west, which was not a good idea, as there were about 50 kilometers of forests and national parks to the next road. It has always been a fairly quiet and find a place to land is not a problem. We were not alone in the air on the ball Carlsburg were shipped from Europe and Cameron Gas airship from America. Strangely neither thought to visit or call the International Airporttickets 8 km to the south of the stadium. This caused a number of problems, such as Thai love is complicated by the permission of the flight, and neither have any. As we had permission, we contacted and received some amount of their flack CAA. We smoothed the path quite well for them, the prison was more than once! Airship did a fantastic job, it would seem, and not from the air with a television camera and beam live pictures from the stadium. Evening we tethered next to the stadium and the airship still plodded around declining leaflets. Thai are the football fanatics and the Asian Cup was also held during the game in the evening. Our tethers coincided with all the home team the game. In Thailand, progress through the ranks of the ticketstickets sold, and he began to get ugly at the gates. In the semi final the fans burnt the ticket tent in protest and several thousand extra tried to cause an outbreak of police brutality. We tethered high allowing us to see the matches and PR people are committed, they tend to want to work to stay for a while, as we have the best view in the house! In the first and last day of games, we flew in a stadium, the first flight of John, with me on board, and the latter himself. What a fantastic feeling when you fall for the edge of the roof of the stadium and come to a dead stop all that noise, and then pile, really good fun, it comes recommended! Flying over the city were also commendable. At the airport we need to stay below 1000, and if we should fly higher than we have been forced to call them on VHF. It worked well and, of course, flying through the temples at a low level was fascinating. Chaing Mai old city is located in a square canel and contains some 300 temples in general. It is here that we aim to fly over every day. Ping River winds it way to the east of the old city, and it was very convenient for large changes in direction. Typically, the majority of the wind direction can be found and stay in the city center within an hour or so and then climbing and departing was fairly easy. I must say that the Northern Thai seems to be more fun loving than their Southern compatriots. To this end, they enjoy the fireworks exploded and balloons carrying balls of burning fabric cloth to keep them in the air. Not uncommon to see 10 or so cross the night sky glowing red when drinking beer. Their recovery is quite high, but I flew with some at 3000. "On a couple of times to land the villagers to release balloons into the fabric of our honor. They also flew a large string of fireworks blasting from the bottom. All things for balloonists to watch. Last night in a game seen launch of more than 1000 of these balloons in about 10 minutes drive from all around the stadium, and it was good night, it was the most beautiful ball that I have ever seen. As has just been a total of up to eight hours south of Bangkok by road. Unbeknownst to ourselves, we came to the notice of the Prime Ministers office and were sought for the work! Deputy Prime Minister, Thakasin Shinawat, said the coming into office in early 1995, then by mid-January 1996 (or 2539, as it is), it will be parsed Bangkoks traffic problems. It has been pouring millions of baht of his own money on what is basically an impossible task. He was also doing all sorts of tricks to show people that he is trying to rectify the situation. We asked him to fly over Bangkok to observe the movement of air, as this in their words, low cost solutions. Permission was obviously to be found. We were summoned to our first meeting with the CAA on Christmas Eve, at 10 hours, all apparently considering it amusing that I was missing my Christmas. Upon arrival, it became clear that they do not want us to fly, as well as the military situation, and they do not want me to see anything I should not. The Kings Palace is not fly no more, as you never have to be head taller than him! However, the civilian run Prime Minister Office had great pressure and they feel they need to relax and, incidentally, that we could tell them about the other balloons and airships in Chaing Mai (you get the picture that this is a warning). It turned out that we had in the winning combination, but they really should tell us not love in the first place. It is the only request was that I did not fly higher than 500. "Now! With pleasure. King helicopters fly at 800, that was that. I walked out on Christmas day with a piece of paper that I ordered to go no higher than 500 AGL, which I liked! The trip followed the tower at Bangkok International enable them to know what was going on and pick up air charts. They already know everything about us and not give me an air pattern: military secrets and all that. If I known I would have brought them to England before we left! Thus came to pass that I did report the movement of balls over the city of Bangkok with the deputy prime minister on board, and the film crew and five TV crews following through the movement. We flew two days doing four flights. The flights themselves are very interesting to note that I would not rush to do it again. The highest building is the reception for the 1000 and we flew right between flocks of them, of course, to stop all traffic as we went. For those that know that we started with just above Siam Square and flew across generally towards the Queen Siriket Convention Centre, and then through a river. 500 'level has become more real in the afternoon as oats, some 37C and thermals were popping out of the whole place, I may or may not actually flown quite a bit higher at the beginning of the flight and came down when it cools, but perhaps I would have been altimeter incorrectly! So, after all the fun and games was to leave the train up to three people in total: two of our agents and business men. To get started, we went to the Rayong area to SE of Bangkok known for its beach resort Pattaya. They do more, where to train there. Unfortunately, it proved too coastal and the sea breeze knockout evening flights, and the land breeze in the morning. Our permission was only 25 square kilometers, so that we could not go any further inland. No problem, as one of the guys had family members from a farm near Kanchanaburi, building a bridge over the River Kwai in western countries. It is here that a lot of preparation has been done. He was an ideal place for aeronautics, mostly flat with some 5-600 foot hills popping up like islands. Paul mainly from sugar cane, nearly three-quarters, while the rest are rice fields. Everything went fine and come back after three trips to Bangkok for business, where guys are ready. They will travel to England to take their PPL in the near future. Another surprise lies in store. Seeing as the flight at the stadium in Chaing Mai was so good, I was invited to fly to another, from football to start the Thai football league. There is nothing complex, but the stadium is 500 meters from the sea with houses all the way to it. Luck was on our side again, and after two days of strong monsoon winds on the day in question it was calm. We are overstated for the five buildings that were near the stadium, and the explosion from the direction of the wind. The signal for us was the beginning of a series of fireworks the ninth being our go. In practice, we could not fly due to wind we saw that the marching bands had left and we will certainly stage. You know, Whats next next.1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 Go, we have grown because of the construction to see that still stood there, down between them all that I had my official hopped out with the football and handed it to the President of Yamaha, and we are quickly deflated ball! no way was I going to fly out on that one!
