To Phi-Phi Islands

It's a real privilege flying a microlite in Phuket - flying trikes here is great fun and there's lots to see. So, on 27th January 2010, my friend Michael and I decided to go and take a peek at Koh Phi-Phi ("Koh" is Thai for "island"). Michael is a pretty good movie cameraman and has a very swish Canon video camera - once I get some decent edits I'll post them here.

We lifted our wheels at 16.50 hours, aided by fairly light winds - about 2 or 3 mph at 1,000 feet; there was a bit of incipient (but developing) cumulus around which caused us a few bumps but nothing to worry about. The air temperature was very warm and at 1,000 feet we had 29 deg C (about 84 F).

We headed off on 130 degrees and were going to be over water for most of the trip. Phi-Phi is about 25 miles from my home strip and so it was going to take about 20 minutes to get there. Phi-Phi is a particularly beautiful pair of islands and lies in the famous "Phang Nga" Bay. Phi-Phi Don to the North has several hotels and bungalows on it and is frequented by upper-middle-class Tarquins and Rebeccas on their "gap" year. Phi-Phi Ley to the South is uninhabited but full of tourists in high season - Tarquin and Rebecca can be seen here too in droves. I've been to Phi-Phi many times on my boat and so I was very familiar with all its bays and coves.

After a few minutes we saw Koh Gai ("Chicken Island": 7* 53' 31" N / 98* 30' 53" E) and thought we'd orbit to take some snaps. Koh Gai is very popular with day-trippers who sit on the beach and buy food/drinks at vastly inflated prices from the monopolistic Thai vendors - it's often packed with local speedboats and is a place I've always avoided on my boat. They've even built a hideous array of water features now in dayglo green - see bottom-right of island. However, from the air it looked exquisite:

As we pressed on to Phi-Phi, which by now we could see through the haze, I noticed that some of the puffy cumulus were starting to develop "heads" and so I made a mental note to keep an eye on these. I can check wind-speed on my Tanarg's "Enigma" screen and we were now getting around 6 or 7 mph at 1,000 feet. We were still getting bounced around a little but again, nothing to worry about.

As Phi-Phi grew larger, so did the turbulence and as we got South-West of Phi-Phi Ley, we were getting tossed around with a degree of discomfort. There was nothing to threaten the safety of the flight but in my (limited) experience, when winds are picking up, they normally get worse before they get better. We took some shots of the island and I especially wanted to get shots of Maya Bay (7* 40' 23" N / 98* 45' 54" E) - this provided the location for the movie "The Beach", starring Leonardo di Caprio. I really wanted to get some overhead shots of the actual beach but the winds were still picking up and when I glanced at my screen (number 4), I saw we now had 16 mph at 1,000 feet.

Here's Phi-Phi Ley - the entrance to Maya Bay is in the centre where the boats are anchored and you can see the wind-lines in the water:

As we headed back home I noticed some large, tall and dark cumulus clouds brewing to the North - it was a simple matter to circumnavigate them without much inconvenience but I felt glad that I'd decided to turn back when I did. There were also a number of showers dotted around the place, clearly visible. Passing over Koh Gai again, the wind was now 15 mph where it had been 7 mph on our way out, the direction had also changed and all this spelled unstable conditions! About a mile from the airfield we hit an up-draft and when I glanced at my variometer, I saw 750 feet/min rate of climb with the bar neutral - the clouds were now certainly working their magic!

The wind sock was gusting about a little so I made a very short circuit and landed about 30 deg cross-wind in around 10 mph. As usual, it was a "Royal Flight" standard of landing!

It was a very enjoyable flight of 1 hour and 10 minutes and I felt we'd done everything correctly. I'm sure I could have continued to get the overhead shots of Maya in safety but hey, what's the hurry?

Now I'll have to go back and do it all over again - what a pisser!

Flying with my daughter Joanna

One of the great pleasures for a new trike pilot is to be able to take friends and family up for a trip. I hadn't done much of this since re-qualifying as a pilot and so it was a precious moment when my daughter Joanna and her fiance Alex visited us for Christmas. This was the first time I'd ever flown with a member of my family.

I first took Joanna (pictured above - the camera never lies Jo-Jo!) and Alex for a very gentle trip each - sticking close to the field at Phuket Airpark and staying below 1,000 feet. The winds were very light and there was virtually no movement whatsoever in the air. Also, I flew very gently - I've never understood why some pilots like to scare their passengers shitless; it could put them off for life. If your passengers want you to go faster/lower/higher "G", they'll tell you!

Alex took this landing video from the back seat:

Since they both loved the experience, Joanna and I decided to make a longer voyage the following evening - Alex was scheduled to play golf instead.

We'd filed our flight plan (we have to do this due to our proximity to the International Airport) and our wheels lifted around 17.00 - dusk is around 18.25 at this time of year so we had a comfortable 75 minutes. Joanna was amazed when we lifted off. It seems she was so used to riding on the back of my motorbike and with the "mental prompt" of putting on a crash helmet, she thought she was on a bike. So when the wheels lifted off she screamed "it's like we're flying!". I told her "it's not like we're flying - we are flying". We climbed to 1,000 ft on the QNH and I spoke to Phuket Tower and told them we were up, heading South and squawking 4500 on the transponder. Luckily they didn't bother us at all for the remainder of the flight - seems my ATC banter is putting them at ease!

My house (white building slightly right of centre) from Chalong Bay, looking North.

The wind was non-existent and the ambient temperature was 29 deg C (about 84 F) at our cruising height of 500 - 1,000'. We headed over Phuket Town and got a great view of the small hills which are scattered in and around the city; you can see the central mountainous spine that runs North/South in the background:

From here we flew over Chalong Bay and its many small boats at anchor, towards the setting sun:

You can just about see the "Big Buddha" on the peak, slightly to the right of centre. From here we flew down Rawii Beach to the viewpoint at Promthep Cape - a favourite spot for hundreds of tourists who gather here every evening to watch the sunset. Jo-Jo and I now took-on "Rock Star" status as we flew along the crowds at their eye-level height - we saw hundreds of camera flashes going off each time we made a pass - the price of fame I guess.

A short hop from here was the beautiful beach at Haiharn and again we got the attention of the tourists - remember, nobody has ever seen a trike flying over Phuket before! We now made for Kata Beach where there are 3 or 4 bars on a cliff face where boozing tourists sit and watch the sun go down over a cool beer or (their signature drink), a Long Island Iced Tea. Again, a lot of flashes and waves but then, we were posing shamelessly. We made several passes here at the same level as the bars - about 500 feet, then went to beat-up a few large yachts moored in the bays around Kata and Karon's beaches - again we attracted waves from the Gin Palace occupants; the super-rich who migrate to Phuket for Yule. Continuing around the coast we made a pass down Patong Beach where we got great views of the orange, sun-burnt and tattooed yob's who choose to holiday in this seedy little dump. This place used to be wonderful and someone really needs to sort it out!

By now the light was starting to fade so we headed for home - we planned to take a short-cut by heading East through a gap in the mountainous spine at Karon, a col just to the South of the Big Buddha. We had to keep to our ATC-prescribed 1,000 feet and as the ground rose up we were probably about 300 ' agl (above ground level) at its highest point. We dived down the other side, shot across Chalong Bay at 90 mph (with the bar held-in a little!) and back over Phuket Town. I couldn't resist a slight detour over the Royal Phuket Marina and the Boat Lagoon (two grotty marinas accessed by a very narrow/shallow channel that's never dredged so owners ground their hulls and foul their skin-fittings in the silt that lines the channel) before swinging East to the Airpark.

We flew a quick "extended" circuit around Cape Yamu (above) that borders the Airpark and made an uneventful landing in zero wind. We then put Little Nellie to bed and retired to the bar - me for a cold Singha beer and a G&T for Joanna..... I must get a mini-bar installed.

It was my best flight yet in Little Nellie - a perfect trip.