This flight was originally going to be from Phuket, all the way to Penang and I had plotted a route which took me over Krabi, Trang and the island of Langkawi, before landing at Penang. With just over an hours flight time I was considering this to be one of the shorter flights of the adventure.
Starting the day at 10:30 I soon completed all the necessary checks and procedures. Whilst this differs somewhat to a real life aircraft, ensuring that my Track IR equipment was working and that I had enough fuel for the flight were equally as important. The 64 gallons of fuel I had on board should easily be enough.
I was ready to depart from Runway 27 of Phuket International Airport by 10:45 although I was told to hold on the runway itself as I waited for another aircraft to land. Seeing a business jet appear over head only meters above to then touch down right in front of me was an impressive sight. Once the landing plane had taxied away from the runway I took off in my own Beechcraft Baron 58 and had “wheels up” by 11:00.
With light cloud sitting at rougly 4000 – 5000 ft I found myself either trying to dodge each cloud or simply hopping from one to another whilst seeing the odd lonely cloud hanging much lower. It wasn’t long before I was flying over the city of Krabi where I could follow the main road 4 Eastwardly on my way to Trang.
Flying a lot lower I had some fun buzzing the tree tops perched on top of some small hills and watching out for any flocks of birds in my path disturbed by the engine noise. The clouds had cleared by now and I could easily see a range of hills from my window as I passed over Trang at 11:35.
I used the Maps app on my phone to follow the route and checked out Ko Sukon Island. Other tiny islands looked lost out at sea. Ko Taruto Island was a good bit larger and I learnt that this was home to the Taruto National Park. I’m sure it would be amazing to get to explore that island first hand.
As I reached the island of Langkawi I was taken aback by how beautiful the place looked, both from my plane in the flight sim but more so from the images and videos I was seeing on my phone. At that point I decided that this must be a stopping destination and cancelled the last leg which would have taken me to Penang. I soon found the airport and runway on the Western side of the Southern shores and requested full stop landing clearence. I didn’t log the time I landed as I must admit I was too keen to see and learn more about this island.