I flew into Bangkok a few days ago to meet up with Pete and the plan was to drive up to Phu Tap Boek, camp out at the launch area and do as many flights as possible. But the weather was just not on our favour this time, the mountain was covered with thick clouds and it was raining most of the time. We then proceed to Khao Ko, apparently a newly discovered site by the guys at Petchabun paragliding club. It’s a small but a site with beautiful views, good lift though the south winds can be quite strong at times. Here’s my short video of Khao Ko, definitely going to be back to this place for a longer stay and fly it.
After Khao Ko, we moved south to Khao Sadao for a few days of camping at the launch site and fly early in the morning till noon… well at least that’s the idea. The wind wasn’t in our favour too at this site, it was blowing at least around 25kph and at times when the gusts came in, it feels like 35kph! However, in the early morning there’s a small window of about 30 minutes to fly so I didn’t waste the chance and had my 30 minutes flight at 6:30am before I proceed to land behind the launch area in strong wind. Doing big-ears almost all the way to descend and the rest of day spent chatting, driving around town and meeting up new friends. The next morning was Pete’s turn for that small flying window, it’s his birthday anyway so it was all his to fly. Pete logged about 45 minutes flight before the wind got too strong and he had to proceed out to the LZ near the tapioca field.
Tomorrow will be another attempt at Khao Sadao, I hope the wind will be kind to us and allow at least 1 hour of flying window. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow… till then, need to hit the sack and wake up at 4:30am for the flight.