Newsletter January, 2021

‍This Month’s Dream Destination — Prachuap Khiri Khan

Prachuap Khiri Khan, a fishing port with one of the most beautiful bay homes to the well-known destination Hua Hin in the north. It is a gateway to the southern part of Thailand where every road trip lies. Surprisingly, it is a very narrow province where getting there by a plane will allow you to see the border in the east and the west: the East side is connected directly to the sea where you can enjoy fresh seafood by the locals, whereas the West side is connected to our neighbouring country of Myanmar.  

It is also famous as a luxury getaway, with high-end hotels and resorts. Moreover, world-class golf courses and spas are right there. Plenty of things to do from visiting nature such as waterfalls and Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park with loads of viewpoints and a cave with Thai-style pavilion built for King Rama V, to activities such as kiteboarding and snorkelling.

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Meeting with the Minister of Tourism & Sports

On the 21 of January 2021, it was our pleasure that Mr. Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, Minister of Tourism and Sports, together with his executive delegation, met with the Siam Seaplane management team. He believes that our seaplane endeavours could be an answer to the current situation, when we are affected greatly by COVID-19. Social distancing and better hygiene have become a new living style. Siam Seaplane will use Cessna Grand Caravan EX which can be reconfigured in many ways and seats are placed a distance away from one another. He kindly offered his support in several ways to expedite our launch ambitions for high-standard and premium seaplane services in Thailand. We are very grateful for this reception, support and collaboration going forward.

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Keeping Consistency in our Flying Service — VFR and IFR

Seaplanes take off and land on open water, which implies that there will not always be facilities available like at a regular airport. Therefore, the airplane using Visual Flight Rules for take-off and landing is mandatory. But what is it?

Visual flight rules (or VFR) is one of the two existing rules to operate, similar to the rules and regulation for driving. There are two types of flight rules, which are VFR and IFR, IFR standing for Instrument Flight Rules. In a nutshell, VFR has its own set of rules and minimums that every pilot must follow. It may differ slightly between each country, but follows international standards and remains the simplest one. For the Kingdom of Thailand, VFR shall be conducted when the visibility in flight is not less than 5 kilometers and staying at least 1,500 meters horizontally and 300 meters vertically away from cloud.

Not every day being perfect, our crew have the opportunity to conduct a part of the flight under IFR. IFR allows pilots to fly in worse conditions than mentioned above, but will require additional restrictions to comply with, such as the pilot and the aircraft must be specifically trained and certified for it.

Rather than maintaining the same rules for the whole flight, regulations allow flexibility to combine each regime of flight during different portions of the flight as the pilots deem it appropriate to conduct their flight in the most efficient way, remaining focused on the safety and comfort of our guests until they reach their destination.