[MichaelP]

Here I am again

But there’s trouble for all of General Aviation here.
Thailand has subscribed to EASA and is enacting EASA regulations plus!

First was to stop flying clubs from providing PPL flying training.
This means that if you want to learn to fly here you must go to one of the expensive aviation colleges.

A visit to the Thai Flying Club at Bang Phra which used to survive through student training as well as aeroplane rental showed me the effect of this new regulation.

The next thing is the requirement for Thai PPL holders to have type ratings for each of the aeroplane types they fly.
So you fly a Cessna 172, you will need another type rating in a Piper Cherokee.
These require training on the type from one of Thailand’s approved training schools/colleges.
Each type rating will cost you 1,000 Baht, and each must be renewed every two years through the ATO.
If your aeroplane is not a type the ATO instructors are themselves rated on, then you can provide them with your aeroplane, and they can seek training in it themselves in order to provide you with training.
Who can afford this????

There is a group of pilots that have been selected to do UPRT training, and they want to use an Extra for this.
These selected pilots do not yet have tailwheel time nor aerobatic time, but they will be trained by a French aerobatic pilot...
There are already some aerobatic instructors here, with tailwheel time, and Extra time too! Not invited, but please lend your aeroplanes to the ATO so the selected pilots can be trained on them.

It’s an absolutely terrible situation, one which will kill light general aviation here.
The survivors so far will be the U registered microlight/ultralight aviators.

In England you don’t know what I’m capable of.
Never mind I get to practice my skills elsewhere; Canada, and here.
I am always being contacted for advice, and if I was a lawyer I would be very wealthy indeed!
So off the plane, over to the airfield, and sort the magneto out.
Online I had determined it was ninety/two seventy degrees out. It’s now correctly timed.
The undersized brake pads needed roughing up. Very important to scuff the pads as straight out of the box they won’t stop the aeroplane, rather overheat and burn out... I learned this with the first RV9A I test flew in Canada.


With the RV8 ready to test fly, the RV9 is now up for sale.
I test flew this as an RV9A eight years ago, and then first flight again after it had it’s noselegectomy to become a straight 9.


The next problem was with a Jabiru engine.
‘Discovered that the whole ignition system needs work.
One good spark, a few poor sparks, and some no sparks!
New spark plug cables required, noted that the rotors are epoxied onto their shafts, the distributor covers need to be renewed as well.
I could do with some advice myself on this, I am told these are Ford motor parts...
An SB suggests problems with new style Bosche distributor covers...
Where are Jabiru operators finding their ignition parts?