Boy-o-boy it was a busy day. I lost count of the calls to J & J today and Michelle from Flight Permits (who worked on the permissions all day). At one point I received this e-mail from Michelle: Dear Michelle, To be honest with you, your aircraft is the lightest aircraft ever fly into Taiwan. RCTP is our major airport in Northern Taiwan, among you, there would be A330, 747, so they are now asking ramp control and ATC of RCTP to consider how to take care of you and leave some gap to you between the big monsters. We are happy to assist you but we would rather make sure everyone is safe under our service. Regards Gordon By 6pm Phuket time nothing had come through but we agreed that they would file a flight plan anyway and see what happened. One hour before their 11pm (local) take off time I received an sms from Michelle which said: Hi Mike, I think the CAA in Taiwan have been informed of your flight plan as I have just received an urgent e-mail saying that it is not approved as yet and you may not start your engine. I called them and told them the news at which point James said that they were having a struggle with the flight plan anyway – Bangkok has been rejecting every route they choose and wants them to fly along airways none of which go in the right direction and will take them hundreds of km out of their way. The local handlers and guys in Phuket are being super helpful and understanding and are trying their best. So, we left the conversation there – with them working on trying to get a route approved. I have just called again now and the situation is that they have found a cheap but very clean hotel near the airport and are going to bed and will try again early in the morning (about 3am SA time). They have a number of routing options … the different airspaces are Vietnam, Bangkok, Singapore, Philippines and then Taiwan … they will keep trying until they succeed. The flying is easy… getting through the modern day bureaucracy is the real adventure and it is just part of the whole thing. As you can imagine they are frustrated but in good spirits. While all this is going on, that sexy Silver Bullet is sitting quietly on the apron … but ready to run! Cheers Mike
