OK, so we’ve just filed our flightplan to Taipei. We leave Phuket at 11pm local time, 1600Z (18h00 in SA). Weather again a bit dodgy, especially at the start, and then over the Vietnam peninsula. Oh well, Vietnam wouldn’t allow us through their airspace except in the day anyhow, so we’re going the long way

Jean and I have just received the terrible news that the two Albatrosses that were at the Tzaneen airshow have been missing for two days. Our thoughts are with the families of all the passengers.

James & Jean have decided to postpone departure to tomorrow evening at 6pm (SA local time) on the 17th of August due to not having received permission back from Taipei yet. Updates will be given during the course of tomorrow.

Just a quick update to let you know that after a good rest at Patong Beach yesterday we’re off to the airport to do a short hop over to Robert Suchard’s airpark 8.5 nm away, radial 140! (500m grass strip which we’ve also checked out on Google Earth). There we’ve got a reception tonight, we

Howdy folks It feels like a million years since our last chat, so much real stuff has happened. (Definition – “real stuff” means make the right move next, or else BIG dwang!). We are here in the party capital, Phuket. Safe and rested, well fed and digesting our antics. The little 9 hour hop from

Our filed flight plan distance was 4 600km, but we’d cut the corner and cheekily bored a tunnel through Mauritian airspace, so only 4 100 km had to be covered. By nightfall we’d flown for eight and a half hours of the twenty-one. A little more than half the fun lay ahead. Preparing for night

About getting the additional fuel into the wings. Jean did consider climbing out on to the wing and we’ve discussed the idea a couple of times. But ultimately he figured it’d be easier to put it through the two transfer pumps under the pilot’s seat. It did mean removing and re-attaching some pipes in flight,

Sias from VFRPlanner.co.za has sent in the following weather forecast for this leg: Working on a 13/8/2011 01:00Z take-off from Colombo to Phuket; I have added the winds to a 105kts cruising speeds which brings us to a 9h08 flight with a nice tail wind at 7500ft, which comes at a cost…http://www.vfrplanner.org/app/nav/vfrplan/plan.htm?planId=8081851806the spot graphs are

Tim called me at 2.20 am this morning saying that he couldn’t get hold of James to give him the weather forecast. I tried too but without luck and so went back to sleep leaving Tim to keep trying. At 4.30 I jumped awake wondering why J & J hadn’t called for a final check

I have just had a call from J & J they are in a clean air conditioned terminal building in Phuket. Jean said he has never seen such a clean and well organized airport in his life. And they are in really good spirits after a brilliant flight of just over 9 hours. The last