As our last aircraft depart from Thailand after a joyous weekend gathering of 16 aircrafts from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand participating in the Thai ClubWOA Members Opening and Golf Fly-In, we gave a silent skywards prayer of thanks to the blue skies that greeted us. Amidst a week of raining weather across Malaysia & Thailand, the skies opened up precisely both on our arrival and departure days! As for the rest of the time, we were too indulged in a weekend of golf, sumptuous Thai food and detoxifying spa massages amidst excellent fellow companions to notice the drizzles and nightly thunderstorms.
WOA members gathered at Best Ocean Airpark in Thailand, a brilliantly innovative concept in luxury living, including first class parking facilities for personal aircrafts just 40 minutes drive to Bangkok City.
After years of friendship between the founders of WOA and Best Ocean Airpark, who both shared the passion and tenacity for developing innovative private aviation concepts, WOA becomes the pioneering tenant and operator at Best Ocean airpark with the opening of a members’ lounge and parking facilities for ClubWOA members. It was also the first-time such a large contingent of foreign aircrafts ever landed at the private airpark filling its hangars.
It seemed a fitting meeting of the minds for a private fly-in to take place at a resort and clubhouse that is adjacent to a private 860 meter runway, enabling us to taxi in and conveniently park our plane in front of our own resort. With full access to the hangar and airstrip, we experienced ultimate freedom and splendid adventure known only to the most elite and well-heeled VIP travelers.
Though a short 3 days event from 30th April to 2nd May 2011, a significant variety of luxurious private aircrafts ranging from advanced single/twin engine pistons to turboprops were present including TBM850, Columbia400, Diamond DA42/DA40, Piper Malibu, Cirrus SR22 etc.
WOA planned the event to a tee including coordinating flight support for all aircrafts en-route with specially prepared pilot briefing kits, flight operations support at key port of entry and also logistics support at diversion airports such as Don Meaung airport for aircrafts that were held up by unforeseen circumstances and arrived late in the night. WOA’s members has been known for taking their passion to great lengths and hence no late-comers were left disappointed as WOA picked them up from wherever the arrived from to the dinner function.
On Saturday night WOA hosted a sumptuous fresh seafood BBQ dinner where “live” river prawns, crabs, squids, and fish were BBQ-ed in front of our drooling guests! Participants enjoyed movie videos on past WOA events, amidst rowdy social networking among the aviators and enthusiasts from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
We were housed in resort villas amidst the golf greens; bali-themed air-conditioned rooms with all the 5 star hotel amenities including wifi internet and personal jacuzzi within each room. With a large swimming pool within the compound, golf buggies on standby 24 hours, our minds were left daydreaming and soaking in the lush greens our rooms’ over-looked.
For our Sunday lunch outing, we feasted at our ClubWOA member own “The Orient” restaurant, located in Thonglor (Sukhumvhit 55) below the Somerset Suites. The Orient is sophisticated and casual serving progressive Thai food dining at its best. Everything was prepared with fresh ingredients, flavorful herbs, cooked to perfection and made from scratch. They specialize in traditional Thai home-cooked recipes that are either lost in most Thai restaurants these days or few people have the time to actually prepare at home. To top it off, the owners specially selected and prepared a selection of their menu’s finest for our WOA group consisting of dishes not commonly found in regular Thai restaurants.
We loved the relaxed atmosphere, gigantic deck out front, and a voluminous menu of traditional homemade Thai specialties presented with a fresh twist. Lunchtime was spent relaxed, immersed in intense conversations with fellow newfound friends as we listened to the tales from one another.
A free and easy afternoon and evening was intentionally planned for all participants to disperse themselves to either roam Bangkok central shopping, indulging massage therapies, more food, explorations and sight-seeing as they deem fitting to their age group and interests! WOA transport was arranged to pick everyone up at various timings till late at night from Bangkok city back to the airpark.
As with all such events, the event ended far too quickly. We packed our bags, said our goodbyes, and flew back to homes early Monday morning. Tired but inspired, our bags a little fuller than when we left, and our cuisine filled stomachs adding more weight to our airplanes.
We would like to express our sincere thanks to Asian Aerospace Services, MJets, Best Ocean Golf Resorts, Pattaya Flying Club, Thai Flying Club for visiting to support our event, and to OneChannelAsia for doing media coverage.
WingsOverAsia is also tremendously grateful for the hospitality, support and patience from the Airport Authorities of Thailand in Hatyai, ATC controllers from AeroThai as well as the staff of Best Ocean who meticulously prepared everything for WOA members’ fullest enjoyment!
For a great pictorial summary of the event, check out the event page gallery.
http://www.wingsoverasia.com/event/77
