Thai-Malaysia trip (World resorts, last day). Pics heavy

[stipjes]

For a few weeks I was doubting if I would visit the LIMA Expo in Langkwai. I had been there 6 years ago and there would be not too much new stuff but I still needed a CL.415, some other stuf and I wanted to visit the Maritime Show in the harour. Besides that photography is great there.
Only when I heard (less then 2 weeks ago) that Cope Tiger would start on the 20th I decided to book a ticket and combine the two. I only visited Thailand once in 2000 and still needed a lot of types. I had never been outside Bangkok in 2000 so I will see what happens.

I arrived in the new Bangkok IAP at 11 in the morning (did not sleep in the plane) and drove to the old IAP Don Muang which is a one hour drive. Since my last visit to the museum a lot of things have changed, here is some of the newer stuff;
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5 Now that I got close to the Fantrainer I notices it is just a fiber glass plane with not to much fancy stuff. 4 are lying in the grass.


6 Anyone for the serials in the correct order ? According to WMAOOS 1258, 1271 and 1295.


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8 I was very surprised to see this one here.... (It should be painted Thai on the other side but did not notice).


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12 Anyone for the serial? I miss the c/n 041....


13 A few km's north of the museum is the national monument. A bird Dog is one of the 3 types here. This day and the next I will see a lot of them .


14 On my way south I pass an Army camp with 3 preserved helicopters. Unfortunately I am not able to photograph them in a good way.
Further south of this camp is the a small police helicopter strip has some preserved and stored aircraft.


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18 The Highlight of the day for me is the Albatross in the Naval Museum south of Bangkok.


19 Around sunset the jetleg kicks in. On the road to U-Tapao (2 hours drive from Bangkok) there are a lot of aircraft preserved, I drive to the first two.


20 The Highway system around Bangkok is a bit complex. If you make one mistake you can end up driving many extra miles. In the case of the pic below I decided to stop on the other side of the road because it would be to hard to make a u-turn and get on the right spot. Besides that the risk of ending up on the elevated Highway is to big (there are only a few exits on it). Ow, and I only had a free downloaded navigation on my Phone....


After the second C-123 I head back to Bangkok (crazy traffic) and end in a hotel in the northwest of the city. From here I can start a nice W&R tour the next day!

[wweasel]

Nice report Patrick!

[Piet Luijken]

keigaaf!

[VH3D]

I see that they cut the grass around Do-28 at the Police museum. When I was there in October I had hard time finding it.



Nice report. Thanks for posting.

[stipjes]

I see that they cut the grass around Do-28 at the Police museum. When I was there in October I had hard time finding it. Nice report. Thanks for posting.

Thanks VH3D. Do you think it is a museum, I am doubting? I just saw some preserved aircraft dotted around the field and could not find a building . Did you visit the storage too?

Here is a small report on my second day (first full day):
After I got up my first stop in the village of Nakhon Pathom (where I also slept) is unsuccesfull, the yard is cleared. There where some aircraft here but if I read WMMOS a bit better I see that it is mentioned that there is nothing to see here anymore . A few km's eastward a Cessna is preserved in front of a cart track, luckely this one is stlll here, a helicopter that should be here too I could not find;
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The Village of What Khea (all name sources from internet & WMOOS) has a museum with a lot of cars (entering the village on the right side). In the front an O-1 is preserved and between the cars an German Alouette II.
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A bit further down the road a few aircraft are preserved on the left side, one of them is a G.222.
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The best score however are the 20 Bird Dogs in storage.
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But there is more to see. Opposite to G.222, in a yard that belongs to a factory a few aircraft are stored inlusing a Burmese Dakota and a Loas H-34 . An Alouette should be inside somewhere.
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After the first liter of sweat has left my body I continu further east. Just before Bangkok the museum man from What Khea has another yard with 2 C-123's in storage....
I could see one C-123 after I climbed in a telephone pole but a pic was not possible. I decided to go and drink some tea in a tall builing close to the yard. Both C-123's where visible now .

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In Bangkok itself I want to check out 2 places only. At the first one I fail, from outside nothing can be seen at the Palace in Thawi Watthana. At some Army barracks close to the big river in Bangkok both the preserved aircraft (Bird dog and a C-123) are photographed. Here is the O-1.

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Via the elevated highways I leave Bangkok further east. First stop is a temple in Lam Lu Ka where another Loas H-34 should be preserved (according to spottingmode). Somehow there appears to be a mix up because I find a Bird Dog and Fantrainer here???? I cannot find them in WMOOS...

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Next stop is Sai Mun, north of the temple, but in the large yard I cannot see any aircraft. I quickly continu further north to the highlight of the W&R days. Somewhere in a field, buried in a lot of grass should be 40+ aircraft (mainly Bird Dogs ofcourse). I did not expect too much especially because I could not find anything on internet and heard stories off the high grass.
In combination with the very high temperature and humidity I do not look forward to an adventure. After an hour drive I find a small path to the field and put on my hike boots. After an Indiana Jones walk (and one liter of sweat) I found the area which is called Saraburi according to WMOOS. The grass was lower then I expected, must be the season.

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Last stop of the day is Muek Lek. A yard along the highway here always has something going on (according to a men who does the painting there).

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Another yard in town seems empty and a C-123 that I passed a few minutes before on the other side of the highway I will photograph on my way back. My appartement in Korat I could not find easily so after a few hours after sunset and a few beers I dropped in my bed.
Next stop; Cope Tiger. I has some information from friend Ton that there is a spot where pics can be taken when the wind is blowing from the east but unfortunately it will blow from the west .

[stipjes]

The main goal for this week is to try to take some good shots at the base where the annual Cope Tiger excercise is held. Singapore, the USAF/PACAF and Thai aircraft participate. There are two sorties a day. One takes off very early in the morning and one around 13.00. Light conditions are tricky. While keeping an eye on the locals and military/police you can take ok shots. My biggest problem was the heath. Is was soooo humid and hot. I hope these pics give an impression of what is there to see. About 60 different aircraft fly this day (I read 51 serials from the pics).

In the morning I tried take off:
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In the afternoon I found a few approach spots. It was a more then an hour drive to get to the other side, traffic is crazy.:
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Tomorrow I will post some pics of my day two at Korat, the weather was less nice though.

[Olli J.]

Very nice photos Patrick! And also good to see that the G222 in Don Muang Museum is finished right now

[bruinmedic]

Great photos!! Any Gripen present?

[TF-104G]

Nice report, i was in 2013 & 2015 at Saraburi Aeropark, very very high gras and hard work running in this gras.

[TF-104G]

14 On my way south I pass an Army camp with 3 preserved helicopters. Unfortunately I am not able to photograph them in a good way

You have an exact location for this ?

[VH3D]

Thanks VH3D. Do you think it is a museum, I am doubting? I just saw some preserved aircraft dotted around the field and could not find a building . Did you visit the storage too?

I did not visit the storage. I had no idea about it's existence. It is actually a museum. It's called Ram Inthra Police Museum.
The only building that I saw was the one with Kawasaki-Bell helicopter right above the entrance. When I was there it was closed.
This is the building I'm talking about.



Did you ever went to see those 747s and MD-80s where people live in them? Every time I'm in Bangkok I want to go there but local people keep telling me that it's not safe.

[stipjes]

Q:

Great photos!! Any Gripen present?

A: Nop, no Gripen in Cope Tiger. But a few where present a few days later in Langkawi .

Q: Did you ever went to see those 747s and MD-80s where people live in them? Every time I'm in Bangkok I want to go there but local people keep telling me that it's not safe.
A: I did not visit that place (only do mil)

Q: The only building that I saw was the one with Kawasaki-Bell helicopter right above the entrance. When I was there it was closed.
This is the building I'm talking about.
A: Ok, is is the building that I saw then, it was very closed last week too.

Q: 14 On my way south I pass an Army camp with 3 preserved helicopters. Unfortunately I am not able to photograph them in a good way
You have an exact location for this ?
A: It is the WMOOS location on page 297. N13.87849 E100.60014. From the first floor of the supermarked you can see the aircraft. I was able to get through the gate and took some pics in the distance before the sent me away but the quality sucks.

I will try to post the other Cope Tiger and Don Muang pics later this weekend but life is a bit busy at the moment (though it starts raining now so....)

[stipjes]

Very nice photos Patrick! And also good to see that the G222 in Don Muang Museum is finished right now

Thanks, I like them too but the heath is unbelievable .
Here are some more results. Day 2 at Cope Tiger. Teusday, the weather in the morning is cloudy but with the recovery the sun showed some rays.
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Around noon I decide to head back to Bangkok in order to sleep before midnight. I have to get up around 5 in the morning for my flight to Kuala Lumpur. On the way back I made a quick stop at the Argicultural Museum along the "highway":
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The theory of leaving Korat around noon is that I can find a spot in the Don Muang approach and see the last locals Arrive. The theory was correct.
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72 any one for the serial? It had no serial in the tail .

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I arrive at the hotel around 1900 via a very very busy Don Muang traffic. The hotel is a 5 minute walk from the terminal. But after dropping the Luggage in the hotel and finding a printer for the tickets I have to drive another hour to the other Airport in very busy traffic to return my rental. Finding a gas station was the hardest.... When returning the car the rental company did not notice the missing parts of my car, pffff. I have no excess but it takes a lot of paperwork to get my money returned. A free bus takes me back to Don Muang Airport where I finally fall asleep at 12.... At 5 the alarm will ring in order to catch my Air Asia flight to KULA. This trip does not feel like a holiday .

[Fishbed_9307]

Very nice photos Patrick! And also good to see that the G222 in Don Muang Museum is finished right now

Thanks, I like them too but the heath is unbelievable .
Here are some more results. Day 2 at Cope Tiger. Teusday, the weather in the morning is cloudy but with the recovery the sun showed some rays.

I arrive at the hotel around 1900 via a very very busy Don Muang traffic. The hotel is a 5 minute walk from the terminal. But after dropping the Luggage in the hotel and finding a printer for the tickets I have to drive another hour to the other Airport in very busy traffic to return my rental. Finding a gas station was the hardest.... When returning the car the rental company did not notice the missing parts of my car, pffff. I have no excess but it takes a lot of paperwork to get my money returned. A free bus takes me back to Don Muang Airport where I finally fall asleep at 12.... At 5 the alarm will ring in order to catch my Air Asia flight to KULA. This trip does not feel like a holiday.

You poor bastard, I have tears in my eyes! NOT!

[Jovel]

Very nice Mr van Stiphout. Is it relaxed spotting in Thailand? No problems with the police or pushy locals?