Thailand has a tremendous amount to offer the visiting pilot especially if you want to tag a beach holiday on the end to keep the non-flyers (or yourself) from having too much of a one-dimensional trip, and can say with confidence that the Thai people are some of the friendliest people you will ever meet. Whenever friends or I find ourselves landing in the middle of nowhere we always manage to get a lift back and the drives will often refuse any offer of money. The food is amongst the tastiest and cheapest of any country in the region and its generally never cold, Instead a constant 25C.
The sites are all only accessible by 4WD making it difficult if not impossible to fly in Thailand without help form the locals. On the whole cloud base is never more that 1,500/2,000 meters and short cross-country flights of 10 - 20k are quite regular. The thermals are generally fairly large and not too bumpy making it an ideal trip for the novice to intermediate pilot. The season really starts in October/November and finishes around March/April. The rest of the year is flyable its just less predictable and being the rainy season a lot wetter.

PACKING LIST

1. Long trousers - There are lots of thorny bushes that can literally rip your legs to pieces on walkouts so flying in shorts isn't recommended.
2. Hats - Heat stroke is very common.
3. Mosquito repellent - Don't worry about malaria there isn't any in the places we fly but there are plenty of menacing mosquito's.
4. High factor sun screen - 20 or above
5. Proof of qualifications - Ideally an IPPI card.
6. Mobile phone - You can buy a pay-as-you-go card when you arrive in Thailand, which makes finding pilots a lot easier.
7. GPS - This is really useful for the people intending to fly cross-country, again so we can find where you landed.
8. Completed membership - Please download the document here and hand it to me when you arrive. Its 500 baht and entities you to 3 months flying in Thailand.