http://www.thaiskyadventures.com The Latest News http://www.thaiskyadventures.com/index.php?mnid=3 GOOD NEWS – BAD NEWS   The good news is the airplane is fully assembled, fueled and ready to fly. Today, January 28, 2009, with Harry at the controls and the DZM, Wayne, in conjunction with Sri Racha Aviation’s technicians as ground crew, we fired up the Porter and its running sweet. Initially, we will be flying with two pilots, one Thai and one a very experienced Porter pilot from France. This leaves nine slots for the jumpers; nothing like a nice 9-way. We are coordinating with the ATC facility at U-Tapao and finalizing the remaining requirements with the DCA (Department of Civil Aviation). With a little cooperation from the Thai authorties, we should be flying soon.   The facilities at Drop Zone are in place. We’ve built a full sized mockup, hanging harness and a large packing tent to get you out of the sun. The landing area is almost complete with only a little grooming to finish it up.            The bad news is due to a number of issues beyond our control, our opening has been delayed and we apologize to all of you who are anxiously awaiting our opening. But until we obtain approval from the Thai government, we are unable to fly it.   Unfortunately, in our efforts to become operational as quickly as possible, the Thai government continues to throw new monkey wrenches into the works – they are not very forthcoming about information and procedures. This has been a tedious task and, as you can imagine at times, a very frustrating learning experience.   But we have faith and a lot of interested (Thai) supporters on our side to overcome these setbacks. The problem is nothing happens quickly in Thailand and with this being the first civilian Porter and skydiving operation under new regulations, the amount of time to resolve our predicament is unknown. Honestly, it could be a couple of weeks but it could just as easily be a couple of months.   However, we will overcome! Keep you eye on the web site – as soon as we know, you will know! Opening day WILL be posted in   BIG BOLD LETTERS!