Mae Hong Son

[solent01]

Thinking of relocating there, but the schools will make this either a week end / holiday home, or our main residence. Is there a good international school in Mae Hong Son? I'm guessing there is not. I've done a internet search and came up with zilch.

Any other info regarding living there gratefully received

[naboo]

No international schools in Mae Hong Son, you may not even be able to find a school with an English Program. There are a few westerners living in Pai, fewer in Mae Hong Son town and then the odd one splattered around in other villages.

Chiang Rai, perhaps an alternative to Mae Hong Son, has an international school. http://www.cris.ac.th/home.htm

[solent01]

Thanks Naboo, I live near Chiang Rai already, I'm on the Chiang Mai - Chiang Rai province border. My wife and I want to build a home in Mae Hong Son city (I think of it as a small town, but it does have City status) specifically. The option then would be for us to move to Chiang Mai city, or within daily commute distance at least, so our son can attend school, then friday mid afternoon when school is out, head off to Mae Hong Son for the weekend. Sounds good, but a lot of driving. I guess I could buy a plane in the wife's name, Mae Hong Son (VTCH) has a VOR\DME approach plate (MHS), although an ILS would be nice with the cloud they get, but this is a whole new ball game that I'm not sure I want to get envolved with outside of Europe\America etc. think maintenance etc. within Thailand, I can see regular flights to Singapore for 50 hr checks. Anyone have experiance with operating a private plane from Chiang Mai?

[cloudhopper]

I guess I could buy a plane in the wife's name, Mae Hong Son (VTCH) has a VOR\DME approach plate (MHS), although an ILS would be nice with the cloud they get,

Hi Solent now I understand what you want to do. Get a good twin for that work - there's nowhere to realistically dead stick your family into up here. Lots of rough air on that route too even early and it's often below minimums even for that suicidal approach they have... No worries about getting good maintenance though and I would still rather do it than drive!

[jackr]

No worries; if ole Takki Shinegra comes back home, he may re-float the CM-MHS tunnel idea and you'd be there in a jiffy behind the wheel. Other than that, you could always board him in Prem - driving back home for weekends and flying him by self (if 12 over) in on Sun evening.

[solent01]

Cloudhopper, agree about a twin for this route, and also about MHS often being below minima, we wouldn't be able to rely on air travel, but like you said, when we could fly ourselves, it would sure beat driving. I sold a lovely 310Q a few years back that would have been perfect for this, I had her fitted out with 2 GNS 530's + Stormscope. A mate just (last 2 weeks) sold a PA-31 Chieftain (thirsty old girl) for the measly sum of £45,000 I do have the option of an Aztec, a great tried and tested work horse, the avionics need a refit though.

[cloudhopper]

Wow those later 310s were some of the sexiest twins ever made but I'd prefer something lower maintenance. Like my women.

[seedy]

In a previous life I was a flight service specialist.

We used the VOR and a stopwatch to provide a cloud-break procedure to aircraft who declared an emergency. Put them right over the threshold of the main runway.

Only used it twice - besides training and checkouts - but they found the runway.

Of course, they had no Instrument rating, and if Wx below minimums they would not be able to see the runway, but useful to VFR aircraft caught 'on top'.

[moe666]

The smoke stops a lot of flights during the dry season

[Johpa]

Pipe dream. I doubt they will allow any private aviation to fly in and out of a border town like Mae Hong Son.

[LazyYogi]

My in-laws live there.

It's a very charming little city to visit every once in awhile.

It certainly has retained much more local flavor than Pai.

But I'd be crazy bored out of my mind if I lived there all the time.

[solent01]

Pipe dream. I doubt they will allow any private aviation to fly in and out of a border town like Mae Hong Son.

Hows that Johpa, private pilots fly into Pai often

[cloudhopper]

Pipe dream. I doubt they will allow any private aviation to fly in and out of a border town like Mae Hong Son.

Hows that Johpa, private pilots fly into Pai often

I wouldn't say often but every now and then one of the Nok club planes flies in to Pai airport (belongs to the army) and private planes have been into MHS.

You never can be sure though, the air regs in LOS are dated 2497 and badly need modernizing e.g. it is still illegal to carry any type of photography gear onto a Thai aircraft! The authorities do seem to view flying as some sort of nefarious activity....I know because the one and only DCA seminar I went to consisted of nothing but little factoids like failing to take your logbook with you on a flight can result in 6 months in prison and/or a 50 thousand baht fine...on and on like that for 2 hours...