Pyongyang's latest fad: Sightseeing in ultralight airplanes

[webfact]

Pyongyang's latest fad: Sightseeing in ultralight airplanes

By ERIC TALMADGE

 

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — Until a few months ago, if you wanted a bird's eye view of North Korea's capital, there was basically only one option: a 150-meter (492-foot) -tall tower across the river from Kim Il Sung Square.

 

Now, if you have the cash, you can climb into the back seat of an ultralight aircraft.

 

With the support of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has vowed to give North Koreans more modern and "cultured" ways to spend their leisure time, and with foreign tourism companies looking to entice visitors with unique things to do besides visit war museums and political monuments, a Pyongyang flying club has started offering short flights over some of the capital's major sights.

 

The tours, which began in late July, are operated by the Mirim flying club out of a fancy new facility on an old airfield adjacent to another of Kim's signature modernization projects: a sprawling equestrian club and horse racetrack.

 

Officials say more than 4,000 North Koreans have gone up in the ultralight fleet since, along with "hundreds of foreigners" from 12 countries.

 

The flights go directly over some of Pyongyang's most iconic spots, including the gargantuan May Day stadium, the torch-tipped Juche Tower and Kim Il Sung Square area, and the Munsu Water Park, yet another of Kim's leisure spot "gifts" to the city.

 

Flights start off over a typically rural setting, with a mixture of farmland and small hamlets.

 

But that quickly transforms into what one would expect from a city of about 2.5 million: block after block of densely concentrated high-rise residential buildings, some in the drab gray color of concrete but many painted over in pink, beige or blue pastels. Toward the center of the city, spaces open up once again with large public plazas and the parks that surround Pyongyang's many monuments to its leaders and war memorials.

 

Considerations of places best not subjected to flyovers were almost certainly a factor before the tours could get off the ground. And, just to be safe, photographs taken from the air are screened by club officials after each flight.

 

But seeing the city from a height of 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) or less while slowly puttering through the skies provides quite a different perspective from anything tourists, and even most Pyongyang residents, had ever been able to get before.

 

The flights aren't cheap — a 25-minute ultralight ride from the airstrip on the outskirts of the city to Kim Il Sung Square and the Juche Tower, which had previously been the best place to get an urban panorama, goes for around $150. Shorter flights are offered at cheaper prices, starting from about $65, but those only fly around the immediate vicinity of the flight club.

 

Prices for North Koreans are much cheaper, though club officials wouldn't say exactly how much.

 

Officials say the ultralight aircraft used for the flights were made in North Korea.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-10-17

[Chicog]

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Who would want to????

[Chicog]

2 hours ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

Who would want to????

 

Er... tourists at a wild guess?

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Well,if you think that tourists would like North Korea,why dont you go there and tell us all about it IF you get back.

I would rather have needles put in my eyes than put any tourist money into a country that wants to blow us all to hell,and keeps the populace starving whilst the leader gluts himself on wine,scotch whisky and the finest foods.Oh! and feeds his family to wild,ravenous dogs.

lets see how your wildest guess pans out then.

Good grief.

 

[anotheruser]

Tourists do go to North Korea and this would appeal to some of them more than just seeing the monuments and other stops. Not sure what the debate is about.  This thread needs the dual pricing brigade to come in though. 

 

I get the fact that the regime is not very nice but it doesn't negate the fact that people do go there.  If I wasn't afraid of flying and found myself in Pyong Yang I think this would be a fascinating way to see the city. 

 

Just because the leader is "evil" doesn't mean people going there will not want to do this.

[Chicog]

4 hours ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

Well,if you think that tourists would like North Korea,why dont you go there and tell us all about it IF you get back.

I would rather have needles put in my eyes than put any tourist money into a country that wants to blow us all to hell,and keeps the populace starving whilst the leader gluts himself on wine,scotch whisky and the finest foods.Oh! and feeds his family to wild,ravenous dogs.

lets see how your wildest guess pans out then.

Good grief.

 

 

I made no judgement on why people would want to go there, simply why they might want to fly over Pyongyang.

Perhaps you should take your meds, it must be quite stressful if you bite like that over a simple answer.

 

Quote

Each year, over 2,500 people visit the country from the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries around the world.

 

 

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Chicog

There is no simple answer to this pisshole of a country.As for my meds,if you consider NK a tourist country,i will certainly share them with you.You obviously need them more than me.

And if you cannot make a judgement on people wanting to go there,then i suggest you keep abreast of the nuclear tests that the fat kid is carrying out.

[Chicog]

1 hour ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

Chicog

There is no simple answer to this pisshole of a country.As for my meds,if you consider NK a tourist country,i will certainly share them with you.You obviously need them more than me.

And if you cannot make a judgement on people wanting to go there,then i suggest you keep abreast of the nuclear tests that the fat kid is carrying out.

 

Would you please stop feebly trying to put words in my mouth.

I posted a bloody photograph.

In response to which you went off on a rant without me even saying anything!

It's a fact that there are tourists that want to go there.

Some of them might want to fly over the place.

Now I get that you think that's absurd, but it's not like I'm recommending they go is it?

Good grief.....

 

 

[mike324]

I would take a flight, the only thing stopping me is not knowing the conditions of the ultralight and experience of the pilot

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Chicog.

Lets end this here.We are not going to see eye to eye over this.

Anyway,ive got to go,ive got something that i'd rather be doing than arguing with you.I've got some paint that i want to watch drying.

Mee wan dee.

[anotheruser]

16 hours ago, Khon Kaen Dave said:

Chicog

There is no simple answer to this pisshole of a country.As for my meds,if you consider NK a tourist country,i will certainly share them with you.You obviously need them more than me.

And if you cannot make a judgement on people wanting to go there,then i suggest you keep abreast of the nuclear tests that the fat kid is carrying out.

 

The article is about ultralight trips in NK not anything else. It seems people do take these trips as they are there and on offer. There are many bad things about NK but this is simply about somebody offering ultralight trips there. Obviously your hatred of NK is so strong you can't appreciate a failry light hearted article for what it is. 

 

This topic isn't pretending to provide a simple answer to that "pisshole" of a country. It is simply reporting on ultralights and a new option for tourists who go there. 

 

good grief...

[Khon Kaen Dave]

anotheruser

I apologise for my lateness in replying to your words regarding NK,but i have been away for a few days.

Yes,my hatred for NK is beyond description.And i believe that other people are of the same mind.

This despot wants to test the rest  of humanity with nuclear threats.

i do not take that lightly.

I dont care what he does to try to improve tourism,he is threatening the pacific,an possibly the rest of the world with world war 3.

He is a tyrant of the most vile kind,his reign is of the dynasty type,which makes him believe that he actually owns the country and can do what he wants to his people.

There was a case of this in the uk some 400 years ago,and we executed the one who felt the same way.

I cannot seriously believe that people would want to go to a country that has this autocratic despot as a leader,and revel in the tourism dream.

I will never agree with any reasons for going there.

Therefore i think,as i said before that this topic to me is now at an end,and i have more interesting things,like watching paint drying,to argue the toss with anybody else.

I have my feelings on the subject,as obviously do you.

So now as we have been seeing on Thai Visa for the last week or so.

This topic is now closed to further comments.

 

[Chicog]

On 10/19/2016 at 7:45 AM, mike324 said:

I would take a flight, the only thing stopping me is not knowing the conditions of the ultralight and experience of the pilot

 

Good point, but I think they'd probably have all the resources they need under pain of death!