By Shangguan Qilin | AOPA-China | Updated: 2018-10-18

On 11^th of Oct, AOPA-China visited the head office of AOPA Korea in Rongji, a city near Seoul. The trip was very rewarding.

The representative, Claire Shangguan met Mr.LEE HaeWoon and Mr.HAN ManYop, who are the president and vice president of AOPA Korea, in their office, and introduced AOPA-China. They exchanged ideas of general aviation development in each country, how to provide services to members, and initiated some ideas of organizing fly-in in Korea or in China.

Difficulties in getting a flight plan approval in China still plague the private pilots,although the number is relatively small, who intend to fly recreationally. However, the private pilot in Korea will only need to wait for an hour for the processing of flight plan submitting and they can take off.

Mr. LEE mentioned although AOPA Korea is not active like AOPA US, they could guarantee the fly freedom of its members. The members can submit the flight plan and one hour later, the member is ready to go.

There are all together 10 airports for them to fly all over South Korea. Pilots communicate with the ATC in English, which is the first foreign language in Korea.

The president has travelled in his own plane to many places, including Singapore, Manila, and Tokyo. He has just come back his trip from Philippines this September. He believes the future of general aviation in Korea as well as in China will be better and AOPA will continue to ensure the members’ freedom to fly.