FLYER Exhibitions
I think like most pilots when we get our pilots license we dream of flying to faraway exotic places for adventures, the reality of the situation is a £100 bacon butty or a hop over to L2K for some lunch once or twice a year. It was this reality that prompted me to find somewhere cool to fly to and really use my license. After a lot of research the out islands of the Bahamas were selected for a flying holiday.
I’d say only around 8 or so FBO’s in Florida allow flights to the Bahamas and only 3 allow it without an IR. A lot of them shy away from it because if the aircraft goes tech or the weather closes in it can be a little more costly and more hassle for them. After making a booking with Air America in Daytona beach their CFI left and my booking was cancelled 4 days before I was due to fly out! After many phone calls and lots of stress I managed to get an aircraft from Air Orlando based at Orlando executive. A 7 day rental with a 2hour per day minimum rental time. Worked out at around 164USD per hour including a fuel surcharge.
To be perfectly honest I thought I may have bitten off more than I could chew, I’d never flown in the US before, I wasn’t particularly current on C172s, complex procedures for getting in and out of the bahamas, and to top things off my initial rental company dropped me in it.
Converting from JAA to FAA , you need to pay the CAA 40 quid to release your data to the FAA , fill in a few forms from the FAA and tell them what flight office you want to use in the US. Once the paper work is done , make an appointment with the US flight office or examiner and off you go. The flight office in the US only process 2 foreign pilots a day , and they were full so I managed to meet with an examiner called Bob Hunt who did all of my paper work for 75USD. Once you have your temp license you then need to book a bi annual flight review with a flight school . The first hour we talked about the airspace and procedures , then the aircraft , then did a few circuits, looked at the local airspace etc.
I used Scott Koehnlein and David Sheltdon at Air Orlando and I was recommend them both , very friendly and professional instructors.
route by cosworth60, on Flickr
So after much stress and hassle we were finally on our way. I asked from flight following down the coast and over to Marsh harbour to celar customs and get some fuel. INSERT PIC
The first controller I spoke to asked for current course. So I said currently bithlow – to the coast , down to Palm beach then Marsh harbour. He asked again current course. What he wanted was my heading ! He then advised me about Bithlo towers , which I could see you can’t miss them . So the terminology and the fast pace took some getting used to. Flying down the coast I must have talked to at least 8 separate controllers , I’ve never changed frequencies so much in my life ! To be fiar its worth getting flight following from Palm Beach or miami for the water crossing but down the coast line was too much hassle. Flying at 6000 foot 10 mile vis , flat land , loads of airfields around its like an engine failure paradise, so the extra safety was a little more hassle than it was worth.
We landed at Marsh Harbour after around 2 hours 40 min flying , cleared customs , had lunch then set off on the second leg down to Stella Maris . Stella Maris really want to attract pilots and we got one free night plus a 300USD fuel rebate ! So for two people 4 nights it worked out at around 220GBP each including all meals !!
stella by cosworth60, on Flickr
The near by beach of Cape Santa Maria was amazing (INSERT PIC)
2 by cosworth60, on Flickr
The plan was then to fly over to Staniel Cay for 3 nights but on our final day at Stella Maris a really bad weather front came in and wasn’t due to move for another week. We made the decision to head back to florida as the weather was better and finish our holiday there. You need to depart the Bahamas from a Customs airport and I had selected Grand Bahama. The flight back was a nightmare , cloud base at 700-1000ft winds gusting 25knts. I’ve never done scud running before and it wasn’t a pleasant flight but at least there was literately nothing to hit if you do fly low.
On landing at Grand Bahama I decided to spend the night in the hope of a weather improvement. That improvement never came until 3 days later. 3 days in a rainy hotel on grand bahama is not much fun ! They normally have 315 days of sunshine a yr so I never really worried about the weather and we were very unlucky. Low cloud , strong winds and CB’s in the region is never a good mix , it doesn’t help much when your non pilot passenger puts you under pressure to get back but eventually the weather broke and we headed out to Palm Beach.
You need to re enter the US at your closest possible airport within so many miles, other wise it takes 6 weeks to get an overfly permit to land say back at Orlando. The customs people at palm processed us then we were on our way back to Orlando executive. This is a tricky little airport to get in and out of , I wasn’t used to the large expanses of multiple runways and taxi ways but luckily I didn’t mess up on anything.
1 by cosworth60, on Flickr
The last few days we spent in Tampa which for nightlife is pretty damm good , also a trip to Kennday space centre and got to see a rocket launch which was cool.
3 by cosworth60, on Flickr
rocket by cosworth60, on Flickr
Total trip cost came in at around £1500 which was flight out on thompson £350 , plane rental £650 each plus hotels. Not bad for a 2 week holiday. In hindsight I probably pushed myself a little bit too much and stressed out more than you should do on a holiday. I maybe could have done a little trip to Key West for a week first then another year do the big bahamas adventure.
I’ll definetly go back one day , probably stay on Abbaco then Staniel Cay. A massive amount of planning went into the trip and a big thanks to a lot of forumites who were a mine of useful information. It was certainly an adventure and I’m definitely a better pilot after it all. If you’re starting to loose interest in flying maybe after a few years of boring club flying then this is the sort of trip that would reignite your interest.
D.O.
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