We had a fun start to the new year with some island hopping in the Caribbean! We started in BVI - Tortola, and then explored St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Anguilla and last but not least St. Barths was our final stop. It was a full afternoon of training with instructor Bruno. We did our ground school then went flying. Luckily for me the weather conditions on our day of training were great for learning this complex airport ...we did landings on both runways with approaches from every angle (RWY 10, RWY 28 Right approach and RWY 28 Left approach). We even did go around on every runway...which for runway 28 the go around point is quite far from the runway. It was a fun experience and I had a great time learning from Bruno who has over 10 year of experience flying in and out of St. Barths! |
I'm an avid Bahamas pilot as my boss has a boat which he has been moving around the islands of the Bahamas for the past few years. He decided to take the boat a little further down the island chain and we ended up flying to Dominican Republic! I had never been to DR before so I was excited to check out this country, and have a new flying experience. The flight was relatively easy...we had favorable tail winds so it was about 2.5hrs to our fuel stop in Exumas and then another 2 hours to our La Romana, DR. The employees at the FBO (Servair) at La Romana/Caso De Campo airport were amazing and extremely helpful. They assisted with all our paperwork, customs/immigration, flight planning, etc. I found it very cool that once we left Miami Center and checked in with Santo Domingo approach ...the controllers were speaking Spanish to the Spanish speaking aircraft! I'm looking forward to our next Republica Dominicana adventure! Weeepa! I just finished my Pilatus training with my company SIMCOM and now I'm officially a Legacy (Series 9 & 10) Pilatus pilot! The Pilatus has been one of my favorite airplanes for as long as I can remember and its been a real pleasure to finally be flying one and knowledgable about all the systems and specifics on this amazing airplane. I was fortunate enough to have my boss Tom (whom is our training center manager and Pilatus instructor and pilot since the origination of the PC12) work with me on much of my training. I also had a good amount of training from many of the other long time Pilatus SIMCOM instructors, they were all extremely knowledgable and helpful as well. As pilots in Florida it should almost be our responsibility to at least once fly to the Bahamas! Bimini is just 50NM off the coast of Florida and from Tampa in a Cirrus its just under 1.5hrs. Yes, thats right in under 1.5 hrs you can be in the Bahamas on your way to the beach to be sipping some Bahamian cocktails. Jake had gone through some Bahamas ground training with me and then we were off for a day trip/lunch to the Bahamas to run through all the procedures. This is a great way to go through the procedures for the first time while I assist with all the filing of flight plans, customs/immigration, paperwork etc. Jake decided he would like to fly to Marsh Harbor which is in the Abacos. We made this a quick day trip...KTPF-MYAM-KPBI-KTPF and now he is familiar and comfortable flying to the Bahamas! I'm a huge fan of Puerto Rico, and lucky for me my boss wanted to fly there in the Malibu! It was a very scenic flight; we departed Tampa and flew over the beautiful islands of the Bahamas and in approx. 3.5hrs we were in the Turks and Caicos for a fuel stop and to stretch our legs. We made a quick-turn then headed for our final destination on the east side of Puerto Rico in a city called Ceiba. The airport name is Jose Aponte de la Torre, there was a good amount of traffic as this is an airport which provides services to some of the adjacent islands just as Vieques. After we landed and cleared customs I was off for another adventure in Puerto Rico...lots of salsa dancing and practicing my Spanish! Well...little ole' Peter O Knight Airport had quite an exciting day! My passengers had just arrived for our trip, upon walking outside I noticed a couple people with their phones taking pictures...I looked to my left at the runway and a mammoth C17 Globemaster was just about touching down! It landed on runway 22...and was careening down the runway...we all followed to see where it would stop and it came to a halt just a few feet short of the end of the runway. After waiting 5-10 minutes with the airplane just sitting on the end of the runway we figured they would shut down...to our dismay it started reversing back to the approach end of runway 22. Due to the size and turn radius of the C17 it was unable to use our taxiways or turn around on the runway. Next, we watched in anticipation of it taking off. The Globemaster rested at what appeared to be the end of the runway and time passed by, but eventually the engines were shut down. The unfortunate thing was that the C17 wasn't actually at the end of the runway, rather blocking both runways (4/22 and 18/36) thus the airport was closed until further notice. Next we waited...and a convoy of trucks, vans, etc came from MacDill to pick up the passengers and baggage. Once that was complete the crew was taken off the airplane and transported away in a couple of busses...long day for them to say the least! Eventually, another van showed up with the new crew and mechanics and they started to get to work. Just after 8pm the airplane went in reverse again and moved to the end of runway 22. A few more minutes went by and then we heard the engines spooling up to full power...the water behind the airplane in the channel was spewing all over! Then it started rolling, the C17 picked up speed and lifted off approximately 3/4 of the way down the runway with plenty of runway to spare; it had very impressive climb performance too as it took off into the sunset...with cheers of our pilot friends and fellow residents! Lessons learned: Peter O Knight and MacDill AFB have a similar appearance from the air...only thing is we are about a third of their size! However, its not the first time that pilots have got the two airports confused; there have been past instances of general aviation landing at MacDill and government airplanes landing at Peter O Knight. Make sure to do your flight planning and if in question ask air traffic control for guidance...its always easier to ask a question then deal with the unfavorable repercussions afterwards. *Check out the videos on www.klaveuno.com Okay, so my boss keeps moving that darn boat!! Unfortunately for me that means that I have to check out more of the islands along the island chain of the Eastern Caribbean...I know things are rough! They had decided to vacation in the Turks and Caicos, so I had a few flights to the destination. Overall, flight was quite easy...just under 4hrs of flight time direct from Tampa. I was in contact with Miami Center for the majority of the time, eventually they switched me over to Provo Appch...and then to tower. The Provo Air Center was very helpful, and they suggest that you email them your flight info before you fly in...they ended up having all our paperwork basically completed so we could clear customs in a timely manner. Make sure you are aware of all the fee's...that is one of the drawbacks...it adds up quickly! |
Events...I wanted to add some "real-time" info on my website about what I was up to and where I'm flying...Enjoy! Archives
June 2020
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