Flying Stories! My First Bahamas Trip, Episode 2

Greetings!  I'll post the rest of the Bahamas trip here;  was going to split into three sections, but the third one wouldn't have any pictures, and it's just wrong for a flying story to not have pictures :)  
So get settled in, hope you enjoy..... Flowerpilot



The Bahamas Trip, Episode 2 - we begin in Key West....

Water, Water Everywhere

Well, Sunday morning arrived, nice and sunny, with a light breeze.  We checked to make sure we had everything ready; plane fueled (we were estimating a 2-hour flight), passports, and all of the paperwork we could fill out for entering the Bahamas ahead of time.  We took a few pictures of the field, including one of Jimmy Buffet’s seaplane (!), then took off. Miami guided us over Marathon, then direct to New Bight on Cat Island. 

  

We’d opted to cruise somewhere in the 7,000 foot range, and it was amazing to see the chain of the Keys from that height, with the one long bridge connecting them all.  Once we were told to proceed to New Bight, though, I watched as we turned to a heading of 086, and the islands got fewer and fewer, until they were out of range.  What replaced them was amazing; the clearest water I’ve ever seen!  You could see where the underwater shelved dropped off, with stark contrasts between aquamarine and deep blue; and, as far up as we were, you could still make out huge schools of fish and waves on the little dots of land here and there.    There were some clouds building up, and for a while we went up to 10,500 to stay out of their way.  The radios were interesting; the VFR charts for the area had lots of additional information about which air traffic facility was available at various altitudes – the lower altitudes were handled by Nassau, and the higher ones by Miami. 

En Route to the Bahamas

Western shore of Andros – all marshes

Bahamian Customs

After just over 2 hours of beautiful flying, we landed on runway 9 at New Bight (MYCB).  As an Airport of Entry, I expected some fairly formal-looking customs buildings and such.  Little did I realize how relaxed everything is in the Bahamas.  New Bight structures primarily consisted of one small, trailer- like building – one half was a door for the local ‘terminal’, the other was customs.  No fences or guard posts – just the one building. Walk in, present your entry papers, fill out a short immigration form, get a couple of stamps, and walk through the other side.  The process took all of about 5 minutes.  We got a cab to the resort, to meet up with our friends already at the Hawk’s Nest Resort on Cat Island. http://www.hawks-nest.com/

If the Hawk’s Nest runway were open, it would have been a great place to land – step off the runway, and you’re on the resort!  It’s a great little 10-room oasis on the southern portion of the island; very clean, quiet (TV and telephone only in the main lounge), and relaxing.  We spent Sunday and Monday night there; walking around the lower coast of the island, biking down the road (and across the closed runway) to the marina, snorkeling for sea sponges and shells, frolicking in those wonderfully warm Caribbean waters, and staying up way past our bedtime.

Plans Change – the Nassau Experience

Our trip was shortened by some bad news on the family front. Grant’s dad, Lee, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer earlier in the year, and had been admitted to a hospice the day before we left to get some pain under control.  We’d planned to visit him toward the end of the week, but Grant’s aunt Darlene called us Monday evening to tell us that things didn’t look good, and we should get there as soon as we could.  So, Grant and I headed back to Florida promptly Tuesday morning.  Jim, our companion pilot, had planned to return to Chicago later in the twin with the rest of the group, so it would just be the two of us to Palm Beach International, our chosen Airport of Entry.  New Bight doesn’t have fuel, so we decided to stop in Nassau (MYNN) before finishing the Caribbean crossing. 

The weather wasn’t bad, but we did learn about how helpful it can be to become familiar with the airport layout in advance.  We were instructed to report a right base for runway 9.  Turning base, I felt we hadn’t quite turned enough – the DG wasn’t quite showing us going North.  Oh well, probably the wind correction, I thought.  When we turned final, we saw what we lined up for – a Very Long and Wide Taxiway that was positioned about 20 degrees askew from Runway 9! We continued to turn, but the approach just wasn’t stabilized, so safety came first, and we executed a go-around.  Nassau was fairly busy, and the controller didn’t sound overly pleased when we called that, but I’m guessing she would have been a little more peeved having to fill out the paperwork required for an accident.

MillionAir at Nassau has a very nice facility, and they were great in getting us fueled and filed with all of the paperwork we would need to re-enter the US.  A few key things were:  making sure you put ADCUS in your DVFR flight plan (to advise U.S. Customs that you’re coming back in to the country), calling the Customs Office at that airport to let them know you’re coming, and when (don’t rely just on that acronym in your flight plan remarks), and knowing who to call before crossing the ADIZ (air defense identification zone).  You’re supposed to contact Miami Flight Service 15 minutes before you expect to cross the zone (although sometimes they don’t respond for a while), and receive a special squawk code.  That tells the approach towers that you’re ‘to be expected’, and keep them from sending out some F-16’s to be your newfound buddies (!)

Back to the U.S. – Can You Hear Me Now?

Taking off from Nassau, we had pretty clear skies.  We did have a couple of constraints keeping us going; the weather (we were strictly VFR now), and getting to the Customs Office at Palm Beach before they closed for the day.  We could have gone to a high altitude, but decided to enjoy the last of the ocean view.  We stayed well south of Freeport, although we could see Grand Bahama island off to the north.  Our view was mainly those beautiful blue waters, and little dots of rocks that would occasionally poke up.  For a while we were talking to Nassau departure, and keeping up on their radar.  After a while, their signal started to fizzle out, and we were on our own until we got within range of Miami Flight Service; we were to contact them 20 miles northwest of Bimini for our special squawk code.  It was beautiful, but very quiet out there.  As we got closer to the contact point, we tried making calls; no response.  I started to get a bit nervous; what if we couldn’t raise them?  (Now, I don’t mind checking out military planes, but seeing them at air shows is just fine by me….) All you can do is radio in every couple of minutes, and keep flying.  After a few more calls, we finally started to hear them – turns out they had been able to hear us for the last call or so, but we weren’t in range to get them.  We got our code, and proceeded in to Palm Beach International. 

When we landed, our first stop was U.S. Customs.  I’ll have to say that coming back through the U.S. was much more involved than the Bahamas, but it wasn’t too awful.  More forms, making sure the airplane had a radio license (need to get before you leave) and its U.S Customs sticker (we’d also requested that before we left, and it didn’t arrive in time, but we did have a receipt showing we’d ordered it, so that was acceptable), showing passports, filling out a duty form (nothing but polo shirts and sandals to declare; the sea sponge and shells didn’t count), and out the door.  We forgot to leave the plane doors unlocked so they could inspect it, but I guess the guard walked around the plane, looked through the windows, and saw what he needed to see. 

Family Matters

Once we were done with Customs, we taxied over to Galaxy Air, and secured the plane for the rest of the week.  Grant’s aunt Darlene picked us up, and we headed straight to the hospice.  The rest of the week was spent visiting Lee, and staying at Darlene’s place.  Grant’s younger brother flew in from Denver on Wednesday, and we got a few days to be a small family.  At one point, Lee indicated that some of the lights in the room were harsh on his eyes, so Grant offered his Hawk’s Nest cap to shield it - looked darned good.  By Thursday afternoon, we had all accepted that Lee wouldn’t be coming home with us.  We sat with him all day Friday, and returned Saturday morning.  Grant took a break to drop Eric off at the airport for the return flight to Denver, then came back.  Lee passed away peacefully that afternoon with us at his bedside, about the same time Eric’s plane was pushing back from the gate at FLL. 

It was unfortunate that our vacation was shorter than we planned, but I have to think there was a bigger plan that had us relatively close by at that time.  And we discovered that being a pilot is not only fun, but extremely useful; without the flexibility of flying ourselves, we would have been hard pressed to get back from a remote Bahamian island that soon.

Heading home… but not quite yet

Our original plan was to spend Sunday and Monday getting us and Whiskers back home, since we had to make some preparations to drive back for the funeral the following weekend.  However, on Sunday morning, there was a pesky weather system in South Florida, giving us nothing but wind, and MVFR and IFR conditions throughout most of the peninsula.  We kept looking for a break, but there was nothing to be had except for a couple of very uncomfortable hours spent scud-running.  We thought of the flying adage, “if three things go wrong in the air, get on the ground; if three things go wrong on the ground, don’t get in the air.”  The weather and our just-stabilizing emotional state made for two things wrong on the ground; we decided not to gamble on number three.  We scrapped plans to fly that day, and went out with Darlene for a lunch of enchiladas and margaritas. 

The Last Leg – November Chicago Weather, Anyone?

Monday’s weather was better; there were still clouds, but at 3500 feet AGL, with clearing.  It was still windy, but once we got into Southern Georgia, the air would smooth out.  We set out for the PBI early in the morning, got to the field about 6:30 am; it would be a long day of flying.  Things would have gone faster if they’d remembered to fuel us beforehand like we’d asked. Guess with all of those biz jets around, our 182 wasn’t quite as important to them.  But it sure looked good to me when they towed her up to the line.  We got settled in, and were soon cleared for takeoff on runway 9R.  Oh, and those big important bizjets?  Waiting for their IFR clearances as we took off J  We turned westbound, and headed up to 6,500 feet when we could for the trip back. 

Having flight following combined with filing a flight plan is a wonderful thing: Florida has a number of MOAs and other airspaces to watch, so we had planned a bit of a circuitous route to avoid them.  However, once we were on our way, the various control agencies were very helpful in allowing us to go direct when the MOAs were cold, keeping us apprised of other traffic in the area (it was pretty busy) and, learning to fly VFR in Chicago, hearing a phrase around Tampa I thought I’d never hear: “7111W, you are cleared through the Class Bravo airspace.”  (Yow!)  I also discovered the added benefit to having an ADF in the plane (hint: it’s not just for navigation J )

Our one planned stop was in Athens/Ben Epps airport in Athens, Georgia.  After about 4 hours of flying, we had a nice calm landing on a sunny, 3-knot wind fall day. AHN is a great GA airport, and the folks at the main FBO were very helpful in providing nearby lunch suggestions.  We had the use of the courtesy car for an hour  - the ubiquitous Crown Victoria, a former police car with the airport logo and many miles on it.  We drove in for a very good Cajun lunch, then back to AHN for the last leg.  Checking the weather ahead, we saw some high-level airmets for icing closer to Chicago, something we hadn’t had to think about in the 80-degree weather of the Bahamas.  So we made a special note to keep in touch with Flight Watch as we proceeded north, just to make sure.  Aside from the icing, we also needed to keep watch on the time; for both of us, our night currency had expired about 2 days ago, and while we would have been legal to still land right after sunset, we really wanted to get back to Clow before then.  (If you’ve ever flown into Clow at night, you know it’s not the easiest airport to see at that time.)  Once airborne, we used the GPS to estimate our arrival time:

ETA into 1C5:  4:15 pm central. 

Estimated time of sunset at 1C5: 4:30 pm. 

It would be close.

The winds were pretty mild at altitude, so while they didn’t help much, I’m glad they didn’t slow us down.  Grant flew this leg, while I kept track of the temps and ceilings by tuning into various ATIS reports along the way.  We were around Louisville, and while it wasn’t raining, we could see that the ceilings started to become more defined.  Around Indianapolis, they got a little lower.  At Kankakee, we were still around 6,000 feet or so, and it started to rain lightly.  Not a problem, except when the rain stopped running off the strut like it did before – a trace of rime ice at 5 degrees Celsius.  Remember the training: descended to 4,500, temp went back up to 7 Celsius, ice melts back to rain, filed a pirep with Kankakee flight watch, and on to Clow. 

We touched down 10 minutes before sunset – whew!  Taxied Whiskers over to her spot, shutdown, unloaded and secured her, gave her a few ‘great job’ pats on her nose, and dragged into the FBO to hand in the keys. 

It was quite an adventure: we’d flown about 2,700 nautical miles; landed at some great airports; saw some beautiful land and water scenery, gone through cold frost, warm sun, wind, rain and icing (usually a couple of these in a day), and were able to get where we needed to be when we needed to be there.  It will be a little while until we have a long flyout again (we have to pay down the bill from this one!), but short hops are rewarding too.  Although I would love to hear that “cleared through Class Bravo airspace” again sometime…..

Trip path: 1C5 – KCTY – KLAL – KEYW – MYCB – MYNN – KPBI – KAHN – 1C5