201er's Caribbean Adventure #3: Cuba

[XXX]

Mike, your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to fly your Mooney to North Korea. Your contact there will identify the target. Of course if you are caught, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions.

This i-pad will self destruct in 5 seconds. 

[XXX]

Just now, Hyett6420 said:

Doesn't he use his Parrots to communicate with head office?

I think it is the parrots that do the dirty work. If you know what I mean. Highly trained.

[flyboy0681]

9 hours ago, Piloto said:

Airplane engines do not need battery to keep running. He would had made it to Florida. I had same experience 250nm SE of St. John's CYYT.

José

Even though the engine would continue to run, I don't think there is a single person here who would feel at ease flying in complete darkness over open water without power, even if they are well prepared with flashlights up the wazoo. I've lost an alternator on a beautiful VFR day and was a little freaked out.

[201er]

Saturday, November 18, 2016 was the 2nd day of the Cuba flying adventure. We came to the airport at Santiago de Cuba and were met with bureaucracy like I've never seen. They could not fathom the idea of someone boarding an airplane without a boarding pass so they wrote our names by hand onto blank ones. We had to go through security even though we were the only non-personnel at the entire airport.

It took hours before we could depart. It took about 30 minutes to get a flight plan filed. I had to walk to the flight planning office. I had a printed copy that I had prepared from flightaware back home. They made me rewrite it onto their paper one by hand. Then the guy sat there entering it into the computer with one finger at a time. I was tempted to push him off the computer and type it in myself. When he couldn't understand my hand writing, he would look at my printed flight plan instead! Given that it gets typed into a computer, it's crazy that he couldn't just take mine in the first place.

On the wall they had a chart of cuba with pins/strings denoting routes. The flight plan filer checked my route on his wall chart but was having trouble finding things so I just showed him on the ipad instead.

The bureaucracy did not end here. Preparing the bill took the longest time. Unlike other Caribbean destinations where they pull a price out of their behind, they had every fee charted to the cent. Landing fee, ramp fee, security fee, departure fee, air traffic control fee, etc etc. Nobody prepares paperwork in advance. You just have to sit and wait for them to figure it all out. They made 6 copies of the bill and I had to sign each one. Cash is the only form of payment and it has to be in CUC. The exchange office was closed so it took a lot of negotiating to get them to finally agree to take dollars corrected for their inflated currency and that they would get it changed after the lunch break. We were finally able to depart.

The flight was pretty straight forward. IFR departure, climb over the deck, one or two fixes and then direct. Took just a little over 2 hours. The clouds were breaking up near Trinidad so I requested the visual approach while monitoring the NDB approach via GPS. Trinidad airport was a huge relief. Just one or two people on staff, spoke English, no procedures to waste time on.

Trinidad is a more rustic town. Colonial architecture and old cars go together. The town is littered with tourists. We visited a sugar plantation outside of town and walked to the adjacent village. Some scenes of rural Cuba and experiencing Trinidad (Cuba) in the video:

 

 

[flyboy0681]

16 minutes ago, 201er said:

Trinidad is a more rustic town. Colonial architecture and old cars go together. The town is littered with tourists. We visited a sugar plantation outside of town and walked to the adjacent village. Some scenes of rural Cuba and experiencing Trinidad (Cuba) in the video:
 

Excellent footage. Just wish you had ATC piped into the video, would have been interesting to hear their controllers.

Did I notice a new interior?

Edited November 29, 2016 by flyboy0681

[thinwing]

6 hours ago, cnoe said:

But then again I camped right next to Mike at Oshkosh and I swear I heard him and the Mrs. talking in their tent with a British accent so may be 5 operatives. I also think he had nightmares as I awoke one night to screams of AOA AOA coming from his tent.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yikes ..are you thinking what I'm thinking??Exactly who was screaming "angle of attack","angle of attack"!

[Wakeup]

Big Question??  Where's the wife???  

[bradp]

Castro dies of parotitis.

No wife.  

Just two men in the plane. 

Fishy indeed.  

[thinwing]

39 minutes ago, bradp said:

Castro dies of parotitis.

No wife.  

Just two men in the plane. 

Fishy indeed.  

You mean somebody slipped him an exploding parrot!

[XXX]

Actually a stealth, ninja parrot. Much like this one...

 

[thinwing]

3 minutes ago, Chupacabra said:

Actually a stealth, ninja parrot. Much like this one...

 

Music critic

[thinwing]

7 minutes ago, Hyett6420 said:

Nope that parrots squawked AOA AOA AOA and he died of shock. 

Talking of parrots why is a squawk code called as such?  

It comes from your raf during ww2...a spitfires primitive transponder was called a parrot (code name)in use ,pilots were requested to squawk your parrot

[Andy95W]

50 minutes ago, Chupacabra said:

Actually a stealth, ninja parrot. Much like this one...

 

The violinist had it coming.

[Guest]

14 hours ago, Hyett6420 said:

Is it just me or did anyone else notice that Mike went to Cuba and then Castro died.  Hmmm can we start the conspiracy theories please.   Just remind me never to invite Mike to my house.   

Maybe Mike is a body double for a new younger Fidel, he has the hat and beard already.

Clarence

[Piloto]

Mike on your dealings with the Cuban authorities was this in Spanish or English?. They may charge you extra for a Spanish translator. I assume you paid in cash US dollars and got your change back in pesos. I had similar experience in Spain and Latin America. You have to have your paper work stamped (after you pay) by several officers. And officers go on siesta time at noon, so avoid departing or arriving at noon.

José

Edited November 30, 2016 by Piloto

[flyboy0681]

25 minutes ago, Hyett6420 said:

Oh Spain, boy is that a pain in the ass to fly in. Fuel at San Sebastián no problem.  GuardIa Civil almost took the plane apart looking for contraband.  Vigo oh NEVER flying there again. No-one accepted cards only euros cash.  Fuel man demanded a National Finance number (Uk doesn't have them). So having descended fuel and received cash for it would. It let aircraft go until we could produce one. Eventually I pulled rank and He let us go. Air traffic wanted everything filled in On their forms not standard flight plan forms.  Then these were used for access to the aircraft via security.  Fortunately I speak fluent Spanish. My mate however went for a pee and got stuck passenger side and could t get back. Had to go and rescue him. Not an easy place.  I am in contact with EASA about them though.  

I must say that I really enjoy reading your postings about flying around the UK and Europe. It's a real eye opener on how not to be GA friendly.

[Piloto]

On some countries it helps bringing souvenirs for the Customs officers children. 25 years ago I remember that at Don Torcuato, Argentina (SADD) they had a glass donation box for the retired Customs officers. I put in $10 and that expedited the whole Customs process. It helps speaking in Spanish with the officers. 

On the other side when I landed at Exeter, England (EGTE) coming from Reykjavik (BIRK) the ground controller guided me to the FBO directly. To my surprise no Customs or airport fees collectors came to collect landing fees or ask for passport. Just an old friendly guy offering assistance with my luggage. My US passport never got an entry stamp and that worried me for departure, but no problem at Heathrow airport on my way back home.

José 

[201er]

1 hour ago, Piloto said:

Mike on your dealings with the Cuban authorities was this in Spanish or English?. They may charge you extra for a Spanish translator. I assume you paid in cash US dollars and got your change back in pesos. I had similar experience in Spain and Latin America. You have to have your paper work stamped (after you pay) by several officers. And officers go on siesta time at noon, so avoid departing or arriving at noon.

José

Mostly English, some broken Spanish. At minimum the tower controller at every airport spoke English so we got by. You have to pay in CUC currency everywhere which is the same rate as the US dollar except you have to pay a 15% exchange tax fee.

[flyboy0681]

Just now, Hyett6420 said:

You REALLY must visit soon.  Ill take you for a few trips.  Mike at my local tower is legendary around the hole of the UK for being an arse.    "Why have you don't that, I TOLD YOU..........."etc    a few chocolates and he calms down. 

I'll be coming to the UK sometime in 2017 and will take you up on your offer.

[flyboy0681]

Just now, Hyett6420 said:

whatever you do, avoid August as I will be lying on a beach in the South of France.  You are welcome to join me there if you wish but bear in mind it is the south of France   

Nothing to worry about, I don't do my overseas trips during August.

[thinwing]

Once I lost an alternator over the Sea of Cortez while enroute Loreto Mexico.Its a geared alt so when it fails ,the worry is that it will shed parts into the crankcase of the continental io 520... so since I was only 40 out ,I shut down that engine and proceeded to land .A week later ,I flew back with a friend with a new alternator and borrowed some tools and installed it myself.Than ,when we both appeared before airport commandant ,he grabs both of our pass ports and announces " you are going to prison!"Yikes ,now what ,I'm thinking....anyway he says we were guilty of installing the alternator without using a Mexican mechanic.My friend was guilty of an illegal charter operation and importing aircraft parts illegally.In cases like this,rather than raising a stink,I fall back on my standard "how much I love and admire the Mexican people and would never intentionally violate their laws "speech.I ask him "how might I make amends?".He gets this crafty look on his face (think mordida")reaches for his 1968 calculator...."beep boop book beep beep...says something like umpteen thousands pesos or jail time.Asking for his calculator and figuring actual exchange rate at a 100 to 1 I agree to 123 dollar fine for me and 112 fine for my part smuggling buddy.Why,hell !,I think it would have cost me three times that just to fly the Mexican AP from the mainland to Baja!Anyway ..we waste no time firing up and heading for home.My mechanic later tells me....if you had a failed alt?Why didn't you simply unbolt it,remove the drive dog from its shaft so it couldn't spin and throw parts..than bolt it back on the case to cover the hole in the case ,and moter home on the good one??Duuuhhhh!..live and learn I guess!...PS years later ,I read how the Commandant of Loreto airport had been arrested,transported in chains to Mexico City to face corruption charges for secretly pocketing all the fines he had collected over the years .Wonder how he is enjoying prison?  

[flyboy0681]

Just now, thinwing said:

Once I lost an alternator over the Sea of Cortez while enroute Loreto Mexico.

Can't wait for that wall to be built.

 

[kortopates]

Just now, thinwing said:

Once I lost an alternator over the Sea of Cortez while enroute Loreto Mexico.

Too funny - except that its for real so my sympathy's in having to deal with the jerk. Yep, he got what he finally deserved. But the crazy thing is that a Mexican A&P is not licensed to work on an N registered aircraft. I am sure he/they know that too. We only have reciprocity rules with Canada (not counting annuals). That said there are FAA licensed A&P's in Mexico but I doubt you would have found one in baja - but I am not sure. Probably easier to bring one down from the US. I wonder how far he would have pushed it if you called his bluff,

Luckily I've never had an issue with many trips to Loreto.

[thinwing]

Well ,he had our passports,and acted real mean and nasty...plus the spending the night in a roach infested jail cell didn't excite..

[Marcopolo]

 

16 hours ago, thinwing said:

 

Once I lost an alternator over the Sea of Cortez while enroute Loreto Mexico

 

Is it bad that I want to have cool stories like this....with good outcomes of course?

 

Ron