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Aircraft rental in Florida (and Bahamas)


Ibra

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Hello Mooniacs,

Me and wife are planing vacation in Florida & Bahamas next year in January or March and I am looking to fit some private flying (ideally rent an aircraft for one week to fly it around Florida with few days to Bahamas) 

Unfortunately, it is too far and crazy to try crossing the Atlantic in the winter on my Mooney from the UK, maybe when we fit a twin jet engine to the M20J :D, so I will be looking to rent an aircraft for one week (C172/PA28 probably as no one on earth will rent his Mooney :P)

I am familiar with flying in the US (NYC & LA areas) but this time I am looking to try a foreign trip to the Bahamas,

I hold a UK PPL (with instrument/instructor ratings) but unfortunately my FAA PPL is VFR only, did anyone had any luck renting in Florida for foreign trips VFR? how is the weather on January vs March?

Anyone who flies around the FL area have some FBO/School rental contacts? or some tips if they have done the trip VFR?

We are planning to be around Jan16 to Jan26 and Mar15 to Mar28,

Thanks a lot,

Ibra

 

 

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Thanks mike, it will be a long shot to get that M20E, so I more than happy to take a familiar school type now (slow is better for flying over Bahamas and in the busy FL airspace trying to get sense of the RT :D

Dave, we will be flying to Orlando from NYC but I have a car to wonder around down to Miami along the beach, the plan is to fly to Key West/National park before a water crossing for 3 days in Bahamas and back to Orlando,

Insurance, I understand guys renting in Florida will have this covered for aircraft they rent for trips to Bahamas (but yes, a C182 I used to rent in NYC area did not have that insurnace and I am not sure about its N-tail number dimensions :rolleyes: otherwise I would have gone for that easy option)

 

Thanks tmo for that one will check with them !

 

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5 minutes ago, Ibra said:

Thanks mike, it will be a long shot to get that M20E, so I more than happy to take a familiar school type now (slow is better for flying over Bahamas and in the busy FL airspace trying to get sense of the RT :D

Dave, we will be flying to Orlando from NYC but I have a car to wonder around down to Miami along the beach, the plan is to fly to Key West/National park before a water crossing for 3 days in Bahamas and back to Orlando,

Insurance, I understand guys renting in Florida will have this covered for aircraft they rent for trips to Bahamas (but yes, a C182 I used to rent in NYC area did not have that insurnace and I am not sure about its N-tail number dimensions :rolleyes: otherwise I would have gone for that easy option)

 

Thanks tmo for that one will check with them !

 

Sounds good, if you are going to be in the Miami area I used to rent an archer from Pilot Training Center in KTMB.  Unless it’s changed the price isn’t too bad and it’s a 2007 with A/C, 530/430 for about $170?/hr.  It’s usually available since most students don’t rent that plane.

not Mooney speeds but better than most beat up 172s for rent here in south Florida!

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IIRC a lot of places wouldn't rent their planes if you don't have a FAA pilot licence so you might want to check for that.

Also, years ago (early 2000s) there's was an accident in a rental plane over Bahamas that flew into cell and crashed and all S. Florida school's insurance changed and required IR. I am not sure if that ever got changed.

Good luck.

 

5 hours ago, Ibra said:

Thanks a lot flyboy, some looks neat but they have the wings in the wrong place (wife prefers sitting on wings than hanged to them) but I will check with them for that nice Archer :)

 

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Yes, I have an FAA VFR PPL(under 14.cfr.61.75) with current BFR that I use to fly an N-registred M20J outside the UK, some rentals are happy with this but their insurers ask for +300hTT hours without an FAA IR

I will be flying visual down there and I plan to keep well away from any convective weather, after all we want to enjoy scenary from the air at slow speeds rather than commuting there quickly or stuck above clouds (got an IR valid on UK aircrafts but still not valid for flying in caribbean cells neither :D)

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3 hours ago, Ibra said:

Yes, I have an FAA VFR PPL(under 14.cfr.61.75) with current BFR that I use to fly an N-registred M20J outside the UK, some rentals are happy with this but their insurers ask for +300hTT hours without an FAA IR

I will be flying visual down there and I plan to keep well away from any convective weather, after all we want to enjoy scenary from the air at slow speeds rather than commuting there quickly or stuck above clouds (got an IR valid on UK aircrafts but still not valid for flying in caribbean cells neither :D)

The good news here in south Florida is that in the rare occasions it’s IFR, you’re not going to want to fly to the beach anyway!

Unlike a lot of other parts of the country we need to do a rain dance to get actual IMC to do practice approaches without the hood.  Except for rare occasions, most of our IMC is in or around thunderstorms which of course no one can fly through.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi all, I hope everybody had a nice xmas & nye, I got my trip confirmed, both my US work boss & my wife home boss are happy for me to have flying vacation in mid-January :)


I got a C177RG Cardinal rental sorted near Orlando, I never flown one before but looks like a familiar mix of PA18 & M20J: shame it is high wing and no tail wheel and shame it is tri-cyle gear but no low wings :lol:


I am looking for few places to tick in Florida and Bahamas between Jan18 and Jan25, any tips?

Route: we are looking along Pompano Beach, Ft Lauderd, Freeport, Nasseau, Cat Island, (Maybe a quick Turks & Caicos), Exumas, Miami, Orlando


I am mainly looking for nice airports to visit with a quick walk to nearby towns or things to do (my wife can't fly more than 1h30 and can't walk that much neither :D)   

Also, what do people use as EFB for flight planning in FL? I heard Fore Flight, is database good and accurate for Bahamas?

Finally, is it easy and hassle free to visit few tourist attractions in FL by air: Everglades Park, Kennedy Space Center, Universal Studios... by air? or we just leave those to car drive

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2 hours ago, Ibra said:

I got a C177RG Cardinal rental sorted near Orlando, I never flown one before but looks like a familiar mix of PA18 & M20J: shame it is high wing and no tail wheel and shame it is tri-cyle gear but no low wings :lol:

With around 300 different registration numbers covering about 30 different types in my logbook, I can honestly tell you none of them have been a shame to fly. ;) 

Edited by midlifeflyer
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Good then, never been ashamed to fly anything (airtime is airtime, it brings joy including on a wind kite :)), the remark is to remind myself to bring gear down before landing as the Mooney and not to 3-point it during the landing as the Cub

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks a lot @Deb & David for the catchup and thw flying tips, it was nice to see you guys, we had a great time at KFXE, we made it today to NASSAU, plan tomorrow to Staniel Cay and Cat Island, and to be continued...

Ps: Dave managed to nail down those departure/route frequencies, so I think he is now ready for a solo nav and he deserves a dinner :D

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Whenever we fly together David correctly guesses the departure and all enroute frequencies 90% of the time (ok maybe just departure).

P.S. very nice of Cessna to put that mirror on the wing, I assume to make sure you have nothing stuck in your teeth...

Edited by Davidv
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On 1/20/2020 at 7:51 AM, Davidv said:

P.S. very nice of Cessna to put that mirror on the wing, I assume to make sure you have nothing stuck in your teeth...

Actually, it turns out that mirror is far useful than for me checking our teeth or make up, the gear failed to retract halfway along the trip and electric indication was U/S, so we had to pump and look to that mirror to check, for someone used to the M20J with at 8.7G/h in the M20J flying at 100kts while burning 10G/h in a complex C172 that flips on a water ditchea was a torture :angry:

Luckily the view down the road in Florida & Bahams was super nice to see at those speeds 

I will write a trip report on MS when back to the UK for winter and many thanks to Deb & 2*Dave's!

 

 

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Edited by Ibra
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  • 1 year later...

Did you see the pigs at Staniel? They swim up to the boat, this one wanted pizza.

right next door at Compass Kay you can swim with and feed the Nurse sharks in the Marina, compass also has a runway I think but a water taxi from Staniel is easy too.

We cruised the area extensively on our sail boat for three years

 

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Oh and it’s been a long time since we dove there, but the Riding Rock Inn has world class diving, I mean especially the wall diving is among the best in the world.

Small 6 pack boats usually with just 4 or 5 divers and two dive Masters, no Cattle Boats, there is a French Resort there with Cattle boats if that’s you thing.

‘San Salvador is of course the Island Christopher Columbus first landed at, it’s definitely an out island, the Resort wasn’t quite as nice as the pictures, but it was clean and good food, but it’s the diving that you’ll remember forever. The runway is huge, 737’s come in and out ferrying people to the French Resort I think.

https://ridingrock.com

Edited by A64Pilot
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17 hours ago, A64Pilot said:

Did you see the pigs at Staniel? They swim up to the boat, this one wanted pizza.

right next door at Compass Kay you can swim with and feed the Nurse sharks in the Marina, compass also has a runway I think but a water taxi from Staniel is easy too.

We cruised the area extensively on our sail boat for three years

That sounds like a really good adventure, the place is certainly a sailing heaven and needs 3 years trip, I will keep riding rock resort in mind for another time, thanks for the suggestion !

We saw the swimming pigs, not sure how you managed to order that Pizza :lol: 

We missed them on arrival in out leg, it was windy and pigs were in shelters (no boat was going on water that day, while eating our desserts at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club restaurant, two coast guards showed on our table and asked if we are the aircrew who landed earlier and joked they will not come to rescue if we ditch in rough sea :ph34r:, we had difficulty digesting our deserts, on the ground: scary & the air: bumpy), but we saw the pigs on the way back

Edited by Ibra
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