Entering the country illegally at KEYW

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ArrowFlyer86

ArrowFlyer86

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The Little Arrow That Could
There's the time honored tradition of taking a boat over, and then there's arriving in style.

I have to be honest, as a fellow aviator and one that doesn't have the balls to cross the ocean on a jerry-rigged hang-glider, I'd personally be more inclined to buy these guys a beer than detain them.
 
Feet dry, no return. If a Cuban makes it to U.S. land they are permitted to stay. I do not believe this applies to possessions or territories so the entire empire is not open to them. Just the 50 states.
 
I read the article, but everything I've heard and seen about modern Cuba indicates that it isn't the third world country it used to be. Every other country in the world does business with it and travels there freely, just not us.

I mean no offense to our Cuban nationals that have immigrated to the US, but there was a time when Castro loaded all the criminals in to boats and pointed them to Florida. I'm just saying, there might be a little more to the story than what was published.
 
I wonder how they navigated in that powered hang glider. Key West isn't that big ... if they missed it, and ran out of fuel in the middle of the ocean, that would have been a bad day.
 
Can they log it?
Should they file a NASA ASRS report?
 
I think we should let them stay, just so they can relate the story of how they got here to their kids. The people who risked everything they had to get here are what drives the country in a positive direction.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I read the article, but everything I've heard and seen about modern Cuba indicates that it isn't the third world country it used to be. Every other country in the world does business with it and travels there freely, just not us.
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Reading what the Castro government puts out. Lots of folks in jail for merely disagree with the Govt. Read about the Ladies in White for one example.
 
Hang 4 said:
Reading what the Castro government puts out. Lots of folks in jail for merely disagree with the Govt. Read about the Ladies in White for one example.
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That would never happen here.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
I have to be honest, as a fellow aviator and one that doesn't have the balls to cross the ocean on a jerry-rigged hang-glider, I'd personally be more inclined to buy these guys a beer than detain them.
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Looks like took a standard Polaris flying inflatable boat, removed the hull, and added a homemade landing gear and an extra gas tank. Not a terribly risky flight, they're just lucky they got off the ground before the landing gear failed.

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NoHeat said:
I wonder how they navigated in that powered hang glider. Key West isn't that big ... if they missed it, and ran out of fuel in the middle of the ocean, that would have been a bad day.
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Having flown a piston single over Cuba to KEYW, the flight is no difficult and requires minimal navigation.
 
Having flown a piston single over Cuba to KEYW. It is not difficult. Heading 360 from the coast line north of Matanzas and your will see Key West in about 90 minutes at 55 kts. With a 180 wind, they were within range.
 
Clip4 said:
Having flown a piston single over Cuba to KEYW. It is not difficult. Heading 360 from the coast line north of Matanzas and your will see Key West in about 90 minutes at 55 kts. With a 180 wind, they were within range.
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To me it's less a question of "difficulty" and more a question of: "do I trust my life to this rickety piece of shi* and do I trust my cheap smartphone for navigation". The downside of mechanical failure is severe. The downside of navigating wrong is severe. Just a hair too far west and you're in trouble.

Frankly I would love to know what altitude they decided to cruise at. Something tells me they didn't take it up to 5, 7, 10k feet... If they're cruising 500-1500 ft or so they don't have a great birds eye view for navigation! Assuming that thing cruises at 40 knots or so (IDK?) I'd start to **** my pants around 1-2 hours in if I didn't see land.
 
Dead reckoning with visual sight of the sun or moon will get you from Cuba to Florida.
 
Arnold said:
Feet dry, no return. If a Cuban makes it to U.S. land they are permitted to stay. I do not believe this applies to possessions or territories so the entire empire is not open to them. Just the 50 states.
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That policy changed in 2017.
 
ArrowFlyer86 said:
To me it's less a question of "difficulty" and more a question of: "do I trust my life to this rickety piece of shi* and do I trust my cheap smartphone for navigation". The downside of mechanical failure is severe. The downside of navigating wrong is severe. Just a hair too far west and you're in trouble.
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Other than maybe the homemade landing gear, it doesn't look like a "rickety POS" but a commercially produced microlight with a good reputation. Yes, the downside to a mechanical failure is severe, but the Rotax engines used on those things are pretty reliable if properly maintained.

As for navigating you simply keep a little to the east and you'll hit land somewhere, and an aircraft like that doesn't need much runway. And depending on altitude, you'll see the destination from a good ways out.
 
If the motor quit, they would’ve landed in warm, calm water with lots of boat and air traffic.
 
Dana said:
but the Rotax engines used on those things are pretty reliable if properly maintained.
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Might depend which ones they are. A 912? Pretty solid engine. A 503? Not so.

The manufacturer acknowledges the design limitations of this engine, warning pilots:[1]

"This engine, by its design, is subject to sudden stoppage. Engine stoppage can result in crash landings, forced landings or no power landings. Such crash landings can lead to serious bodily injury or death...This is not a certificated aircraft engine. It has not received any safety or durability testing, and conforms to no aircraft standards. It is for use in experimental, uncertificated aircraft and vehicles only in which an engine failure will not compromise safety. User assumes all risk of use, and acknowledges by his use that he knows this engine is subject to sudden stoppage...Never fly the aircraft equipped with this engine at locations, airspeeds, altitudes, or other circumstances from which a successful no-power landing cannot be made, after sudden engine stoppage. Aircraft equipped with this engine must only fly in DAYLIGHT VFR conditions."[1]
 
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