Flying the Caribbean (Part 3) - Eastbound USA -- How do you divvy up multi-day trips?

wayneda40

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Jul 31, 2017
Messages
613
Display Name

Display name:
waynemcc

We're departing California for the Caribbean! Despite timing our departure to travel between weather fronts, challenges nevertheless await...

How do you divvy up multi-day trips? Have you crossed the USA coast to coast? How many days did you plan? Flying hours per day? What worked for you and what didn't?

A weather system strengthened over central Texas... what tools do you use for go/no-go decisions? What options do you prepare as possible bail outs?

Thoughts, questions, and suggestions? I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for your insight and enjoy the video!
Wayne, the GeezerGeek Pilot
 
Just flew from Colorado to Puerto Rico a couple of weeks ago. It’s an epic and beautiful trip. Have fun!
What airplane did you end up buying? Still living in PR or did you move back to the states?
 
Just flew from Colorado to Puerto Rico a couple of weeks ago. It’s an epic and beautiful trip. Have fun!
Thanks, we overflew Puerto Rico both outbound and on the return, but only had time to visit Turks & Caicos, BVI, Dominica, Nevis, Dominican Republic, and the Exumas/Bahamas. As you point out, certainly epic and beautiful!
Thanks,
Wayne
 
Did I hear correctly that the first leg was at 15.5? Impressive. What is the climb like getting there? BTW, forgot to say that I am jealous<G>.
 
Did I hear correctly that the first leg was at 15.5? Impressive. What is the climb like getting there? BTW, forgot to say that I am jealous<G>.

Yes, we crossed the High Sierra a something above 15,500'. The stock DA40 has a service ceiling of ~16,000', but last summer I installed a Supercharger in my DA40 and have since had her up to FL210 (although the sweet spot for cruise TAS is 10,000' to 16,000').

Thanks for checking out the video. Just returned from the successful adventure. Upcoming episodes cover our stops in the Turks & Caicos, BVI, Dominica, Nevis, Dominican Republic, and the Exumas/Bahamas.

Wayne
 

We're departing California for the Caribbean! Despite timing our departure to travel between weather fronts, challenges nevertheless await...

How do you divvy up multi-day trips? Have you crossed the USA coast to coast? How many days did you plan? Flying hours per day? What worked for you and what didn't?

A weather system strengthened over central Texas... what tools do you use for go/no-go decisions? What options do you prepare as possible bail outs?

Thoughts, questions, and suggestions? I'd love to hear from you.
Thanks for your insight and enjoy the video!
Wayne, the GeezerGeek Pilot
Very cool, great video.
 
I am looking forward to the trip into the Caribbean with interest, especially info on CARICOM if you got that far south.
Jim, we indeed made it into the Caricom countries... Nevis and Dominica (plus Caricom associate BVI). Even gladly contributed some Eastern Caribbean dollars to the economies... and sampled the local beers (Carib Stag in Nevis, Kubuli in Dominica).
 
Jim, yes, for all but the Bahamas we used pre-filled out paper standard General Dec forms. A couple countries (e.g. BVI) required Date of Birth and Passport Numbers to be added to the form. We also submitted online CARICOM manifests, but never got any email or in-person acknowledgement that they were received.

For the Bahamas, we used FlashPass for eAPIS (US and Bahamas).
 
Back
Top