Katamarino
Pattern Altitude
I'd always been vaguely interested in flying out to Bermuda, but this is made challenging by the fact that there is no Avgas available on the island. Indeed, the Bermuda AIP specifically forbids Avgas from being stored or dispensed on the island's only airport. That means that any lowly piston-engine pilot visiting needs to be able to carry enough fuel for the 1,200nm round trip plus reserves; not an option for most light aircraft.
I am lucky enough however to have a very long fuel range, as a result of the ferry system engineered and installed for the round the world flight. As my worldwide insurance was still active until October, my friend Shane and I decided that it was time to visit Bermuda.
A second challenge for most light aircraft is that HF radio is mandatory for the flight across. My system had been uninstalled and returned to the owner who'd lent it to me. If you don't ask you don't get, however, so I contacted New York Center (this is the ATC facility that controls the oceanic airspace to Bermuda) and requested a waiver from the requirement. With very little hassle, this was granted and we were good to go.
It was to be a fairly short visit, heading outbound from base on a Thursday afternoon and returning Sunday night. We set out a little after 4pm on the Thursday to fly as far as the coast, staging for the crossing the next morning. We finally arrived at Currituck County KONX at 4am local time and grabbed a few hours sleep in a local hotel before returning to the airport a little after 8am and fueling up with a total of 180 gallons of Avgas.
The flight crew.
The sun sets on the way across the southern US.
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We took off just after 9am and struck out through the warning areas off the coast, IFR under the control of the "Giant Killer" military controller. We were in cloud and light rain most of the time, with strong head winds as a result of the approaching Tropical Storm Ophelia which was sitting just to the south. At times we saw ground speeds of less than 80kts in the cruise which was, frankly, painful.
Coasting out from North Carolina.
After about 4 hours the weather finally started to improve a little, with VMC conditions and gradually decreasing headwinds. A couple of times we were contacted on 121.5 by airliners relaying messages to us.
Finally some decent weather, despite headwinds.
About 100 miles out from Bermuda VHF contact with New York center was established and we were cleared for a straight-in approach to runway 12. Not far out however we were vectored off the approach to allow a Mexican medevac jet to overtake and land ahead of us. This was frustrating after more than 6 hours, especially because they just parked up for the night; there was no urgent pick-up of a patient involved! Due to the headwinds the 612nm flight had taken well over 6 hours. We landed with about 100 gallons of fuel remaining.
Approaching Bermuda.
Another visitor at the FBO, a Ukrainian Ilyushin cargo plane.
We were greeted at the FBO by two very friendly ground crew. The lady couldn't stop giggling at how small our airplane was, constantly declaring "It's like a toy!" Apparently the Bermuda immigration system was down due to a Russian cyber-attack so they just took photos of our passports and sent us on our way to the guesthouse that Shane had arranged. I was intrigued to discover on arrival that we had been booked into the "Lover's Lair". Shane maintained that this was not intentional, and slept on the couch.
Hmmmm.
A well deserved Pina Colada.
================================================================
The next day we rented scooters, which turned out to be the ideal way to see the tiny island. I had never ridden one before so this was rather more dangerous to me than the flight over, but I soon got the hang of it. Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory, and was uninhabited before settlement in the early 1600s.
Ready to scoot.
Starting at the north end of the island with a late breakfast we made our way south, stopping at various tourist spots along the way. We ended up at the cruiser terminal watching the giant Norwegian Joy departing for New York with more than 3,000 tourist on board.
The old town hall in St George.
Bermuda is littered with forts.
Coastal Bermuda (to be honest, basically all of it is coastal).
The unfinished church.
The smallest drawbridge in the world, that opens just to allow the masts of sailboats past.
The Norwegian Joy departs for New York.
That evening I tried to file my flight plan through the Leidos website. It refused to accept TXKF as a departure point however so I phoned them. The briefer had to get a supervisor involved but eventually assured me that the flight plan was in and accepted. I believed him...
================================================================
We were back at the airport just after 8am on Sunday to begin the flight home. The lady at the FBO had kindly reduced some of the fees for us; but the cost of the airport and FBO fees still came to nearly double the total direct cost of flying from the US to Bermuda and back. I can only imagine that the FBO owner was sending kick-backs to someone in government to maintain a monopoly! The immigration system was still down so a second passport photocopy was taken, and off we went.
Hidden among jets on the ramp.
This morning's issue was that the friendly briefer from the night before had apparently completely failed to enter the flight plan and it was nowhere to be found. We ended up emailing the flight plan to the control tower from the hold short line and they entered it for us there and then. After a 30 minute delay we were finally on our way; this time on a slightly longer route to Wilmington KILM for customs. Shortly after take-off ATC gave us the next piece of bad news; a 100 mile re-route once we got to the US coastline.
Taking off.
Departing from Bermuda.
We climbed out from Bermuda speaking to New York Center again, who were puzzling over how to control us on the oceanic leg. Apparently today's controllers cared a bit more than Friday's! We eventually settled on IFR-by-email, mailing back and forth using the Garmin InReach. A poor man's version of CPDLC, it worked perfectly. Ophelia had moved north and was now giving us headwinds yet again, although somewhat weaker than on the way out. We were VMC with no rain, which made life much nicer.
Coasting in.
Nearing the coast we had been told to contact Giant Killer again. However the military apparently have terrible radios and we were practically coasting in before he actually picked us up. Clearing customs at Wilmington was quick and easy and we were soon on our way cross-country back to home base, arriving just before midnight. We had successfully avoided being lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Refueling on the way back home.
I am lucky enough however to have a very long fuel range, as a result of the ferry system engineered and installed for the round the world flight. As my worldwide insurance was still active until October, my friend Shane and I decided that it was time to visit Bermuda.
A second challenge for most light aircraft is that HF radio is mandatory for the flight across. My system had been uninstalled and returned to the owner who'd lent it to me. If you don't ask you don't get, however, so I contacted New York Center (this is the ATC facility that controls the oceanic airspace to Bermuda) and requested a waiver from the requirement. With very little hassle, this was granted and we were good to go.
It was to be a fairly short visit, heading outbound from base on a Thursday afternoon and returning Sunday night. We set out a little after 4pm on the Thursday to fly as far as the coast, staging for the crossing the next morning. We finally arrived at Currituck County KONX at 4am local time and grabbed a few hours sleep in a local hotel before returning to the airport a little after 8am and fueling up with a total of 180 gallons of Avgas.
The flight crew.
The sun sets on the way across the southern US.
================================================================
We took off just after 9am and struck out through the warning areas off the coast, IFR under the control of the "Giant Killer" military controller. We were in cloud and light rain most of the time, with strong head winds as a result of the approaching Tropical Storm Ophelia which was sitting just to the south. At times we saw ground speeds of less than 80kts in the cruise which was, frankly, painful.
Coasting out from North Carolina.
After about 4 hours the weather finally started to improve a little, with VMC conditions and gradually decreasing headwinds. A couple of times we were contacted on 121.5 by airliners relaying messages to us.
Finally some decent weather, despite headwinds.
About 100 miles out from Bermuda VHF contact with New York center was established and we were cleared for a straight-in approach to runway 12. Not far out however we were vectored off the approach to allow a Mexican medevac jet to overtake and land ahead of us. This was frustrating after more than 6 hours, especially because they just parked up for the night; there was no urgent pick-up of a patient involved! Due to the headwinds the 612nm flight had taken well over 6 hours. We landed with about 100 gallons of fuel remaining.
Approaching Bermuda.
Another visitor at the FBO, a Ukrainian Ilyushin cargo plane.
We were greeted at the FBO by two very friendly ground crew. The lady couldn't stop giggling at how small our airplane was, constantly declaring "It's like a toy!" Apparently the Bermuda immigration system was down due to a Russian cyber-attack so they just took photos of our passports and sent us on our way to the guesthouse that Shane had arranged. I was intrigued to discover on arrival that we had been booked into the "Lover's Lair". Shane maintained that this was not intentional, and slept on the couch.
Hmmmm.
A well deserved Pina Colada.
================================================================
The next day we rented scooters, which turned out to be the ideal way to see the tiny island. I had never ridden one before so this was rather more dangerous to me than the flight over, but I soon got the hang of it. Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory, and was uninhabited before settlement in the early 1600s.
Ready to scoot.
Starting at the north end of the island with a late breakfast we made our way south, stopping at various tourist spots along the way. We ended up at the cruiser terminal watching the giant Norwegian Joy departing for New York with more than 3,000 tourist on board.
The old town hall in St George.
Bermuda is littered with forts.
Coastal Bermuda (to be honest, basically all of it is coastal).
The unfinished church.
The smallest drawbridge in the world, that opens just to allow the masts of sailboats past.
The Norwegian Joy departs for New York.
That evening I tried to file my flight plan through the Leidos website. It refused to accept TXKF as a departure point however so I phoned them. The briefer had to get a supervisor involved but eventually assured me that the flight plan was in and accepted. I believed him...
================================================================
We were back at the airport just after 8am on Sunday to begin the flight home. The lady at the FBO had kindly reduced some of the fees for us; but the cost of the airport and FBO fees still came to nearly double the total direct cost of flying from the US to Bermuda and back. I can only imagine that the FBO owner was sending kick-backs to someone in government to maintain a monopoly! The immigration system was still down so a second passport photocopy was taken, and off we went.
Hidden among jets on the ramp.
This morning's issue was that the friendly briefer from the night before had apparently completely failed to enter the flight plan and it was nowhere to be found. We ended up emailing the flight plan to the control tower from the hold short line and they entered it for us there and then. After a 30 minute delay we were finally on our way; this time on a slightly longer route to Wilmington KILM for customs. Shortly after take-off ATC gave us the next piece of bad news; a 100 mile re-route once we got to the US coastline.
Taking off.
Departing from Bermuda.
We climbed out from Bermuda speaking to New York Center again, who were puzzling over how to control us on the oceanic leg. Apparently today's controllers cared a bit more than Friday's! We eventually settled on IFR-by-email, mailing back and forth using the Garmin InReach. A poor man's version of CPDLC, it worked perfectly. Ophelia had moved north and was now giving us headwinds yet again, although somewhat weaker than on the way out. We were VMC with no rain, which made life much nicer.
Coasting in.
Nearing the coast we had been told to contact Giant Killer again. However the military apparently have terrible radios and we were practically coasting in before he actually picked us up. Clearing customs at Wilmington was quick and easy and we were soon on our way cross-country back to home base, arriving just before midnight. We had successfully avoided being lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
Refueling on the way back home.
