Wednesday, May 26, 2010
At the airport early and weather still looks good. The earliest thunderstorms are forecast by 1pm local and I should arrive at noon. Immigration stamps go pretty quickly, but no-one is at customs. The immigration guy calls next door and tells me to wait. The customs guy finally shows up and lets me in. He copies all paperwork and starts asking about the plane. Then says he’s coming out to inspect the plane. This is a first. I think he just wants to see it. As we are driving to the “back forty” he asks if it’s a jet. Ha, ha. No, it’s a small, pequenio, plane. The driver says single-engine and I confirm.
He wants to look at my baggage – as messy as it is after four weeks of traveling. He asks to get into the compartment behind the baggage area. I said we can’t get into it. He goes through both luggage bags and says everything is ok and I can depart.
I pre-flight, ask for engine start and am off. Overall 10 minutes ahead of schedule. It’s a little bumpy this morning with buildups between 10 and 11 o’clock but great 17 knot tailwinds. The refueling yesterday was at $5.82/gallon without tax. Much better.
I’m already half way there and get some pictures of the coast and clouds along the way. It’s only a three hour flight, but I wanted to go non-stop to Puerto Rico and I couldn’t do that from Belem, thus this intermediate stop. Well, actually I could make it from Belem, but without enough reserve for my risk tolerance. With thunderstorms in the area and possible deviations, I want at least two hours of reserve. So, I get to visit Cayenne, French Guiana.
The last half of the flight was slightly more difficult. I was out of contact with air traffic control for over an hour. Two planes gave me other frequencies to call, but no response. Finally I talked with a local controller on the boarder who switched me directly to Cayenne control. At the same time I was mostly in cumulus clouds, very bumpy and lots of rain.
I got the weather which wasn’t the best, 300 foot broken, 1100 scattered, 8 kilometers visibility. So, I prepared for the ILS approach. The female controller was handling three planes without radar. Looked like I’d be first to the runway. She kept asking for DME and radial crossing – real non-radar work. I finally turned onto the localized and came down the glide path, there was the runway. No pictures of this arrival.
Ah, it is so enjoyable to be able to talk with people and ask where to go. After a week on my own with no Portuguese, it was a pleasure to speak in French. I did the flight plan and meteo and gassed up. Still expensive, even with no tax. The landing fee people were fun to talk with, but still wouldn’t let me pay today; tomorrow at 6am.
I took a hotel in town, with internet, so as to do eAPIS for US customs and to see some of the town…. Maybe a mistake. It took over two hours and tons of patience, not my strong suit, to get the eAPIS entered. I don’t know how much was the problem of the local internet provider, but I had to log back on over 25 times. Then I called the customs number in San Juan, as Wayne said it was necessary to place the phone call to customs as well. No-one answered the private aircraft line, so I called the main customs number. Finally someone took all the information. He didn’t seem to understand why he had to take this information. I got his name and badge number, just in case.
OK, time to go into town, walk around and eat as this morning’s breakfast was only a piece of bread with the coffee. I’m starved. As I walk around at 2pm, all the store fronts are closed. Only Chinese restaurants are open. I finally find a normal bar/restaurant and order lunch. I ask why everything is closed. Their siesta is from noon until 4pm. I remembered that everything in France closed form noon to 2pm, but I wasn’t expecting this. As I walked back to the hotel, the skies opened up and it poured down. As I walked back to the hotel, the skies opened up and it poured down. Time to get this updated prior to visiting the town later this afternoon.
At the airport early and weather still looks good. The earliest thunderstorms are forecast by 1pm local and I should arrive at noon. Immigration stamps go pretty quickly, but no-one is at customs. The immigration guy calls next door and tells me to wait. The customs guy finally shows up and lets me in. He copies all paperwork and starts asking about the plane. Then says he’s coming out to inspect the plane. This is a first. I think he just wants to see it. As we are driving to the “back forty” he asks if it’s a jet. Ha, ha. No, it’s a small, pequenio, plane. The driver says single-engine and I confirm.
He wants to look at my baggage – as messy as it is after four weeks of traveling. He asks to get into the compartment behind the baggage area. I said we can’t get into it. He goes through both luggage bags and says everything is ok and I can depart.
I pre-flight, ask for engine start and am off. Overall 10 minutes ahead of schedule. It’s a little bumpy this morning with buildups between 10 and 11 o’clock but great 17 knot tailwinds. The refueling yesterday was at $5.82/gallon without tax. Much better.
I’m already half way there and get some pictures of the coast and clouds along the way. It’s only a three hour flight, but I wanted to go non-stop to Puerto Rico and I couldn’t do that from Belem, thus this intermediate stop. Well, actually I could make it from Belem, but without enough reserve for my risk tolerance. With thunderstorms in the area and possible deviations, I want at least two hours of reserve. So, I get to visit Cayenne, French Guiana.
The last half of the flight was slightly more difficult. I was out of contact with air traffic control for over an hour. Two planes gave me other frequencies to call, but no response. Finally I talked with a local controller on the boarder who switched me directly to Cayenne control. At the same time I was mostly in cumulus clouds, very bumpy and lots of rain.
I got the weather which wasn’t the best, 300 foot broken, 1100 scattered, 8 kilometers visibility. So, I prepared for the ILS approach. The female controller was handling three planes without radar. Looked like I’d be first to the runway. She kept asking for DME and radial crossing – real non-radar work. I finally turned onto the localized and came down the glide path, there was the runway. No pictures of this arrival.
Ah, it is so enjoyable to be able to talk with people and ask where to go. After a week on my own with no Portuguese, it was a pleasure to speak in French. I did the flight plan and meteo and gassed up. Still expensive, even with no tax. The landing fee people were fun to talk with, but still wouldn’t let me pay today; tomorrow at 6am.
I took a hotel in town, with internet, so as to do eAPIS for US customs and to see some of the town…. Maybe a mistake. It took over two hours and tons of patience, not my strong suit, to get the eAPIS entered. I don’t know how much was the problem of the local internet provider, but I had to log back on over 25 times. Then I called the customs number in San Juan, as Wayne said it was necessary to place the phone call to customs as well. No-one answered the private aircraft line, so I called the main customs number. Finally someone took all the information. He didn’t seem to understand why he had to take this information. I got his name and badge number, just in case.
OK, time to go into town, walk around and eat as this morning’s breakfast was only a piece of bread with the coffee. I’m starved. As I walk around at 2pm, all the store fronts are closed. Only Chinese restaurants are open. I finally find a normal bar/restaurant and order lunch. I ask why everything is closed. Their siesta is from noon until 4pm. I remembered that everything in France closed form noon to 2pm, but I wasn’t expecting this. As I walked back to the hotel, the skies opened up and it poured down. As I walked back to the hotel, the skies opened up and it poured down. Time to get this updated prior to visiting the town later this afternoon.
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