To Puerto Rico

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Well, here we are again, cruising along at 8000 feet and smiling. I just left the coast behind. It’s smooth up here and only six hours and 20 minutes to go. ;-)

The alarms woke me up at 5am, nice hot water in the shower, which hasn’t always been the case, and an espresso at the reception as I checked out. Taxi arrived 10 minutes early and I’m at the airport with plenty of time for a 7am departure. First stop after the rest room is immigration. They look into the next department and say that no-one is in customs or the payment office so there’s no use in them stamping my passport. I know it’s ten minutes to six, so I’m patient for a while, then less patient by ten past six. Finally he stamps it at 6:15am and my baggage is scanned. The payment office only takes five minutes and I’m headed to the weather office. No-one is around. Finally a person shows up and says nothing has been prepared, it’s shift change time. I tell him where I’m going and say that I’ll prepare the plane while he prepares the weather for me.

As I do the pre-flight, I notice a blue stain under the wings. With the heat yesterday afternoon, the gas must have expanded and vented out. That’s why I prefer to gas up the morning of departure. I check the level and can’t have lost that much. Everything else is ready. Back at the met office, the printer doesn’t work, so he can’t give me anything. I look at the screen and he points at the clouds over Cayenne. I say I’m going to Puerto Rico and point to it on the screen. He says there are only high clouds over head. Good job I checked the weather myself this morning.

I ask for engine start, not knowing if they will give me an early departure or make me wait for the predetermined departure time, like in Brazil. He lets me start and gives me a clearance right away. I’m off 10 minutes early. Yeah.

Had to stop writing for a while as I had buildups, bumps, rain and unpleasant conditions. Now back on course and only five hours to go. There were 15 knot tailwinds at the start, but that’s now down to seven knots, so the flight will be a few minutes longer than planned. Hopefully I won’t arrive too late for customs to be mad at me. It’s a wonder with all the flying, my biggest worry is eAPIS and US customs.

I couldn’t make contact with Paramaribo at the last FIR boundary, so I’ve plugged in the Barbados frequencies to pick them up as early as possible. I picked up some snacks yesterday, knowing no breakfast would be available, so I think it’s snack time. Sorry, no coffee, but I did get some ice tea, in cans, just for a little caffine pickup. More later…

Finally some smooth air for an hour. It’s been a lot of hand flying around buildups. Not as easy as on the way southbound. Hmmm another hour of flying and no writing; this leg is really making me work. Now north of Barbados. I finally made contact with Barbados and didn’t like the look of the weather ahead to the northwest. I asked if he had any weather, but he said no. Then he called another plane and asked the conditions. That plane confirmed a big buildup to the northwest, but negotiable around it. The other areas have only buildups over the islands. I thanked him for the information. On the other side of Barbados, things look better. So, I’ll make Martinique my next decision point. If weather looks terrible, I’ll land there. Only three hours to go, but I don’t mind stopping if the storms look too bad.

I have all the charts ready for San Juan. Looks like just high clouds ahead, the weather is certainly beyond there. Unfortunately, the tailwind has died down it’s only two knots which isn’t helping much at all. I climbed to 10,000 to be above the cumulus layer and it’s much smoother up here. I am going into the smaller airport next to the major international airport in San Juan. It’s like an executive airport. They only have one approach; but hopefully I won’t need it. My alternate is the big airport with ILS.

I talked with Jim, KC4AZ on HF for 20 minutes or so and we had a clear frequency and a very nice chat. He’s in his sail boat in the Chesapeake and I’m flying at 10,000 feet south of Puerto Rica – wow, isn’t HF wonderful. We will try again tomorrow. I had to end the conversation and reel in the antenna as I was heading into bumpy clouds.

The last two hours were in rain and clouds with deviations around the worst weather. San Juan had radar and was giving recommendations to lots of planes. On the north side, it was much clearer and I did a visual approach. It was great to be down after over eight hours in the air.

Customs went relatively smoothly. The first thing the officer said was: “it’s the pilot from French Guiana that didn’t call ahead.” I told him the name of the person I talked to and he said that person was at the other airport. But, at least he agreed that I’d called in. He also said that I did eAPIS correctly. He didn’t say much about arriving 45 minutes late.

A ground person from Tropical Aviation met me before customs and offered their ramp for the night. I said yes I’d go there and gas up as well. He led me there after I’d finished with customs. They saw the decals on the plane and asked about them, wanted to hear more about the world flight and about my trip to S. Amercia. They were absolutely wonderful. I was exhausted. They made a reservation at a local hotel and drove me there and will pick me up in the morning.

Now, I can do my flight plan on line, get my own weather and depart in shorts and T-shirt tomorrow. Life is back to being simple. More tomorrow.

Sorry, no pictures. The setting was incorrect and they didn't work.