Caribbean Island Hop

[Tom Goodrick]

Here's a good tour to make in the dead of winter. The route goes from West Palm Beach, FL, to Barcelona, Venezuela stopping in the Bahamas, the Turks, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands and the many islands to Grenada, Tobago and Trinidad.

One trick was finding the airports that sell fuel. I used the book that came with Microsoft's Caribbean Scenery Enhancement for FS5.

The total distance to Barcelona is 1844 nm and the longest leg is 347 nm. There is one more of 326 but most legs are much shorter.

It could easily be flown in a fixed gear single. But I would use a light twin to carry a "get home" engine. We did a tour to Puerto Rico a few years ago and one requirement was that you turn off one engine between two particular islands. That weeded out the riff raff in singles.

I stayed away from Cuba because I understand it is still illegal to land a plane of US registry in Cuba. The same may apply to Venezuela so you might want to turn back at Trinidad. You must check in with Customs at every island stop.

I can email this flight plan if anyone wants it.

Waypoints:
NPBI, MYGF, MYNN, MBPV, MBGT, TJIG, TIST, TNCM, TKPK, TDCF, TLPL, TGPY, TTCP, TTPP, POS, CUM, BNA, SVBC.

[flaminghotsauce]

I want it. Does this match the map/hop that Bill posted in my blog? Sounds like a perfect vacation.

[Bill Hendrix (bgas046)]

I would like to have it Tom. If you don't have my email address, I'll send it to you. Bill

[Tom Goodrick]

OK. I'll send those copies of the flight plan out today. No, Flaming, this is not the same exact route as the 2004 hop. That was for seaplanes and amphibians. This uses only hard surface runways where you can actually buy gas. The route passes near many smaller airports so, with a suitable plane, you can stop at many other airports to view the scenery.

This flight plan just uses GPS. We can make another that would use only VOR.

[flaminghotsauce]

I'm having the darnedest time trying to use the flight plan you sent me, Tom. It must be a Vista thing, but I have not been able to put it anywhere that will cause it to show up.

I put it in where the different catagories are, but all that shows up is an empty, unavailable flight. I tried putting it inside one of the folders, in this case Scenic, but no luck.

I'm going to rebuild it from scratch, I guess. I just downloaded a Grumman OV-3 (I think that's the nomenclature) that flies really nice, and has neat special effects. It will make a good sight-seer with the large windows.

[Allen Peterson]

I finished the first leg KPBI-MYGF and am now on the second leg to MYNN but I'm zig-zagging to over-fly some of the other airports in the area.
Smithy is flying a Lockheed Altair in GAAR2009, and I kinda liked the looks of it. I downloaded it, re-did the panel and did a couple of tweaks in the aircrft.cfg file. I'm flying it in the Carib Island Hop.
That is, if you allow (sniff) riff raff in singles.