Mad Dash for home!

Wake up call was at 6:15, Taxi at 6:30, "Security" opens their doors at 7. I get all the flight plans, paperwork figured out, paid my bill and wait for security to show up. Security is a total joke. Much like my stop in Turks Caicos I pay more in fees than I do in fuel. One amusing thing I found out about Aruba is that the Venezuelan jet set keep their planes in Aruba. The story is that having Venezuelan registered aircraft makes traveling the world difficult so they register in the US... Problem is that Fidel's only friend, Hugo doesn't let US registered aircraft in Venezuela any more... that kind of puts the Jet Set in a pickle. So they leave their planes in Aruba and take Venezuelan registered planes between Aruba and home. Crazy world!

The guys that park me when I arrive at Aruba are calling me Mr. Redbull air race, I let them sit in the plane and get pictures. They are all shocked that such a small plane can make it so far. After a while they realize that I built it. That is one of the sticky parts about flying an experimental(home built plane) outside the US, technically it isn't legal but it happens so rarely that they aren't exactly watching out for it plus in many places it just seems ridiculous to even have a private plane let alone one you built. I've never heard of anyone getting busted. You just don't go around bragging about it being "non standard."

On the way out the best I can do for a weather briefing is look at a web page that shows where lightning strikes are in the Caribbean, there are none on my route so I assume that I'm good to go. In the US weather briefings are free and easy to come by... Not the case here. I also checked the National Hurricane center the night before and they aren't expecting anything. I'm not sure if there is anything else I can do...

I made the trip south over the Dominican Republic and because of some 10,000 foot mountains they had me fly way east of where I would have liked to have been so on the return I filed a route over Haiti which should take a half hour off the trip.

Both DR and Haiti operate their own airspace as "Non Radar" environments which means the controllers don't actually know where you are: they depend upon you reporting your position and they coordinate all the position reports to try to stop people from hitting each other. This practice is basically never, ever used in the US. As soon as you get airborne in the US they tell you that you are "radar contact" which means we know where you are, go about your business and we'll yell at you if you get out of line. This non radar bit seems incredibly outdated but that is how it is done in most other places. In the Non Radar environment the controllers use markers on a table to show the various positions and then adjust them as you make position reports. They call the markers "Shrimp Boats."

Strangely DR had radar but still required position reports. Haiti didn't have radar and were generally indifferent. Going over Port Au Prince I actually heard a American Airlines jet depart without a transponder code because the local controller was too lazy to call the larger overlying sector and get the code. So the airliner departed without a transponder code, not really unsafe but it would never happen in the US. The Haitians must not be very intelligent about how they place their antennas.(Afterword: I got a bit of flack for this, well I'm not saying they aren't intelligent in general, just not intelligent about antenna placement, I am aware this is pretty low on your list of concerns when you've got social and political issues like Haiti has.) Port Au Prince sits in a valley between huge mountain ranges and until you are basically over the city you have to relay your position reports through aircraft that can reach the controllers.

So anyway, After I got on the north side of Haiti and was talking with Miami Center I really understood how good the flying public has it in the US. As you go further south evidently it gets worse and things like this happen.

As I cross Haiti and try to get some pictures of the border but the cloud cover was too wide spread. This Satellite picture shows the stark deforestation differences between DR and Haiti:

The ground in Haiti wasn't as brown in this picture but not nearly as green as the DR. Perhaps things have gotten better since the sat picture was taken. I know it is at least 6 years old. This Article refers to the 90's as the time when trees were having a really rough time in Haiti. Perhaps with Aristeed gone things have gotten better. One thing I have noticed while traveling through tropical jungles is that they recover very quickly since all the plant essentials are in abundance.

As I approach Turks Caicos there is a friendly line colored on either side literally "deep" blue and light blue. This marks the transition between the shallows around the Bahamas and the deep water south of there. From here back to Florida there are islands sporadically all along the way. Even still they are too widely spread to guarantee that you could glide to one... So I'm still wearing the life jacket! Another Friendly sight is the US Coast Guard helo that seems to be based at Provo(Turks Caicos).

The trip from Aruba to Provo is about 3.5 hrs and now that I'm familar with the process I'm able to get fueled and turned around in 30 minutes. My time constraints are 2 fold: I have to tell US customs when I am arriving and they close at 6 PM. I reserved for arriving in Fort Pierce, FL at 4:30, I can call if I'm going to be late but with their closing time I can't be too late. I'll end up having to fly into Miami if I think I'm going to miss their closing time. I budgeted an hour for this "turn" as they say in the airline industry and getting out 30 minutes early will not only let me get to bed earlier but keep me well within my customs window. Turns out that since it's a Saturday they charge you over time at Turks Caicos which means extra special fees from Her Majesties immigration service. Since it is an arrival and departure they literally get you coming and going too. Ouch. Turks Caicos is really beautiful. It's shame I can't spend a few days...
I depart, open my required flight plan to Ft Peirce, FL and head that way. For the first 100 or so miles I can't reach any air traffic facility and I'm completely on my own, not talking to anyone, this was also the case on the way down, no coverage at 12,000 feet. I'm out in the middle of nowhere so I'm not too worried about hitting anything. After about 30 minutes I get a hold of Miami Center and they keep an eye on me for the ride back to FL.

US Customs has got their game pretty well set. Basically they publish the rules and if you don't abide by them they don't much care because they will just fine you $5000. So rather than say don't do whatever they just say here is the deal if you don't like it get your check book out. The procedures aren't too complicated though: notification of arrival VIA the internet, get transponder code before penetrating the Air Defense Identification Zone and file a flight plan. You have to buy a sticker for $29 also... it's funny the publications say that you might have to hire a mechanic to disassemble the aircraft for their inspectors!
The last time I did this was from Montreal to Burlington, VT. The process was much more serious. They made us sit in the plane and wait. When they came there were three of them, all armed, 2 approached from behind and were waived off when the other decided we weren't a threat. The guy that checked our passports gave us the third degree... it was just a major hassle.
Ft Pierce was a breeze, I park in the customs box at the airport, walk in, fill out the same form they give you on an airliner, they look at my bags and send me on my way. It didn't take more than 10 minutes.

I get fuel and a burger at the "airport Tiki Restaurant" and have a conversation with another guy that built and flies an RV-8 and used to be an Army Apache pilot. I mention that I just got back from Aruba. In his heavy southern drawl he paid me about the best compliment I've ever heard "well I just don't understand, how did you get off the ground with the weight of your balls on board?" I'm still laughing about that one. 5 hrs and 15 minutes flight time later I'm back at home putting the plane away. I got a few nice shots of the Shuttle assembly building and launch pads at Kennedy Space Center and a nice sunset. Perfect way to end a perfect trip. Thanks for reading.