Where to fly to in bahamas
Preparing to fly to the Bahamas
so in this video I'm going to or in this
series of videos I'm gonna cover flying
to the Bahamas and I'm gonna try to do
this in a way that I cover all of my
steps that I did preparing for the trip
and coming back so the first thing to
discuss are the N numbers on the
airplane there is a requirement that we
have at least on the side wing that's
covered but there are exceptions to the
12 inch end numbers so read the document
it's not really that big of a deal but
there are exceptions the next thing is
that you have to get a custom sticker
and you just put it on the steps around
the door
you'll also need to get a radio license
and the the radio license is a little
bit of a oddity to me because I've never
had anybody ask for it and it's rather
expensive to get but the airplane itself
is supposed to have a radio license so
you have to get that you'll also need to
get a life vest the coastguard certified
life vests for each person in the
airplane and then obviously your papers
that you normally have your registration
weight and balance airplane performance
stuff in your registration so those are
really the only things that are required
for the airplane itself and if you're
flying a single-engine I'd probably also
recommend getting a raft might not even
be a bad idea in a twin but I'm not
messing with the raft and so that those
are the primary things that you have to
have to to fly over to the Bahamas for
the airplane itself and then I want to
do some other videos on the paperwork
and those kind of things as well
okay so what we're gonna do is go
through some of the documentation for
the Bahama trip now this is a they call
it the Private Pilot guide to the
Bahamas you can get this off of the off
of Google just search for it it's
actually a pretty good document here and
so I'll cover some of the the basic
stuff so this document has most
everything in it that you would need to
make your trip to the Bahamas so we have
the telephone numbers here for getting
weather and following your flight plan
and that kind of stuff if we go
over the sea so here we start getting
into our checklist items so it tells you
here that you have to file a flight plan
either a a and it has to be an
international flight plan for flight and
Garmin and most of the other GPS systems
that are out there for aviation can file
an international flight plan you also
need to file an EA path manifest
outbound and inbound there is a program
that you can get called flash pass that
does a really good job you go in and add
your airplane you put in your custom
sticker number you put in each person
along with their passport information
and then it will tell it you know
obviously when you're gonna file or when
you're gonna fly and it'll file all of
the necessary paperwork for you for
going in and out of the United States so
I highly recommend getting flash pass
for that and so it tells you here we
file a flight plan do you're a APUs you
must have a Coast Guard approved
lifejacket for each person and then you
have to activate your flight plan before
leaving Florida and it gives you the
frequency so you either use Fort Pierce
Miami or Palm Beach obviously if you're
IFR it'll get activated when you get
your clearance
so prior to landing you have to close
your flight plan and it gives you the
frequencies there again if you're IFR
you'll be doing that with them in the
air but if you're flying VFR then you do
need to do that
and then you have to land at an airport
with the port with the immigrations and
and there's a list of all the airports
that are covered there
you'll also notice up here at the right
you've got to turn in three copies of
c7a they're actually at the end of this
document so you can print those out you
know from this document you'll have a
fifty dollar per aircraft fee and then
there's no no fees for actual customs
going in if you fly VFR you can contact
Miami simmer center for flight following
and they'll give you a squawk code and
then it gives you the frequencies for
that so as you can see there's quite a
bit of information here so that's that's
the information for going out to the
Bahamas then you have the information
for coming back in and coming back in
I'm actually going to do a separate
video so I'm only looking at going to
the Bahamas at this particular point and
so here so here we've got departing the
Bahamas this is actually coming back in
so here are your airport information you
can see up here it says port of entry so
that tells you whether or not it you
have a port of entry so as an example we
are going and these are not these are in
order of states or islands so you have
to go through and find the actual place
that you're going so we are let's see
where we're at we're gonna be going to
stain our nuts and key well where is it
Stella Morris so Stella Morris is right
here she's got a 4,000 foot runway
they've got fuel and then you can see
under the port of entry they do have a
port of entry there and then they have a
telephone number that you can call
now you'll also notice most frequently
asked questions are pretty handy to go
through and it says one of the things
here is if you're taking your pet and if
you are it gives you a fun number to
call you probably are going to have to
call the airport in fact I've got notes
here the phone number that ended up
that's the two four two three three
eight two zero one two is for your pet
however all they're gonna do is direct
you to go to the website for the
Agriculture Department and file the
paperwork there the problem is it takes
about four weeks to get that's what it
says anyway it takes four weeks to get
that paperwork done so we were gonna
take our little Yorkie with us but we
don't think we have enough time now so
we're just gonna leave you my home but
anyway the the questions actually have
some really good questions and answers
in here there's really not a whole lot
of a big deal you'll notice under the
equipment it says mode C twelve inch
tail numbers and then the Coast Guard
life vest again that twelve inch tail
number you need to look up the
requirements on that because there are
some stipulations for exceptions you
know your plane doesn't have an area big
enough for 12 inch like some of the
experimental airplanes maybe or the age
of the airplane and so forth so you
don't have to get flight following we're
probably going to be filing IFR on the
on a trip just because we normally
follow IFR so we'll we'll kind of
that'll be a little different if you're
going VFR and and so that is really the
main obviously your passports and in
driver's license that kind of stuff if
you want to file if you want to fly
between the islands once you get there
you do have the ability to do that
get a pass and then you can just fly
wherever you want to with exceptions you
can't fly the Nassar without a flight
plan but every our everywhere else you
can most everywhere else you can just
fly and there's your pet your basic meds
are accepted that Bahamas basically
accept everything the United States do
and and I honestly I've never actually
had anyone in the Bahamas asked me for
my medical or pilot's license I don't
least I don't think I remember them ever
asking for that but we'll see on this
trip and so you've got your let's see
departure flight plans weather briefings
also they recommend putting ad casts
which is advised customs in your comment
section of your flight plan to let them
know that you're coming now when you
come back into the United States you
actually have to place a phone call 22
an hour before you leave to let them
know you're coming so that's something a
little bit different but again we'll get
into the returning stuff in a later
video so that is pretty much it for
going into the Bahamas and I do
recommend getting this document because
it does have a lot of good information
in it that it kind of helps clear up
some of the questions that you may have
along the way so we have everything that
we can think of or everything and
there's a document done and ready to go
so we're going to be packing the
airplane up later today I'm gonna fly
down and get some gas we are going to be
stopping down on the east coast of
Florida to fill up with gas before we go
out because gas is very expensive out in
the Bahamas so you do need to consider
that and and then I'll videotape as much
as the trip as I can and document you
know any any things that we run into
that that we may wish we had done
different we'll try to document in this
video
