Avionics News November 2016 - 48

HAVANA DAYDREAMIN'
Continued from page 47

THE PLANNING
While it's only about 275 miles as the
pelican flies, when you're talking about
flying a Cherokee from Venice, Florida,
to Havana, Cuba, in many instances it
may as well be on the other side of the
world.
Remember, Cuba has been closed off
to practically all U.S.-registered civilian aircraft since the early 1960s, and
the ban was recently lifted in late 2014.
Because of that, you can't jump in your
airplane and hop to Havana. There are a
lot of bureaucratic boxes to check before
you light up the engine.
"At first, I thought I'd use a service to
make sure I was doing all the paperwork
correctly, but then I decided I wanted the
challenge of figuring it all out," Claret

said. "I read a lot of articles and attended
a seminar at Sun 'n Fun. I also started
researching the individual requirements
of the U.S. Treasury Department and the
Commerce Department. Things were
changing, and I wanted the most up-todate information.
"Insurance was an issue and required
a rider for the policy. I also needed an
account with the U.S. Customs and
Border Protection's Electronic Advanced
Passenger Information System, and
update the aircraft's Customs' sticker.
Lastly, I wanted to get a bit more instrument proficient."
Claret also said that by chance (or
luck), her daughter was watching a
local news broadcast and saw a story on
how a group from Agape International
Missions had recently returned from a
trip to Cuba in a small aircraft.
"I know several people in the orga-

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48

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november

2016

GIS Ad Six
Sep 15, 2008

nization, so I called and talked to them
about how they handled all the paperwork
and approvals," she said. "They went
under a different category than I was
planning, but they had a contact whom
I was able to reach out to. Their contact
was able to help secure my permission
landing number after emailing Cuban
authorities all the necessary paperwork.
"That part cannot be highlighted
enough. The contact was key to me
knowing the process inside Cuba. With
the Cuban permission number, I knew I
could land in Havana. I could then file
my ICAO IFR flight plan and get this
adventure in the air."
As any good certified flight instructor will tell you, getting your student
involved with the planning of any crosscountry trip is important to keep their
interest and optimize the learning potential. Of course, when that involves flying
to Havana, Claret's goal was made a lot
easier.
"I have to give Mary Ann 99 percent
of the credit for preparing for this trip,"
Homoky said. "She would keep me in
the loop and sometimes ask my opinion
about certain aspects, but it was mostly all
of her preparation. I just followed her lead
on things. I was getting all the permits,
licenses and insurance for my plane, as
well. We were preparing my plane in case
there was a problem with our primary airplane. We weren't going to let a mechanical glitch ruin this trip."
HI, I'M JAMES.
FLY ME TO CUBA.
As Homoky noted, an adventure
like this doesn't come along often,
so the intrepid pair was leaving no
backup unplanned. Plan A was to use
the Cherokee 140 that is owned by
Claret's employer, AEA member company Sarasota Avionics.
"I'm an administrator at the Venice,
Florida, facility and they generously
allow us to use the demonstrator airplanes," Claret said. "In this case,
it's a tricked-out - avionics wise -
Cherokee 140."

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News November 2016