I have made several cross-country trips of 1000 nm and less, but none over great distances of water. My son, Heath, who regularly flies with me will graduate this year from high school and I promised him for his graduation present that we would fly anywhere in the RV he wanted to go (within reason!). Plus, it gave me an excuse to fly somewhere, and have fun too! At first he decided that we would fly down to Key West, Florida. I told him that won’t be that big of a deal; I’ve been to West Palm Beach, a couple of times before in the RV. Well, it wasn’t but a couple of weeks later he asked if we could go to the Bahamas instead. Before I answered, I said "Do you understand that we would have to fly the plane we built in our “garage” over a huge pond of water (southern for ocean)?" Of course, my young, naïve son said, "Dad.... it shouldn’t be a problem; a pilot with your experience, and we have never had any problems before...heck, it’ll be a piece of cake!"

There are a few things required to fly to Bahamas. First, since 38JC is an experimental airplane, you must get a letter from the Civil Aviation Department in Nassau authorizing the flight. You fax them a copy of your RV registration, pilot’s licenses, repairman’s certificate, insurance, and equipment list (Mode C transponder is required). A couple of weeks and a few phone calls later, they faxed me a letter approving my flight. Second, a life jacket per passenger is required (rafts are optional). Third, you will need a U.S. Customs sticker ($25) for the plane on the return flight and 12” tail numbers. My tail numbers are 3”, so I made some out of electrical tape before I took off from the Bahamas, which works fine. You must also file an international flight plan (DVFR or IFR) to get you through the ADIZ. You only have to have a squawk code on the inbound leg back to Florida. I found the Florida Pilot Association internet site very useful during planning for the trip.

After much thought, planning, and prayer, we headed south on March 25^th from Decatur, Alabama (DCU) to West Palm Beach (F45) and then to Hawks Nest Resort (MYCH) on Cat Island. The plan was to island hop all the way down to Cat Island. The route was basically to go straight to Freeport, Grand Bahamas, then over the Abacos Islands, on to the Eutherua Islands, and finally Cat Island. The Out Islands are known for their seclusion, beauty and are much more laid back compared to Freeport or Nassau.

By the time we took off from North Palm Beach (F45), started a climb to 9,500 feet, opened our flight plan with Miami Radio, we were over the Atlantic Ocean heading to Grand Bahamas – no turning back now! This leg of the flight was the longest over water, but only took about 25 minutes in an RV-6A! The only weather to be seen the whole week was a few cloud build-ups around Freeport on Grand Bahamas Island. You can spot an island by just looking for the cloud build-ups; normally there is a piece of dirt/sand under them. Of course, the whole trip you are listening to the engine and watching the gauges/instruments, but N38JC performed flawlessly. Even with a headwind all the way down the chain of islands, it still only took just a little over 2 hours to get to Cat Island from Florida!

Clearing Customs in the Bahamas was easy. We filled out three copies of a C7A form, which also served as our cruising permit, and an Immigration Card. That’s all you need to cruise all of the Bahamas Islands.

Heath and I stayed at Hawks Nest Resort (MYCH) on Cat Island. They have their own 4,600’ runway and your plane is parked just a few hundred feet from your room. It is a small resort with only ten rooms, but highly recommended. They also have AVGAS on hand “most” of the time (call and check before you go). You can also get AVGAS on Eutherua Island and many of the other islands. The food was great at Hawks Nest!

We snorkeled every day on a reef just off of the beach. We did see an 8’ Reef Shark that got our attention, but he didn’t seem too interested in us and we sure weren’t going to bother him! We also went deep-sea fishing, but the only thing we caught was a big barracuda. Kayaks are available and free at Hawks Nest, so we took those up a creek among the mangroves. We had hoped to catch a few bonefish, but no luck. We did catch several small fish that I’m still not sure what they were, but they all had big teeth. This is the kind of place where you can just lay around in hammocks or explore the beach for shells, etc… If you have never been to the Bahamas, you wouldn’t believe how beautiful the water is – so crystal clear and turquoise blue.

Late one afternoon the weather was absolutely beautiful and the winds were near calm, so Heath and I fired up the RV-6A and decided to check out the island from the air. Cat Island is about 40 miles long and about 3 miles wide and has the highest elevation of all the Bahamas Islands (206 feet). One of its more interesting features is a monastery built by a monk in the 1800's high on a hill overlooking the Caribbean. After some sightseeing around the island, we decided to do a fly-by for the resort guests we had previously met by performing a few aileron rolls over the beach. The resort manager indicated that it was the first airshow they had ever had on Cat Island. He seemed to be real impressed with the capabilities of the RV-6A, but we didn’t get any discounts!

The return flight was much like the trip down – uneventful, which is just the way you want it… The only thing required to depart the Bahamas is a C7 form, turn in your immigration card, and file a flight plan. There is also a Bahaman departure tax of $15 per person. Communications is tough down in the Out Islands; Miami Radio and Nassau Radio have a few remote sites, but even at 8,000-10,000 feet it was difficult to talk to them. I closed my flight plan when over Cat Island by relaying my request through another plane that was closer to Freeport. This technique is very common down there. Of course, you can always call 1-800-WX-BRIEF anywhere in the Bahamas when you land. My Lowrance hand-held GPS, integrated with the NAVAID autopilot, sure made the trip easy. I had a backup hand-held GPS and comm radio just in case, but never had to bring them out of the flight bag. Clearing Customs on the return trip was easy at West Palm Beach, but PBI is a very busy airport. I think next time, I’ll return to Fort Pierce (FPR) to clear customs.

There’s nothing like flying over the Caribbean listening to Jimmy Buffet’s “Margaritaville” on your CD player! Overall, my son and I had a super trip and one I'm sure he will always remember, especially traveling in something we built in our garage! Even though I was apprehensive at first, I wouldn’t hesitate to go again. There are a lot of small airports on the islands with their own private beaches just begging for a visit from a plane like an RV...

Jeff Crabb

RV-6A N38JC