June 24^th, 2008

I just finished a round trip to Treasure Cay (MYAT) in the Bahamas. I decided to go IFR even though the weather was good. Unless you are flying into Nassau or another big airport, you can’t get flight following in the Bahamas and I like someone watching over me. Especially when flying over water. I called the International Flight Service station at   (866) 347-0316   and got a weather briefing for the islands. The International Flight Service Station in Miami is a great source of weather for the Caribbean. I used DUATS to file and had no problem picking up my clearance out of Charleston, SC. Since I was coming back the same day, I filed a return flight plan at the same time. Unfortunately, DUATS only lets you file within a 24 hour period. I have used Fltplan.com with some success to file a flight plan after spending a few days in the Islands. I put ADCUS (advise customs) in the remarks. I do it mostly out of habit. It doesn’t absolve you of the 1 hour notice to customs on the way back to the States, but every little bit helps. I filed direct STARY intersection, OMN VOR direct MYAT. I picked 17,000 feet since I had a tailwind at that altitude. I was cleared as filed and got 16,000 feet as a final. I never know what to file going down to Florida. They seem to arbitrarily assign altitudes. After passing STARY intersection and about half way to Ormond Beach, I requested direct to MYAT. It was declined because the Warning Areas were active. I find this to be the case about 80% of the time, but I thought I’d try. After OMN, I turned direct to MYAT. By this time, I was working Miami Center and the radio was loud and clear. About 50 miles out, I requested lower and started down. I could see the tower cumulus clouds in front of me which indicated a land mass. As I passed 10,000 feet, I noticed I could hear pilots respond to Miami Center but I could not hear Centers radio calls. I’ve had this problem with Garmin 430’s before and just turned off the auto squelch. It was loud but I could pick up Miami now. I was cleared down to 6000’ which is the base of the Miami Oceanic Control Area. By this time, I was talking to Miami on 134.2 and listening to MYAT’s CTAF of 122.8. A Seneca took off on runway 32 so I assumed that was the active. No one answered any of my calls on Unicom, but that’s normal. I had the airport in site and cancelled IFR. I wrote down the Miami frequency because I knew I’d be talking to them on the way out. I had to skirt around a rain shower and I stayed to the right side of the island as I approached. I read somewhere that it’s recommended to stay on the right side of any islands that you over-fly. After landing, clearing customs and giving assorted officials varying sums of cash, I was ready to leave. Most airports in the Bahamas have a direct phone line to the US FSS but as it happened, the one in Treasure Cay was on the blink. I did use a phone and called Customs at Ft. Pierce and told them I would be arriving in 1 hour.  I departed VFR, climbed to 6000’ and called Miami center. I had no problem receiving them and picked up my clearance direct to Ft. Pierce. Flying on an IFR flight plan (with a clearance) automatically gives you authorization to penetrate the ADIZ.  It was 167 miles to the airport and I got cleared for a visual approach when I arrived. Clearing Customs was easy and I’d recommend the hamburgers at the Tiki Restaurant right next door.