Postcards

Flying the annual migration to Caribbean sun.

From 20,000 feet, the sight of Cuba's northern shore near Varadero coming into view through the windshield was almost an anticlimax. The night before, we had attended a dinner briefing where the right and wrong way to talk to Cuban air traffic controllers was discussed, as were the myriad reasons why one might not want to make an emergency landing on Cuban soil. I was assured by the airplane's owner, Chuck Kissner, over dinner that the Malibu was sound; more reassuring, perhaps, was that his wife, Cary, was going to be aboard.

Cruising along serenely above the building fair-weather cumulus starting to blanket Cuba, I thought of the Cuban missile crisis and Fidel Castro and heard the heavily accented voice of Havana Center but could not seem to reconcile those images with the view from above. Cuba's mottled green and brown countryside and pearly blue water reminded me more of Santa Catalina Island. Only bigger. And flatter. Eventually we passed over Cayo Largo Del Sur, and Castro's wonderland faded from view behind the Piper's tailcone.

But we were not flying merely to see Cuba. The overflight was instead a necessity to arrive at the real destination, the Grand Cayman Islands, British West Indies. We got there thanks to the Cayman Caravan, an exceptionally well organized trek from Key West, Florida, to the Caymans for the island's International Aviation Week. Caymanian officials sponsor the annual event to encourage tourism and to give pilots a reasonable excuse to hop in the Cessna or Beech and head south. The Caravan, which I attended in 1993, will be played out largely unchanged this year (June 8 through 14).

Overall, the distance from Key West to Grand Cayman is just more than 320 nautical miles, with about half of that out of a typical single's gliding range of land. In our case, the aft baggage bay overflowed with life jackets, survival gear, and a six-person raft. Kissner commented with a wink that with a 43-foot wingspan, the Malibu has great glide performance. I imagined some horrible shark-tormenting footage from The Discovery Channel.

Taking form in 1991, the Cayman Caravan is the brainchild of inveterate vacationers Paul Bertorelli and Ross Russo. They decided to organize what had been a free-for-all flight from Florida to the Cayman for the International Aviation Week. Before, pilots were on their own to get permission to fly through Cuban airspace and had to make sure all the right paperwork was aboard to please U.S. and Caymanian customs officials.

For the 1993 event, the Caravan worked without a hitch. In fact, it set attendance records, with more than 100 airplanes and 300 pilots and passengers involved.

It all starts with arrivals in Key West on June 8. An evening pilot briefing includes detailed instructions on dealing with the various ATC facilities, customs and immigration, survival equipment, and group fly-out etiquette. For ease of radio handling, the Caravan breaks up into flight groups of four aircraft, each assigned a different altitude; the entire flight takes place on an instrument flight plan. The job of the higher flying airplanes is to keep track of the lower and slower birds and render assistance if necessary. All pilots are asked to monitor a common radio frequency and check in often with their flight mates. For 1993, no one on the flight out required help from their mates in the buddy system.

The beauty of the Caravan is that all the paperwork runs through the hands of the various officials without difficulty. Which, of course, makes it well worth the per-airplane registration fee of $199. (The fee goes up after May 15 to $249; the "absolute, no-kidding deadline is May 31," according to Bertorelli.) You also get all the charts required, filled-out customs forms, prefiled IFR flight plans, discounts on rooms in Key West and lower rates on survival-equipment rental, and transportation to and from the hotels.

All of the planning paid off handsomely when Kissner set the Malibu down on Owen Roberts International Airport on Grand Cayman. We were greeted by more of the Cayman Caravan staff, friendly Caymanian customs agents, and a fellow who, for a few dollars, will spray the interior of the airplane for mosquitoes; this service, however, is not an option since the Caymanians are serious about keeping insects from migrating island to island via general aviation. Baggage unloaded and airplane secured, consumption of fruity rum drinks commenced almost immediately.

And that is, despite the informative seminars and interesting display of military hardware, the raison d'etre for flying to the Cayman: recreation. Fodor's Caribbean travel guide describes the Cayman as "one of the Caribbean's hottest destinations." There is, of course, the relaxed but never dull city of George Town and the gorgeous Seven Mile Beach, along which the majority of the hotels and resorts are located. Caymanian geography is just your basic Caribbean lovely, with white sands and inviting green-blue waters. Temperatures are moderate in the summer, with the requisite high humidity and the omnipresent chance for rain in the afternoon. (For the 1993 trek, the weather turned beautiful only on the days of arrival and departure; it was either high overcast or raining like crazy the rest of the time.)

No matter the weather, visitors are encouraged to rent a car and take an unguided tour of the island. Away from George Town, Grand Cayman is understandably rural; total population of the British colony is about 27,000, and most of those residents live in George Town. Strike out eastbound along the island's main roadway, which follows the circumference of the land, and plan for a picnic on the East End beach.

Divers will find themselves in seventh heaven in the Caymans. According to Fodor's, "The Caymans fully deserve their reputation as a paradise for divers: Translucent waters and a colorful variety of marine life are protected by the government, which has created a marine parks system in all three islands."

Naturally, the International Aviation Week staff strives to offer reasons to stick around the Grand Cayman Radisson. Among the attractions are two days of aviation safety symposiums, including the AOPA Air Safety Foundation's Pinch-Hitter ground course and seminars on overwater flights and in-the-drink survival. All the seminars are well done and entertaining, but they do smack of being a mighty thin excuse to fly to the Caymans; better, just consider them the pineapple spear atop your rum punch of a vacation.

As with the previous Caravans, the festivities are centered on the Radisson, whose rooms start at about $120 a night. Smaller and more intimate resorts can, of course, be booked, but expect to pay top dollar for something out of the ordinary. In fact, expect to pay top dollar for just about everything in the Caymans. Our dollar is worth about 80 cents in the Caymans, and that's added to a cost of living about 20 percent higher than in the United States. The trick for the budget-minded is to shop judiciously in the local markets, and try to make your own meals whenever possible.

One highlight of Cayman Caravans past that simply didn't materialize for the 1993 gig was the Brac Attack, a mostly organized flight to the Gerrard-Smith Airport on Cayman Brac. ATC could not process the flight plans with anything approaching alacrity, with 20 minutes' delay expected between departures. Such foot dragging caused the trip to the Brac to be scrubbed. Bertorelli and crew promise to have that glitch fixed for the 1994 iteration.

In a similar vein, our return home at the end of the event was marred by ATC delays and a customs official who apparently thought nothing of sleeping in on the busiest departure day of the Caravan. Unlike the arrival, which was carefully controlled and perfectly executed, the return to Key West is at the pilot in command's discretion, as long as it takes place in the two-day flight-permit window.

Delays from unresponsive Caymanian ATC behind us, we eventually made our way north to Florida and back through U.S. Customs at Key West. (We were treated quite pleasantly by the serious customs agents.) Even with Cayman ATC shortcomings, Caravan could be considered a solid success, a wonderful and relaxed way to make the Cuban overflight and use general aviation as a finely honed tool of recreation.

For more information on the Cayman Caravan and the International Aviation Week, call 800/346-3313 or 305/266-2300.