Postcards

Flying to the Out Islands — so close, yet so far away

OK, a show of hands. How many of you have thought about flying to the Bahamas and doing a little island-hopping? Hmmm, I thought so. Now that it's winter, this kind of fantasy becomes very common in the pilot population. Having had the same thoughts and having flown there several times, I say go for it.

Flying to and from the Bahamas is a piece of cake. Just grab your passport and your pilot and medical certificates, make sure that your aircraft papers are in order, and load your wallet with plastic or greenbacks. If you'll be renting an airplane, have a letter from the owner, granting you permission to use it.

AOPA can fix you up with everything you'll ever need to know about flying to the islands. Just give our flight operations department a call, then look over the information before heading south. Or east. Or south and east. Whatever.

Once you arrive in Florida (getting there will probably take the most time if you're coming from the frozen North), you need only take off for your island destinations. Clearing U.S. Customs outbound is not required for flights operating under FAR Part 91. Just file a VFR flight plan, put adcus (advise customs) in the Remarks section, then activate it after departure. Bear in mind that your first Bahamian landing must be at an airport of entry so that you can clear customs, drop off your general declarations ("general decs" — a one- page no-brainer to fill out), and pick up your tourist card.

For flight following, call Miami Center on 132.15, 134.2, or 133.4 MHz and ask the controller if he can fit you in. Nine times out of 10, you'll get a transponder code and someone to talk to as you cruise over some of the world's most beautiful turquoise waters. Once in Bahamian airspace, you can talk to the Bahamian version of flight service on 122.3 (near Freeport) or 128.0 (near Nassau).

You should fly only during the day and have enough life vests and rafts for all aboard, in the (very rare) event of a ditching. To fly at night in the Bahamas you must file an IFR flight plan, and only three Bahamian airports (Nassau, Freeport, and Treasure Cay) have instrument approaches.

Even in airplanes with modest speed, close-in islands such as Bimini and Grand Bahama should loom into view just 30 minutes or so after departing the Florida coast. After landing, you'll spend a few minutes with customs and immigration, shuffling the forms. If you want to island-hop, you'll need to ask for a cruising permit or transire. The former lets you roam from island to island. The latter lists all the destinations you'll be visiting, along with your projected dates and times of arrival and departure. At Nassau and Freeport customs, expect the greatest delay and bureaucratic inertia.

For me, however, the real attractions are in the Out Islands, the dozen or so islands beyond the heavily-traveled destinations of Nassau and Freeport. There, the pace slows to a soothing crawl and you're closer not just to nature, but to the real essence of island life. Freeport is for gamblers. Nassau is a shopping stop for ocean liners. Places like Abaco, Eleuthera, Harbour, Cat, Long, and Andros islands — to name a few — are for those who like to get away from it all. Not surprisingly, pilots and yachtsmen make up a huge segment of the visitors to the Out Islands. That's because private airplanes and private yachts are the most expedient ways to get there.

Like many other pilots who fly to the Out Islands, I go for the scuba diving and snorkeling. For a flight of no more than an hour or two, where else off the U.S. coast can you fly to crystal-clear, warm-water diving conditions? We're talking 100-foot visibilities- -minimum — and almost all the diving attractions offered by other destinations much farther away.

The coral reefs surrounding these islands are full of all kinds of marine life. In Abaco Sound there's an underwater park — Pelican Cays — that has an impressive collection of parrotfish and brain coral. A dive operation at Long Island's Stella Maris resort offers a dive that allows you to mingle with sharks — at very low risk, I'm told. A dive operation on Grand Bahama island lets you swim with a pod of tame porpoises. Andros features wall dives for those who like to dive deep.

Deep diving isn't my cup of tea. The amount of marine life decreases with depth, and there's always a higher risk of compression- (and decompression-) related complications. Besides, it has a kind of macho, exclusive appeal that usually cancels out any spousal or family involvement.

Snorkeling is a sensible alternative, and in the Bahamas it's an activity that's recently received a shot in the arm. Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the famed aquanaut, has begun a new program that elevates snorkeling to its rightful position as a hassle-free mixture of fun and higher education. It's called Jean-Michel Cousteau's Out Islands Snorkeling Adventures, and it's being offered by 32 resorts on 12 different Out Islands. Call it a part of the new wave of what has come to be dubbed eco-tourism.

All too often, snorkeling takes a back seat to scuba diving. Yes, most scuba boats let snorkelers aboard, but begrudgingly. Once at the dive site, snorkelers are all but ignored. "Jump in here and you'll see something," a divemaster might say. Then you're on your own. Maybe you'll know where to look and what you're looking at, maybe you won't.

The Cousteau program fixes that. Here, participants are taught about the locales and the marine life they'll be visiting, then are accompanied on the dive by a trained "snorkelmaster." He or she is there to make sure you get the most out of the trip.

I tried the snorkeling at the Great Abaco Beach Resort and at Harbour Island's Coral Sands Hotel and Romora Bay Club. There is a great coral reef just in front of Coral Sands. You can walk across the pink sand beach, wade to the reef, then put on your gear and swim to its far side. There, a coral shelf makes a 20-foot drop-off to a sandy bottom. Live staghorn and brain coral make up the bulk of the reef. Tiny shrimp and sea urchins stud its many crevasses. Triggerfish, angelfish, and many other smaller species of fish passed by, oblivious to my presence. And always that snapping, white-noise sound in the background. That would be the parrotfish and other beaked fishes chewing away chunks of the reef.

I could go on and on with these kinds of diving stories, but you get the idea. To learn more about all the Out Islands destinations and receive a VFR flight planning chart and other goodies, call the Out Islands Promotion Board at 800/688-4752.

At about $240 per person, the Cousteau program isn't exactly cheap. But it's a whale of a lot less expensive than scuba diving, and just about anyone who can swim can go on these adventures. Age or experience level matters little in the low-stress snorkeling game.

That $240 also furnishes you with a gear bag filled with fins, mask, snorkel, inflatable vest (to lessen the effort of swimming), and T-shirt (for sunburn protection). Also included is a nice reference book, Snorkeling Guide to Marine Life, which is filled with pictures of the fish and invertebrates you just saw but whose names you've forgotten. This is all mailed to your home after you return stateside.

As for the return to the States, remember to clear Bahamian customs outbound. You do this at a Bahamian airport of entry by surrendering your tourist card — and, if issued, cruising permit or transire — then paying a $15-per-passenger departure tax. Crew members don't pay this fee, and a common practice is to name your front-seat companion as a copilot on the customs forms, thus avoiding the tax on two of your aircraft's occupants.

Then it's time to file a flight plan for the return trip. You can do this over the phone or in the air. If Nassau or Freeport flight service doesn't respond to your airborne calls, keep trying — or climb to a higher altitude. Eventually someone will reply. At the Out Islands, use Nassau Radio's remote frequency of 124.2 MHz.

The important thing is to remember that you must provide U.S. Customs with at least a one-hour advance notice of your arrival. And your actual time of arrival has to hit within a plus- or- minus 15- minute window of your estimated time of arrival. Of course, your first landing in the United States must be at the nearest airport of entry along your route of flight.

You also must give an estimated time for crossing the United States' ADIZ (air defense identification zone) boundary. Miami Flight Service has to know at least 15 minutes prior to your crossing the ADIZ.

Because Bahamians can be so laid back, I find it's a good idea to check with the Miami International Flight Service Station on 126.9 or 127.9 MHz to find out whether they have indeed passed along your adcus message and ETAs for ADIZ crossing and Customs. Usually they do, but there have been times when that confirming call to Miami saved me a potential $5,000 fine for showing up unannounced. Miami IFSS, which can also be reached on 118.4 MHz, can pass along any changes in your ETAs.

The best way to deal with ADIZ notification is to call Miami Center and obtain a transponder code before you cross the boundary. Once the center has you on their radar screens, you can forget about the ADIZ.

In fact, I forget the nuances of all that ADIZ and Customs rigmarole once I'm back home. That's when I start planning my next Bahamian trip.

P.S.: The Typhoon Restaurant

There are as many kinds of airport restaurants as there are airports, and they range from the greasy spoon to the epicurean's delight. One of the latter is the Typhoon at the Santa Monica Municipal Airport in Southern California.

The Typhoon is the brainchild of its owner and hands-on manager, Brian Vidor, who wanted to combine his love of flying with the desire to operate a world-class restaurant specializing in traditional Asian cooking.

Vidor spent years visiting hundreds of the best restaurants in Asia and the Pacific Rim and combined what he considers to be the best of their dishes into what has become a popular menu of trans- Asian cuisine.

The Typhoon, located in the airport's new administration building, evokes the feeling of a pilots' club. Its control tower-style windows provide a sweeping, panoramic view of mountains and sunsets stretching from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the lights of Century City and Hollywood in the east. They also provide an exceptional view of Santa Monica's Runway 21. Pilots can land, taxi up to the building, park, and find the Typhoon only a few footsteps away.

Another of the Typhoon's unique features is a large structural pillar near the bar that has become known by locals as the Pilots' Pillar (see photo). Visiting pilots are encouraged to allow Vidor to photocopy their pilot certificates, which are added to the pillar and make for a fascinating display. Certificates have been provided by astronauts, foreign visitors, celebrities, and virtually all local pilots. The first Pilots' Pillar is almost full, and Vidor plans to begin a second.

The Typhoon (310/ 390-6565) is open daily for dinner, beginning at 5:30 p.m., and every day except Saturday for lunch, from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. — Barry Schiff