If there were an award for preflight planning, it would surely go to Jose Acosta. Prior to undertaking a round-trip journey in 2013 from Georgia to his native Puerto Rico—a 3,000-mile voyage that would put him over the water for 20 hours in a single-engine Cessna 172—Acosta spent three months in preparation. He researched non-U.S. flight operations, studied Alaskan bush pilot tricks of the trade, simulated water landings in the local pool, pored over approach plates, and grilled his instructors for equipment recommendations. He envisioned every possible risk and determined ways to moderate them.
The effort was par for the course for this instrument-rated private pilot, who embarked on the journey just nine months after earning his pilot certificate. A civil affairs special operator in the U.S. Army for the last 14 years, Acosta knows that detailed planning can mean the difference between life and death. He knew this extraordinary cross-country journey, like any military mission, would simply require proper preparation to pull it off.
While he entertained vague concerns about sharks and the Bermuda Triangle, Acosta focused his planning on more practical matters. He studied weather. He flew as much as possible to build experience.
He also undertook:
A co-pilot search. Realizing that having another pilot to share the workload would be wise, he approached many seasoned pilots about joining him on the trip. They all had the same response: No way, Jose. With the vast distances to cover over water, they all urged him to get his multiengine rating and make the trip on two engines. He disagreed. “I think if you plan for it and practice and rehearse and mitigate the risk, anything can be relatively safe,” Acosta asserts. In the end, nephew Ricky Acosta Jr., a newly minted private pilot, got the right seat.
Water dunk training. On one stretch of the trip, Acosta would spend four hours over open water. What would happen, he wondered, if the engine quit? He concluded that hitting the water would be highly disorienting. “I started going to the pool,” he says. “I sat in a chair at the edge and threw myself backwards.”
Equipment research. In addition to FAA-required equipment for overwater operations, Acosta wondered what else might be helpful in the event of a remote or water landing. He read Army survival manuals and scoured online discussions among Alaskan wilderness pilots. He also talked to instructors at Skyline Columbus, where he was working on his commercial certificate. Their recommendation: Bring a spare tire. One hard landing could wreck a tire, they said, and if the right one was not on hand, it could strand him and ruin the trip.
International studies. Acosta spent countless hours studying the rules of flight for the countries in and near which he would be flying. He also visualized communicating with non-U.S. controllers and decided that with their accents and his, misunderstandings were possible. “How do you mitigate that? I just thought through it,” he recalls. “I imagined saying something and the controller asking me to repeat it. I practiced taking a breath, slowing down, and maybe saying it phonetically.”
This detailed level of planning made the trip successful and enjoyable, Acosta said later of the journey that took him through Florida, Nassau, Turks and Caicos, and, ultimately, Puerto Rico. During 33.4 flight hours, he encountered heavy winds, rain, 4.5 hours of solid IFR, and an 18-knot crosswind landing in Freeport, Bahamas. He had to communicate with Miami and San Juan centers via relay through the Dominican Republic. He spent 20.6 hours over the ocean, during which he routinely imagined the engine quitting, then mentally ran through emergency procedures so he’d be ready to execute them.
Still, he also found time to savor some unforgettable views: cerulean seas around the Bahamas; shipping and commercial jet traffic cutting lines through sea and sky; lush island landscapes; the slow fade of sunset into darkness on the leg to Turks and Caicos. “We could see nothing and it was so quiet!” he marvels of being over the water at night. And then there was the best view of all: the smiles on his parents’ faces when Acosta landed in Puerto Rico—safely, proficiently, and confidently, thanks to his extraordinary planning.
