Key West to Cozumel

January 8. Leaving Key West, with the Tortugas off my right wing. We had a 15kt tailwind, so delayed climbing high into less favorable winds. There were plenty of boats around, and the plane was running smooth. The countries I would be landing in or flying over were given their 72 hour notice, with explicit flight plans. Miami Center told me I could take the shortcut right over the western tip of Cuba.

But an hour later I was handed off to Havana Center, and she told me to turn to a heading of 270 degrees and stay on that course for the next 100 miles. So much for the shortcut. I have heard that some people drop leaflets which drift over the country. One such plane was shot down. So I obeyed Havana Center.

10,500', 96kts indicated, with a ground speed of 114kts. Life is good! We are approaching the intersection 55nm ahead which Havana Center told me to fly to in order to avoid the "inner" Cuban airspace. The outer Cuban airspace goes half way to Houston, and apparently does not pose a problem. Boats were frequent, and I had a 406mhz EPIRB (the boater version of an ELT), life jacket, marine radio, and a 30 to 1 glide ratio. The distance from the west tip of Cuba to Cancun is 100 miles. At the half way point, I would be at the furthest distance from land, or 50 miles. I transited that stretch at 12,500', and therefore could glide 60 miles. So I was very comfortable making this journey.

Closing in on Cancun, the clouds started to tower, but as you can see, it was no problem to steer around them.

Crossing the coast into Cozumel (MMCZ). 3.5 hrs, 382nm. Cleared customs, immigration, El Commandante del Aeropuerto, flight service to close the flight plan, fuel (cash only), immigration (he forgot to stamp one document), flight service again for some unknown reason, and then I was free to leave the airport. Got a motel room a block from the water, and then lucked into a cheap seat in a snorkle boat, and snorkled for 2 hours. What a great way to loosen up! Even got to go face to face with a rather large moray eel. All in all, a day to remember.

Distance Correction

Blog follower, and Lambada owner, R.J. wrote to tell me my distance and flight time didn't make sense unless the flight involved a large detour. After checking, he was right. This leg distance was 223nm, and the flight time was 2.3 hours. Average speed was 97kts. The winds were 15-20kts, crossing from the northwest.
Thanks for straightening this out, R.J.!
Here are some more pics:

Life jacket co-pilot

Approaching Key West

Okeechobee canal in Florida from the Atlantic to the Gulf. Boats must have a mast height less than 55 feet to transit this canal.

Costa Rica Trip - Leg 1 - Melbourne to Key West

Key West

Lambada ready to be loaded with gear

Jim is back in Melbourne after a perfect trip to San Jose, Costa Rica. The plane flew without a problem. The weather could not have been better. The sights were fantastic. The Sky Connect Mini-Tracker worked great, and allowed people to follow the track in real time.

Leg one from Melbourne to Key West involved a straight line flight, crossing 80 miles of the Gulf of Mexico.

Total miles: 450nm. Total flight time: 4.5 hours. Average speed: 100kts

More photos and reports will follow as time allows.

Leave Tomorrow for Costa Rica in N26UA

Big trip for tomorrow! Flying a customer's (David) plane to San Jose, Costa Rica.

Melbourne (MLB) to Key West (EYW) Jan 8 250nm
Key West (EYW) to Cozumel (CZM) via G765 Jan 9 430nm
Cozumel to Roatan (RTB) via G521 to Kirap then R899 Jan 10 345nm
Roatan to La Ceiba (MHLC) via R645 Jan 11
La Ceiba to Toncontin (MHTG) via A754 Jan 11
Toncontin to Managua (MNMG) via A502 Jan 11
Managua to Juan SantaMaria (MROC) Jan 11 RTB-MROC=550nm- nonstop 1575nm total Go Rotax!
Fly home Jan 12 on the boring airlines.
A friend has loaned me an Iridium tracker which tracks the flight in real time. To go to the site and see where we are go to:

http://www.skyconnecttracker.us:8080/minitracker/index.php

I'll file a report here with photos when I return on Jan 12.

Merry Christmas!

Santa wanted a Lambada with the extended baggage tube (7' 10" long) to handle all of the presents. He also wanted to simplify his flying, trading the multi-engine problems for the reliability of the Rotax 912.

Click on any photo to view it full screen. Use one for the background of your computer, send to a friend, or print a copy.

Happy holidays from Josef and Georgia!

Urban Air Samba

The Samba has the same wing as the Lambada, with about 4 feet removed from the root section. In other words, it is the outer wing section of the Lambada. That means the Samba has very nice flying characteristics too. The slotted fowler flaps really bring it down at a steep angle when fully deployed, while maintaining good airflow attachment. This plane is strong and fast!

Customer test flight

Joe and Jim flew Peter's new plane to Merritt Island to get the headset jack worked on. Urban Air engineer Martin Stepanek flew alongside to take this photo. Martin shot over 400 photos with his Canon SLR with 10megapixel resolution, during this 1 hour out and return. You'll be seeing more of his shots in the days to come. He flew with Barry Pruitt in Barry's Evektor Sport Star LSA. The headset jack was fixed in no time, so we headed back to MLB just before sunset.