 Welcome to the FAA Production Studios and the FAA Safety National Resource Center. My name is Walt Shammel, I'm your host today. And our next presenter has been with the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism for over 22 years, and he's the Chief Aviation Specialist. He's a graduate of Texas Tech University, a licensed pilot, and has approximately 900 hours. He is a member of AOPA, National Business Association, Aviation Association, Florida Aviation and Trade Association, Florida Arrow Club, and Fort Lauderdale. He's a coordinator for the Bahamas Aviation Council and the Bahamas Monthly Flying In. And that's a lot of fun. It's easy and it's fun to fly to the Bahamas. And our next presenter is going to tell us how to do it the easy way. And his topic is flying to the islands of the Bahamas. Let's welcome Greg Rohl. Thanks, Rohl. Thank you very much. Good morning, folks. I want to thank you for coming. It was kind of early in the morning. But flying to the Bahamas is not a mystery. In fact, it's so easy. If anyone could do it. In fact, we had a couple of pilots run down in 152. This pilot came all the way from Texas. And he flew all the way to Tresquiqui and he wants to see the islands of the Bahamas. And I said, okay, we flew all the way from Texas to drinks on me. I'm his daughter. He said, Greg, I do not drink. I said, very smart move. But today I'm going to show you how easy it is for you to fly your aircraft to the islands of the Bahamas. And folks, fellow pilots, I want to thank you because this is very exciting because now with this economy as it is, the Bahamas is going to overload all the stops making sure that you have opportunities to fly your aircraft to the Bahamas, receive all the benefits and the discounted rates for hotels. This is time we need you more than ever. But the islands of the Bahamas and the Bahamas government wants to welcome you to the islands of the Bahamas. Now, the islands of the Bahamas are 700 islands and keys and rocks and anything is running with water. This morning, I'm going to show you, I'm going to tell you about a few things on how easy it is. And it's a very short flight from Bimini. It's only 46 nautical miles away. A lot of folks say that, Greg, you know what? How far is the Bahamas? A lot of people don't realize the Bahamas is only 46 nautical miles from the Florida coast. And that's doable by any aircraft. In fact, last week, we have the Ghanai group of pilots. They came down and they went to Cat Island. They had about 15 planes. They absolutely enjoyed it. And then the other day, we had the air cam. The air cams, you know, the open cockpit, open pilots, you see. And they went down to the Bahamas. So it's doable by anyone. From Bahama, 60 nautical miles away. The scenery is beautiful. One, you're going to realize once you leave the Florida coast, if you're on a VFR flight plan, you'll find out that once you pass the coast, you'll see the water start to be getting clearer and clearer and clearer. And then when you get to the Bahamas, it's absolutely clear. So the scenery is absolutely beautiful. We have multiple airports. So we have over 60 airports for you. And like John O'BRIEN said, you're bound to find an island that you like. If you go to one island and it's not your cup of tea, try another. 60 of them. You'll find one you like. The good facilities, the general aviation. The Bahamas government is now wanting to make sure that when you guys come to the Bahamas, the same amenities that you have accustomed here in the United States, we try to put them in place. And as you guys continue to come to the Bahamas, making it more business opportunity for us, we will put those amenities in place for you. So there's good facilities, general aviation traffic. Customs, easy arrival of departure procedures. As we move forward, we realize that the Custom Officer, the Immigration Officer, anyone in partner line policy will have an opportunity to make sure that they understand why you, the private pilot, fly to the Bahamas. So it's gone out of days. And thank God for when you go to the Bahamas and you feel that someone's doing you a favor. No, you're doing us a favor by coming because you could go anywhere else. And the government, we appreciate that. So now we sensitize our people there. So Customs and procedures, they understand why you're here. And there are no landing fees that only government own airport. Fuel is similar to cars. Fuel is similar to those here in the United States. I'm going to look at some of the things that the government is investing for your pleasure while listening down to the Bahamas. The first thing, you know, the most talk about issues that has come about for a very long time, the EAPIS program. And the EAPIS ULI, that's an electronic program that U.S. Customs and Border Protection put in place for every aircraft crossing the border. And you must do it electronically. Now what we have done in the Bahamas, the first of all, we've been proactive. So we're working with all the FBOs, all the major ones. We have them in particular, buying in air service and in full order FXE. If you go to buying in, those customer service individuals will walk you through just before you leave the country. They will walk you through what is required by the EAPIS to make sure that you are in protocol with U.S. Customs and procedures. And then you go to the Bahamas. And it means you get to the Bahamas when it's time to get back. The Bahamas government is now also being proactive. And now we are putting chaos at all parts of entry. And if you are unaware or are still not familiar with how the procedure is, we'll have you, Bahamas Customs, they will walk you through it. In fact, we are also working with the hoteliers. So why are you at the hotel? And you can't get a good night's sleep because you're still worrying about that EAPIS and you don't want to get a fine. The hotel manager will be able to walk you through the procedure to make sure that you are compliant once you get back in the United States. So folks, we are pulling out all the stuff to make sure that you go to the Bahamas and you come back, all of the procedures are in place. The RCOs, now what is an RCO? That's remote communication outlets. And these are very critical because most parties love the out islands. They want to go to the out islands. They don't visit really much of Nassau and Grand Bahama, which is nice. But they want to fly to some of the out islands. Now, the Bahamas has a chain of islands spread over 100,000 square miles. So what has happened is we have problem with remote satellite, you know, communication. So now we put these different remote in place so that you can transmit and still receive less than Nassau approach or you get Nassau radio and so forth and so on. And these are strategically placed throughout the islands. A picture will come in a few minutes. But those are the upgrades that we're doing just to make sure that you are safe and you're able to communicate effectively and feel comfortable flying through our country. We had a big talk about the 406 ELT. IKO mandated that most countries who come under, fall under IKO must, all their craft coming into those countries must upgrade to this $5,000 ELT, which you know, you guys are not in the United States, you guys are not buying that as now. So we, the Bahamas, are also being proactive. We know that most of our business come from the U.S. So why we need to penalize these pilots to get this information, to get this ELT right now because we are IKO subject. So the Director of Civil Aviation has mandated that you put a waiver in place that you don't need to have that updated one. You can still come to the Bahamas and we sanction this with the FAA. So you could come to the Bahamas with your regular ELT. So that's something that we are also putting in place. Again, all the infrastructure is in place. Most, we see FBOs open up all through the country, the islands of the Bahamas. One of the latest ones is in Mashabo, Cherokee FBO. These individuals see the need, the pilots come and say, I would like to see an FBO in the islands. If you have it, then you have all these citations, 172 to citations, they come. And they want to make sure that someone could adhere to their aircraft while they enjoy the amenities of the islands. So that's the infrastructure now becoming in place. Again, I talk about the Bahamas program. This Bahamas program is a program that the Bahamas government has put in place to make sure that every person, regardless of your immigration or you, that's a janitor. That you are sensitized that any visitor come to the country, you now could be able to tell them about your country and you understand why they're there. Because, you know, it is kind of disheartening for, you see someone along the road and you ask them about their country and they don't really know about it. So this is monetary, we put this in high schools. They understand the dynamics about what the pilot is coming for. You understand why these historical sites are here or where, you know, the history of it. So you could get anyone along the street and ask them about our country and we'd be more than happy and proud to share it with you. But this program is very critical because, you know, everyone who goes to a foreign nation, Sun, Sun and Sea, you know, in the Caribbean, you have all the islands like Jamaica and Bermuda and all the islands, all of them have Sun, Sun and Sea. What's distinguished the Bahamas differently is the people. Because if we educate our people and say, anybody come to the Bahamas, this is how you treat them. This is what you do. So we go through a series of things to make sure that everyone knows exactly why we're here. And then availability of phones. Prior to EAPS coming online, U.S. Custom mandated that you must call U.S. Custom via line line, letting them know ETA coming back into the country. Of course, you go to some of these out islands, there are no cell phone towers. So how do I make a phone call back to the United States? When the Bahamas government has put phones in place and they call it the blue phones of the Bahamas customs. And at the back of the room, we have some pilot's guide. And these pilot guides have a whole listing of the U.S. Custom offices that you need to call before coming back into the state. Now here's a trick, a cross check that we put in place in the event that the blue phones does not work. You go to my shop and you look on the wall and you pick up the phone and it's dead. So what do I do? What you do, you go back outside the terminal and customers will allow you to go back outside the terminal. You look at any pay phone in the area and that vicinity and you get your booklet and you look for the office, let's say you go into the Opelocker. You look at the customer in Opelocker and there would be a 305 number. Will you start that in a 305 number on that pay phone? Don't put nobody in, don't put nothing in. Try the 305 number and voila, you will go through direct into U.S. Custom. Now, if you want to call your aunt and say I'm coming back and say okay, it's not going to work. So those numbers are programmed into those phones and you could dial any one of those numbers to U.S. Customs and you would get those procedures. You could also call flight following, get a flight, a flight plan or get weather. Those are programmed into those phones. So those are the backup that we put in place because we've been getting a lot of reports from policy. Greg, the phone doesn't work. It worked this morning and then it came back, it was down and so forth. So those are the things we put in place for you. Again, the islands are the Bahamas. So if you look at this island, you'll think this is basically a picture of this painting. But it's actually the parts of the islands, parts of the Bahamas. Back in the 1800s where things were this lovely, you didn't have the chance to even look at it. But now you can go to the Bahamas and actually see these beautiful islands and keys and chains. Look at the water. You think it's a pool. We're talking about RCOs. These are some of the points where the RCOs are located throughout the islands of the Bahamas. For those who want to go down south in the Bahamas, we have the remote outlet navigational diverse, diverse that you could actually hit a lot of those islands and still talk to NASA radio. In fact, if you're high enough, you could talk to Miami Center all the way. I think it's about 6,000 feet. You could talk to Miami Center. So these are important. And we put these in place basically because we want to make sure that you guys feel comfortable navigating throughout the country. Let's talk about some general aviation. Now, in the Bahamas, there are two types of airport categories. One is the government airport. And these airport are owned and operated by the Bahamas government on all pilots are welcome. But also we have the private airport. And people say private. Oh, why private? I can't go in there. Well, you can. The only thing is they said it's independently owned by investors, but most pilots are welcome. You go there. The only thing about private airports, you have to pay a landing fee. You know, maybe an overnight fee, something like that. Now, we're going to talk through this segment about airports of entry. Now, what is an airport of entry? An airport of entry is an airport where they have customs and immigration facilities. And this is where you will come in in the beginning of your flight. And when the times you depart the Bahamas, you need to depart from an airport of entry or an AOE. And this map represents the various parts of where pilots come from. We did a survey a couple of months ago. We were trying to find out where our business came from. And we realized that it's come from all over the United States, from California in the West to New York. All of those. The most critical part is navigating from, let's say from California to Fort Lauderdale. That's the most critical part of your trip. So if you go into the Bahamas, once you get past that point, almost 85% of your trip is complete. Because once you start taking off from Fort Lauderdale or the Florida coast to the Bahamas, there's no navigational interference and no cloud spaces that you navigate around. And there's no terrain. You know, you just fly on over to the Bahamas. Now, in the part of the U.S., you need 12-inch numbers. And these numbers are mandated by U.S. Customs. Now, in the Bahamas, I told folks that you could come to the Bahamas and the Bahamas government wants you to come. You don't have small letters. But you could come on into the Bahamas with the small letters. But now it's time to depart and go back to the United States. What do I do? Some folks tell me, say, Greg, what I did, I just put the duct tape on the number and then took the number, the duct tape on the there because U.S. Customs want to make sure, see, you're crossing eighties, they want to make sure, see, that you have those numbers large enough so that they could be visible at the first sight. You do not need to depart from the airport of entry. If you're departing from, let's say, Lakeland, and if Lakeland is not a port of entry, you could depart from Lakeland and go direct to Trashakee or Marchabah or anywhere in the Bahamas in fact. Now, what you need to do is basically file an international flight plan. They say, Greg, what's the difference between an international flight plan and a flight plan that I filed right here? I think one of the most key points that you might see that they may ask you who's on board, the nationality. But other than that, the technical part of it is the same flight plan you apply if you're going into some restricted area in the States. What would they reply? Who got an IFR? Same flight plan. So that's key because we try to keep all of our laws and regulation procedures current to which you guys are used to right here in the United States. Folks ask me, if I'm taking a firearm, what do I do? Well, the firearms could, the Bahamas welcome firearms. The only catch to it, you need to, and this is my own personal opinion, you would want to stop the U.S. Custom, let him know that you're taking the firearm out of the country. So when they re-entry, you will have no problems explaining, you know, going through the red tape. But in the Bahamas, we will make sure that you have some place to lock it and then they will have a current number of all the rounds of ammunition. And then once you leave in the country, we'll make sure those ammunition and those rounds are the quarter you brought it in. U.S. Custom decal sticker may be purchased online, but this is also a requirement by U.S. Custom. And again, carry a part of licensing, medical, aircraft registration, all the stuff that you guys are used to carrying already. So these are some of the things that, for you at the parting, they make sure you have a checklist in place. Now, who could say, tell me which item this is? This part, this is part of the Bahamas. Anyone have a guess? You could say which item this is? Grand Bahamas, right. And you know, Grand Bahamas is only 60 nautical miles away, like we mentioned earlier, from Palm Beach. And you know, if you want nightlife and you want entertainment, well, you have two options. We go NASA and Grand Bahamas. And those ones are more or less like more, I guess, more upscale like Atlantis and NASA Faris Island. You could actually enjoy the all amenities of Las Vegas type review. And these are key. Now, in route to the Bahamas, what do I need? Also, you will need a Coast Guard, a proof life jacket for each person aboard. Now, life vests are not required. But if you feel comfortable with a life vest, I mean a life raft, I request that you take it with you. Because some of you will, you know, it's not required, but I just feel comfortable with it in the plane. Well, of course, we want you to feel comfortable in the country. Now, once you live in the U.S., you need to activate your flight plan. Open your flight plan. And you call Miami Radio. And any of these numbers, 122.4, 126.7, and you activate your flight plan. That's basically open your flight plan. And then what you do is just fly on over to the Bahamas. Prior to reaching your destination, you would want to close that flight plan. Now, if you're going into Grand Bahama, it's called Grand Bahama, and it'll close the flight plan for you. Now, if you're going into other islands, remember we talked about those RCOs? Now you are able to get NASA radio easily now, and you can close the flight plan. If you forget, you could also go to one of those blue phones and close the flight plan. So we try to make sure that we proceed to this operation. Now, also, we have WX brief in the Bahamas. Anywhere in the Bahamas, a toll-free number, and you can get a weather update right from FSS in the United States. That's one of the amenities that the flight service has put in place to make sure that you feel comfortable in a foreign country. And then one of the things we have the Bahamas customers put in place, you have three copies of the C7A form. Now, what is a C7A form? That's the entry general declaration that you fill out prior to clearing the Bahamas custom. Now, we can go online, Bahamas.com forward slash flying, and they have the forms online that you could download easily. And again, we have three copies of the C7A form. Some people after three, some people after four, but you can just download them. Also, immigration require that you fill out the immigration card. And this is one per person. This, once you have done that, come into this, this is Namaski. And again, fellow pilots, you'll see that this, the country is open, and then some of these places are only navigational by private aircraft. So these islands are basically seen mostly by private pilots. Commercial traffic does not go into walking, it means going to Namaski. I mean, you don't have a scheduled carrier going into Namaski. You have to have a charter plane or be a private pilot flying, or a boat or something like that. But fellow pilots, the Bahamas is open for you. This is a copy of the C7A form. And at the back of the room, we have some booklets and those booklets has the C7A form in it. Now, what you could do, you could also photocopy it and fill it out and then have it available prior to coming in, which make it easier. And maybe just fill in some, put it on your computer. And then, you know, once you go online and you detach it, you could start pre-flight and some of the stuff in and have it saved. So when you go to the Bahamas, you just put in the time and the way you go in different times, the names will be automatically in place. Again, you must fly, land at the first port of entry. Secondly, you must close your flight plan. Again, present identification, a pilot license, proof of citizenship, which is a passport, and two Bahamas customs and immigration officials. And three copies of the C7A form and a copy of the immigration card. And Bahamas customs, they know the drill and they will be more cooperative to get you through Bahamas customs. One of the things that this guy was saying that Greg, you know, coming to the Bahamas has really gotten easy over the many years. And I want to reason why is because pilots, you know, they custom saw the need to get the pilots to the Bahamas quickly as possible. So what you see is stamp, stamp, stamp, and then you're on the beach drinking a Bahama mama. That's what making it easy is about. So that's what you're all about. And so now this, and reason why I'm showing a lot of these aerial shots, because this is exactly what you see when you're flying your aircraft from there. This is Steinlil Key. And you say, wow, look at those, look at those waters. Look at those, you know. But this is what it's all about. You have an aircraft, you spend all that money on the highway aircraft, and you put the fun back in the flying. And you fly around and take a, you know, with a digital camera now, you know, before the high-tech came into being, you had to take a picture and then send it off or get it, you get it a photo, you know, and so forth. If you don't like it, say, man, I wasted this picture. But now it's a digital camera. If you don't like it, you delete it right there. And then, you know, this guy came by the booth. I say, he have 21,000 pictures. You've been coming to Bahamas many, many, many years. You see, every day he tried to take 100 pictures. You know? So, you know, these are the memories, you know, that you could have in the Bahamas. And then what's so good about this is so close. I'll share a story. This guy came by the booth. I said, Greg, I did your seminar a couple of years ago. I did an FA seminar, and I was thankful it would be interesting for having done this. I did the seminar, and you made it look so simple and so easy. I said, I told my wife, we've got to try it. And he said, we tried it. And we've been going back every year ever since. It's as easy as pie, you know? So, folks, I want to make this picture to you guys. Try it, and you'll probably be, you know what I'm saying? And also, we're also Twittering as well. So, you go Twitter.com forward slash Bahamas Flying. So, talk to us. Let us know what your concerns are. And I'm available 24-7 to answer your need, your questions. Landing in the Bahamas. Now, landing in the Bahamas is kind of a little different from landing. I mean, the procedure is the same. But in the Bahamas, we have a control airport. We have Nassau and Grand Bahama Island. And 25 miles out or 20 miles out, you'll contact approach an actual landing instruction. And they will give you, tell you what to do, you know? But that's only Nassau and Grand Bahama Island. Now, if we talk about pilots going to the Oath Islands, what about these Oath Islands? These uncontrolled airports. Now, I don't mean uncontrolled. They're all over the place. They're spreading all over the place. No tower. I mean, no one there. I mean, there's no towers. No one there to even say what the winds are, what direction and so forth and so on. The thing is with this, in a system that's being built up over the many years, everyone is able to keep up. So, you're coming in. They say within 20 miles or 25 miles, so you will want to announce your aircraft identification, your location and attention. And tell the pilots where you are. There's two-four tango en route, five miles, nine miles, runway nine. Any pilot in the area please comply. Anyone in their vicinity will automatically say, yeah, I'm at the threshold. I'm getting ready to take off the winds out of the west, so forth and so on. They will speak to you. So, this is very important that you announce those key points, your aircraft, your identification, your location and your attention. And what you do, the aircraft is, you know, pipe over whatever identification, so with your intention, I'm landing zero, nine-mile shabba. I make sure to call because, you know, because everyone will be on 122.8. I mean, all the islands are 122.8. So, you may be close to Treasury Key, and you're still here and say, I'm landing, you know, just say Mars Shabba. Now, one of the things we put in MSL is a thousand feet. And all the traffic is left-hand traffic. The partner is left-hand traffic. Now, sometime in the Bahamas, you know, you think you don't see no one, and you know the winds favors from the west and you won't take off from the east. And I said, you know what? I get a lot of power, and I'm empty. I'm a death-later, whipped-head, and get up and there and go. But you should follow the procedure because it may be a pilot on a short flight. You may just be, because of the sunset or the sun, maybe you may can't see it, and then it may cause an accident. So, you know, you try to follow those instructions. Because you go to the Bahamas, you go to some of those islands, you relax, you think you're in paradise. And I say, if nobody ran out, do what I well want to do. You know? Look at that. This is Sakata aircraft and TBM, and you can't let these guys have all the fun. I'm going to get a part of this, too. Okay, let's talk about experimental aircraft. Now, experimental aircraft, EA has a lot of experimental aircraft, sun and fun, a lot of the aircrafts here are experimental. But the Bahamas government has to prove, experimental, the coming to the Bahamas, it's no longer that you need to call the Bahamas customs or Bahamas silvation, said, I need an approval to come into the country. No, experimental owners, you could come in just like a regular aircraft. We have to shave off that red tape and just roll a capitol for you guys, as well. And these are some of the things, you know, the pilot license, the operating license, you know, that's the number of things, especially everybody's certificate, all those things on board, and the medical certificate. And once you land, the whole country is open for you. I want to thank fellow pilots, I want to say, because we talk about the Bahamas program, you will find that the Bahamian people are so hospitable, you know, you're not a worry about harassment, or people, you know, we are so accustomed to understand why you're here. You could enjoy your word, and people would be passing and the woman would bother you at all. If you can create a problem, let's say if you have a situation where you need help, they would be the foists to say, how can I help you? This guy came by the boot yesterday, and he was telling me this story about, he was on a golf cart, and he was drunk as a skunk. He used to tell the story, and he was on a golf cart in Harbor Island, and he was going on, he was riding on the wrong side of the road because then we brought him to the left-hand side in the Bahamas, you know, because, you know, instinct, go back on the left-hand side. But he's on the wrong side, and these guys from the Bahamas were coming up on the left golf cart, and so forth, and all of a sudden, he tried not to avoid hitting them, he tried to drag them, and in the summer, which is called the golf cart turnover, so he said, you know, he's drunk, you know, he couldn't do nothing, so these guys came down and helped him up, and he said, and they put him on his golf cart, and take him to the hotel. So he said, on the next morning, you know, they put the golf cart out of there, and they realized there was some dent, the fender was dented, there was martian, and these guys took the golf cart home, and they they they took out the dent, and threw it up, you know, and then carried by the hotel. So the guy said, would y'all do one of that? He said, yeah, because we were scared that they were going to tell us that we were running off the road, you know, but you know, that's the way, that's the way the Hemons are, they are very hospitable, and they make you feel welcome. Let's move on. Now, we have a problem a bit, Bahamas Customs charging overtime charges. You go to some islands and they charge you overtime. Well, because we have we have almost 23 ports of entry, and these islands are scattered all throughout. The Bahamas Customs, the head officers in Nassau, they will not be taken to staffed officers from Nassau and dispatch them to these various islands. Now, what that created? That created these little prime ministers of these little islands. So, you know, if you go to these small islands, you know, the Customs was almost like king up there, you know. So he felt that he is king, he's god, you know, and so they do not appear, you know, adhere to the manual. The manual said that there's no overtime charges for private pilots for pleasure. But now, if you come in, on charter, there is overtime charges for you. So, a lot of them is a great area that they can't distinguish whether you've chartered or you're for pleasure. But now, there's so much reports of it. Being proactive again, the controller custom writes a letter, a stern letter stating that there's no overtime charges for private pilots for pleasure at any parts of entry. We also have a copy of this letter inside the booklet in the box. So, if you go to the Bahamas and they want to charge you overtime, just open up your book to this letter from their boss which is the controller customs. The guy lets you where they are from, he is the man in charge. He says, no overtime charges. And you give him that information. Now, visit the Dallas to the Bahamas. There's no landing fees for you. Single engine aircraft on the 6,000 pound at any government-owned airport. Now, again, we mentioned about the private airport. If you go to the private airport, there may be landing fees for you. And the landing fees may run from 6 to 8 or 10 bucks. Again, we talked about overtime charges. There are none for you. And even if you're multi, there's no overtime charges. And again, I say, take that booklet because that booklet has a lot of information for you. It could save a day. There are no tie-down fees at any government-owned airport. Again, in the Bahamas, we don't have many tie-down facilities in the Bahamas. Now, we are now embarking upon a program called the Red Capital Service that we're going to be putting in place. And this is where we're going to get the high school kids to put chalks, you know, to build some chalks. We're going to chalk from all different islands. These islands are going to have the chalks where Abaco can have a different color. I'm just going to be a different color. Exuma, Abaco, Grand Bahama, and also we're going to have different colors of chalks. These chalks will be located within your rights. You could take those chalks up and take them back home with you because those would be what we want to be going to do. So in the next couple of months, we'll be rolling that program out. But the tie-downs, if you go to private airport, there may be tie-downs because they have a tie-down facility. Now, if you go to Tresquiz and some other islands which is government-owned, you may see someone robes coming up and said, excuse me, do you want to tie it on? Of course, he's doing he's just trying to do his own thing and he's bringing his own robes and so forth. So that's a special case. If you say no, then it's no deal with that. Now, this is taking off on a standard key. And again, the scenery is second to none. You could take these pictures and have stories to tell where you're being able to see and so forth. Visiting the islands of Bahamas, you're fueled. People talk about fuel. Again, fuel is no more than 20 minutes from any major if you fly you fly with any one of the islands fuel is only 20 minutes away. I think there's nine fueled places in the Bahamas. Night flying is something that, you know, is going on seriously but night flying is only in Nassau and Grand Bahama Island and night flying in the Bahamas you have to be IFR. Now, you know, before I got my license I was saying, why in the world you have to be IFR? I got my license only 47 hours and I could fly at night, you know, VFR. But, you know, it's only until I ran with a friend to Nassau and he's IFR and you know, after you get all over the water and it's pitch dark and you can't see nothing and he said take the wheel. I couldn't see no rising I couldn't see nothing and then I realized why that was in place so if you ever want to see why we have that in place, you know just get west and head west on the time of day and you'll see, you know, you'll see that no rising and that's why it's for safety we put in there. Maintenance and repair Nassau and Freeport and we have a couple of islands on Grand Bahama Island and Amar Shabo has maintenance facilities in place but also binding air service also have Cherokee 6 that they put in place that anyone need or system that, you know, you feel comfortable with binding air service to any location in the Bahamas to take care you need if you require maintenance or repair while visiting. Runway Lens and you know, this information is important to know if you find a very different aircraft and again, in the booklet we have an airport page and the airport page tell you exactly the runway lens and the all amenities are there and also the booklet in the back also tell you if it's government-owned aircraft or it's private it's part of entry or not like again, that information is very critical for you weather information, WX brief and then all the local numbers and again, we can use those blue phones to make sure that you have all that information at your fingertips now, as you already had a good time in the Bahamas and you enjoy you enjoy yourself immensely you want to get back again, coming to the Bahamas one component of it, getting back it's also critical because you need to get back home to your destination so what we do, we must depart from a part of entry an airport of entry you must file a flight plan you can file it with WX brief or you can file it with NASA radio with the blue phone again or you can just in the hotel room, just dial WX brief and in this model, you can dial WX brief in Miami or St. Pete and just file a flight plan away although you're in Mach-Abo it's in one circuit again, you must also call US customs to advise them with the ETA we have the blue phones available for you to get your that information and then you must present one copy of the general deck demigration card and also the flight plan now I must interject that the EAPIS which is going to be on May 18 is going to be coming in place so we will have that system in place so this may go to 178 178 form the US customs general declaration form that's going to go away but the EAPIS program you will then file the EAPIS program and you can do this ahead of time but we will have those like I mentioned earlier we will have those procedures in place for you so that it will make this process going back home easier as coming into the country and then each passenger over the age of 6 must pay a government to purchase tax and this is paid directly to the Bahamas government again this is Norma's Key you look at the beach it's perfect and it's great and then we have Hope Town these are some of the keys that you guys would love and that's why let's go to some of these keys and they actually love it these are some of the decals that makes the Bahamas so uniquely different from most other Caribbean destination again once you are part of the Bahamas you must activate your flight plan and this activation could be done with NASA radio now I know you may can't get Miami radio at this point but we have some remote Miami radio outlets 126.7 in the Mashaba area with those RCOs one of those is Miami remote you can in the Mashaba area you can get 126.9 and so file Miami radio again if you want to say I'm still uneasy or flying over the last body water for myself I need some help you can also get flight following and NASA approach would be more unhappy to oblige you with flight following again these guys are all the fun leaving us out and I enter in the United States one of the most critical thing and this is basically for VFR traffic only if you fly in IFR you don't need to get a transformer code this is only a code for VFR traffic and it would be like you would call Miami radio and ask Miami radio for custom code and this custom code this tells U.S. Custom that this aircraft passing the AIDAS has been identified and they will ask you a few questions and they will give you a VFR code one two and then two more letters and let this make sure that those F-16 and fighter jets will not be around you but one of the things too once we realize what we have to do and I told the U.S. Custom this week that we were trying to get AIDAS up and running once we tell pilot what to do they are the poisons who will do what is necessary because that's what they do they pre-check and do whatever it takes to get safely to and from you know and then once you reach the Florida area you close the flight plan and once the flight plan is closed if you get to close it you can do it on the ground or do it while you taxi in to the U.S. Custom facilities and you can do it on your cell phone if you are there because you will be active at that point in time and then when you land you have a backup entry now the thing that's with this you need to you cannot over-fly if you live here in Tampa which is also the point you must land at the east coast now you can ask for an overpass but if they don't grant you the overpass approval you have to land at the east coast and then take on over to Tampa and then once you get in there you can repeat the customs how well it bags take all the bags to repeat the customs and so forth and prepare your C-78 178 form in advance and then make sure get them all the way now we can talk about the flying but I'm not sure we have a at this point I want to interject and we have a video and this video folks up there we'll be running this DVD in a few minutes this DVD will tie in everything we either said this will give you a whole backdrop on how we could tie in all the to make sure that you have some more practice to see different parts of the Bahamas but also on that you can see US customs and they're talking about getting back in the United States which is very critical for us to come back to the Bahamas flying so it could roll out video if we could all rules and regulations are similar to the FAA but we subscribe to IKO regulations there are two airports in the Bahamas that has control tower which is Freeport and Nassau it's very simple flying into the Bahamas like I said because of the regulations it's similar to the FAA most flying into the Bahamas to the other islands other than Freeport and Nassau is from sunrise to sunset and VFR conditions those other airports are uncontrolled therefore whenever you're approaching the runway you will we're going to do we have a little mix up with this that's a portion where we have on our DVD we have different compartments we have the pilot procedures we have the hotel information it's Bahamas elevation but if you go to the pilot procedure program they'll tell you exactly how to get into the Bahamas it is lovely and you know but let's talk about if they get up and run you can interject and get me in but the Bahamas flying is also a critical part of this part of our program now you sit through this DVD you sit through this program and say you know what I want to go to the Bahamas but I'm still not sure Greg how to do it well would we have in place you have a program okay now at the bottom here now can I just press play right there and be alright and this is part of our program DVD so and you'll see get up and run but this gets you this gets you a better appreciation for what we do and once you press play then I'm going to shut up and I'll let you guys watch this because this is yeah hopefully we get it up and run and folks have some giveaways that I don't want you guys to leave because we have some giveaways because I have two pilot's guide which is 54 okay the islands of the Bahamas begin 55 miles off the Florida coast and are made up of 700 islands 30 of which are inhabited a vast area of 100,000 square miles visiting the islands of the Bahamas you must file a U.S. international flight plan before departing the U.S. and your first point of arrival in the Bahamas must be at an airport of entry each person aboard the aircraft must have a passport keep your aircraft registration available and check that your aircraft insurance policy extends to the Bahamas most do planes must have a mode C transponder 12-inch registration numbers on the plane and one U.S. coast card approved life jacket for each person life rafts are suggested but not required vests and optional life raft equipment can be inexpensively rented at most FBO's in south Florida a typical cruise altitudes radio reception is fine speaking with the choice of Miami or Nassau radio both Bahamas approach and Nassau center throughout the islands customs is a no-brainer you land, you fill out a C7A form once you get stamped then you're free to island hop until you leave the country offshore weather is usually good VFR because of the Gulfstream's moderating influence the weather generally remains in the 70s and 80s year round or trouble free navigation GPS is your best bet with VOR's and ILS approaches in Freeport and Nassau it can get a little breezy out here in the islands from water to land you have to consider wind shear upon arriving you must land at an airport of entry the first time you enter the islands normal hours for customs are 9 a.m. to 5 30 p.m. clearing customs is no problem all you do is fill out the Bahamian immigration card one per person and four copies of the C7A form with this single permit you can island hop with ease hello I'm John Obradovich my wife and I publish the Bahamas and Caribbean pilots guide first let's just say that when you fly to the Bahamas the hardest flying you'll do is when you go from wherever you live to Florida that's a lot more difficult in terms of restricted airspace and terrain and weather when you get to the Bahamas there is no terrain the highest point is 200 feet above sea level and the weather is almost always ideal it's 44 miles from the shoreline to the first island which is Bimini and from Bimini on there's virtually an island in sight all the time there's large land masses as well as there's small islands but you always seem to have land in sight and an island in sight the Bahamian government has developed a private pilots bill of rights no overtime customs and immigration fees for private aircraft visiting for recreational purposes and no tie down fees at any government owned airport Avgas is currently available at 9 airports in the islands you are never more than 20 minutes flying time away from fuel Avgas prices are similar to Florida's FBO's when departing surrender your copy of the immigration card and pay departure tax of $15 per person you must file an international flight plan with 800 WX brief or NASA radio in the air before takeoff you are required to contact us customs at your airport of entry one hour before arrival notifying them of your exact arrival time a phone call is the only way to comply once in the air you must contact Miami radio 15 minutes before penetrating the A-D-I-Z just past Bimini Hi, I'm David Grantham I'm a pilot with the United States Customs and Border Protection and in just a moment I'm going to be telling you about some procedures that will make your arrival back in the US go smoothly we all enjoy flying to new places and certainly one of the most beautiful and exciting destinations are the islands of the Bahamas but often when we think about flying foreign we might get a little apprehensive about clearing customs simply remember this prior to leaving the US have your paperwork in order and this will expedite your clearing procedure when you arrive in the islands of the Bahamas and don't forget at least one hour prior to leaving the islands you need to call your US airport of arrival and notify the customs official of your ETA if you don't have good cell phone coverage in the islands many of those islands actually have a free phone service that allow you to call back to the US and make this notification remember always fly safe and enjoy your trip to the Bahamas the electronic advanced passenger information system or EAPIS allows you to enter flight data online starting on May 18th 2009 private aircraft arriving and departing the United States require pilots of these aircraft to transmit notices of Bahamas arrival and or departure information to US customs electronically with a minimum of 60 minutes prior to departure through the EAPIS system Bahamas customs will make this process simple by providing computer kiosks at every Bahamas airport of entry so pilots can file EAPIS information on location additional information on this program on the Homeland Security website below you've got a plane you've got a playground over here it's very easy feel free to call the Bahamas tourist office at 800-327-7678 anytime so fly on over and as they say it's better in the Bahamas I'll be over there folks everyone is so excited to fly into the Bahamas they want to do it now what I want to do now I have some giveaways I mean I'm going to take these things back to the Bahamas if you have any questions you may have at this time any questions you may have I just had a question about your slide presentation where possibly we could get a copy of that it was really informative absolutely I mean one of the things we want to do we want to make sure we get a word out if you could just give me an email address and I can email it to you and you know by all means you take the slide presentation and you're an expert grab a couple of your friends pilot friends and you'll be the Greg Roll we want to do get the word out to every private pilot going to the country give me an email address and I will forward it to you in fact that was a very good that was a very good question that lady asked me I want to give one of these towers just being so kind okay go ahead I've heard a long time ago that you needed a radio operator permit to fly to the Bahamas is that still true radio license you don't need that see what we try to do we try to do it the same procedures that you guys used to do here in the United States now the radio license is on our books technically but the Bahamas you know they already moved out to books you have to go through a lot of parliament and you know and then bureaucracy we just flash it off but if you look at our books still there but we don't require radio license okay any more questions okay now let me ask you a question we're going to give away our next in fact we're going to give away one of these pilot books cost 56 bucks in the Bahamas we have ILS approaches who can tell me which which two islands we have the ILS approaches okay now it's on people that's good okay now I'm going to give away our next book now let me give the tower for you now in the Bahamas we have two we have one island two islands very close to the US can you name the closest island and also the nautical miles from the Florida coast yeah okay that's good I'm just going to give this away now this one we're going to do now a private pilot is going to fly to the Bahamas what is the requirement I mean if that's what you're going to explain