Hankal wrote:

I live in SE florida and some of my pilot friends fly to the Bahamas. Now they
charge $15.00 per head just to land.

They've charged landing fees for years, but you can usually get around them if
you're (ahem...) creative with your "flight crew" (i.e. pilot, co-pilot, second
officer, navigator), etc. I can't remember us ever having to pay a pax charge over
there. :-)

Plus the hassle with customs and FSS.

Hassle? Haven't made the trip post-9/11, so I don't know what the norm is lately -
but it used to be that customs would only ask us to open a bag or two, would
sometimes ask for an estimate of how many US-registered planes were on the ramp at
our departure airport (I guess to get a gauge as to what their workload was going
to be later on), then told us to have a nice day and sent us on our way.

I've heard horror stories about customs ordering pilots to practically disassemble
the plane on the ramp, but for us they were always pleasant and professional.

Never saw anything in the Bahamas that I wanted.

You really should get out more often... ;-)

Great boating, diving, snorkeling, fishing, eating, island-hopping, etc. etc. etc.
Just a great place to get away from it all, plus the natives are really friendly.

All within an easy couple hours' flight from the US mainland. I'd go back tomorrow
given the chance.

--

GregR - Another Beemer Biker ...o&o

CA/IFR/BGI - KVNY

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