Page 14 - Volume 20 Number 8
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CUBAFlying ToFORBIDDEN TERRITORYJust how hard could it be? A 90-mile flight on a sunny, 70-degree, late-spring morn- ing, at a weather-friendly latitude of 24 North with a high pressure system covering the entire area, flying in loose company of other aircraft with similar performance. Yet, there was a palpable sense of tension during the somewhat informal pre-flight briefing; irritable and short-tempered pilots were making themselves apparent. The angst was because the trip was to heretofore forbidden territory... the cold war, nuclear missile- threatening, Russian-friendly, communist country of Cuba.I was here because I had given a talk for Bob Thomason on Aircraft Performance at the annual Twin Cessna Flyer owners’ meeting in Charleston, SC. Following the meeting, 22 members took advantage of a follow-on week-long trip to Cuba. My wife Kari and I decided to join the group’s trip to Cuba, all nicely organized by Catherine Tobenas of International Air Rally (www.airrally.com), flying in our own Cessna 340.12 • TWIN & TURBINEBy Kevin E. Ware, ATPThe flight itself could not besimpler. From Key West, FL (KEYW), a short 53-nm leg on a bearing of 238 to the MAXIM intersection, which is on the border of U.S. airspace, is followed by a left turn to 190 and an even-shorter 49-nm leg to the FARAC intersection, just 15 miles north of the Cuban shoreline. The FARAC 1 arrival is a couple of left turns that finish at AVSAK, the initial approach fix for the Havana (MUHA) 06 ILS. No complicated multiple fix choices or transitions, no airframe ice, no convection, and all in visual conditions...not at all difficult.However, there a few anomalies you need to be aware of.A lot of countries define ‘Flight Levels’ (where the altimeter is set to 29.92) at some random altitude well below 18,000 feet, as does Cuba. On the FARAC 1 arrival, you are at a “Flight Level” all the way down to 3,000 feet, regardless of local barometric pressure. The key is to just listen to the controllers. If they say “descend (or climb) to Flight Level 040”, you know your altimeter should be at 29.92 when you are at 4,000 feet, as opposed to the local barometric setting.Havana’s undulating single runway 6.AUGUST 2016


































































































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