Page 18 - Volume 20 Number 8
P. 18
for my fuel caps and the other my vent window. This triggers all kinds of mis-fueling concerns, but then I see “Avgas 100LL” printed quite clearly on the truck’s enormous tank. Still ill-at-ease, I ask the driver if the truck really contains “gasolina”. He replies, “Si, capitan, es gasolina por el avion, no es jet.” Finding the price is $3.25 per gallon, I decide to top off, even though U.S. bank-based credit cards are not accepted. I ask one of the supervisor types why fuel is so cheap; he says it is because Castro himself (the apparent source of all things good) made a special deal with Chavez in Venezuela. Works for me.Fueling taken care of, we are given a ride, in a new air-conditioned crew van of some obscure foreign manufacture, to the customs and immigration section of the airport terminal and are quickly processedA bus ride into Havana follows, where we spend a week with new friends from the Twin Cessna group seeing the sights, visiting with the locals, riding around in 1955 Chevys, looking in tobacco barns, eating whole-roasted suckling pig, smoking the occasional cigar, and drinking yet more “mohitos”. The average Cuban on the street feels their economy could be doing a lot better, and they make it clear they are looking forward to the opening up of business with the U.S.The return flight at the end of the week is just as simple. There was minimal administrative fuss from the ground-based bureaucrats, a straight-out departure from MUHA runway 06 to TADPO intersection, followed by a left turn and hand- off Miami Center, landing at KEYW twenty minutes later. Even U.S. Customs and Immigration at Key West were welcoming.with very little hassle. We are then welcomed by some very attentive airport hospitality staff, who offer us “mohitos”, a mixture of rum (lots), water (not much), ice (some), mint leaves (a few) and sugar, and are told this was Ernest Hemingway’s favorite drink. An opportunity is offered to change U.S. dollars for what they call “Cucs”, a special form of currency intended for visitors carrying U.S. dollars, which I take advantage of to pay the fuel bill.no longer so. T&T •At one time Cuba may have been“forbidden territory”, but that is justKevin Ware is an ATP who also holds CFI, MEII and helicopter ratings, and is typed in several business jets. He has been flying for a living on and off since he was 20, and currently works as a contract pilot for several corporations in the Seattle area. When not working as a pilot, he is employed parttime as an emergency and urgent care phy sician for a large clinic in the Seattle area.16 • TWIN & TURBINEAUGUST 2016