My dream: Flying an airplane by myself in the Dominican Republic!

You only have to bring your own aircraft, as it not possible to rent one there. So I flew on 13th April 1999 with American Airlines to Miami, where a friend of mine joined me. At the same day I did the checkout for the aircraft. The next day we used for some flying in Florida.

The following day we left early towards Puerto Plata:

Our route:

To Puerto Plata:                           Date       Flying-Time       Distance

Kendall - Exuma                       04/15/99         2:55        297nm/550km

Exuma - Providenciales             04/15/99         2:28        233nm/431km

Providenciales - Puerto Plata     04/15/99         1:45        172nm/318km

Back to Miami:

Puerto Plata - Stella Maris         04/23/99         3:20        372nm/689km

Stella Maris - Kendall                04/24/99         3:00        320nm/592km

Here a selection of photos:

Kendall-Tamiami Executive KTMB

Shortly after takeoff from Exuma

The photos can´t really reproduce the turquoise water around the Bahamian islands.

During our second refueling-stop at Providenciales. The fuel would have been sufficient to go nonstop to Puerto Plata. But with more than 100 NM over water north of Puerto Plata it would not have been enough to fly back to Grand Turks in case of a thunderstorm or other problem.

Approach to runway 08 in Puerto Plata

The man in the white pants became a pain in the a.. during our stay in POP. Every day he came up with new rules and regulations, but he couldn´t give us real information.

Along the coast: Rio San Juan...

Playa Caleton

Hotel Caribbean Village Playa Grande with beach

“Our village”: Abreu

Playa Diamante, southeast of Cabrera

Shipwreck between Cabrera and Nagua

Low Approach in Santiago

On the way back to the USA...

Approach to Stella Maris

Our aircraft (a Cessna 172) and I at Stella Maris, in the background the terminal ;-)

(More aerial photos on the pages about  Monte Christi and Samana as well as in the “Special: Northcoast” )