Well, the AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) website had listed some contacts who needed help in Haiti. One of the people who was listed was Jim from "Caribbean Flying Adventures" who incidentally arranged my Cuba over flight permits. I spent a few days trying to track down Jim (who was busy flying in supplies from Florida) and finally got a hold of him on Thursday night. He told me that a group of pilots from New Jersey were flying a group of 12-18 doctors/staff and all of their equipment from the Dominican Republic into Haiti and that they were a few aircraft short. I thought that the useful load of my Mooney would be too small he responded...."No load is too small".
A VERY quick reshuffling of my schedule and some very supportive friends allowed me to make the trip.... it sort of went like this.
1) dump Tyler off in Grand Cayman (thanks again buddy!) where he would later catch a commercial flight into Montego Bay.
2) try to get to Kingston before night fall where I had arranged with cousin Shane to pick me up and empty my airplane of all unnecessary items which I would pickup on my return trip (thanks Shane!)
3) Sleep and get back to the Kingston airport first thing Saturday morning and fly to the Dominican Republic.
With the exception of not getting enough sleep, it all went remarkably well...until I tried to leave Kingston.
I wanted to leave first thing in the morning so I arrived at the Norman Manley (Kingston International) at 6:00AM when I was told they would open. Of course, being on Island time, nobody showed up until 7:00AM. Then the real problems started.
When I filed my flight plan to the Dominican Republic, I was told that I was not allowed to fly through Haiti's airspace. They wanted me instead to fly about 150 miles further over the ocean and go around. Absolutely not my first choice in a single engine airplane.
After the earthquake, the US took over control of Haiti's airspace. Miami Center had recently issued a NOTAM which prohibited aircraft from flying though Haiti's airspace. Further, VFR flights through Haiti were also forbidden.
As I was going to assist with Humanitarian aids, I asked if Kingston Control would negotiate with Haiti for me...the answer was a simple NO.
Well, those of you who know me, know that I DO NOT GIVE UP easily... here's the short version of what happened.
1) I called Miami Center who inform me that in fact they never controlled the airspace (even though the NOTAM which prevented me from flying through Haiti was issued by them). The airspace was in fact controlled by the US military.
2) I tracked down somebody at Kendall AFB (in Miami) who told me that yes, they did in fact control the airspace but that the control was now covered by another military unit.
3) who I then contacted who told me... no they no longer controlled the airspace. AAARRRRGGGHHH!!!!!
4) I explained my story to a Capt. Rich Gough on detachment in the U.S. from the Canadian Military. He understood my situation and started trying to negotiate a clearance for me.
5) After a few calls back to Rich who was still working on a solution, I made the suggestion that I file a flight plan to Port-au-Prince which would allow me to fly into Haiti's airspace as I was actually "planning" to land there. As I got close, I would "re-file" to the Dominican as previously planned. Rich agreed that this would work and would probably be the fastest solution....
6) However, this would require a landing slot in Port-au-Prince, which they (where Rich was based) controlled only for large jets, smaller aircraft landing slots were now controlled by somebody else.
7) Rich put me on hold once more and returned with... a landing slot (probably meant for something much larger like a 737) for GKNT.
So.... 4 hours later... the equivalent of a few minutes in Island time, I was on my way....
My first look at Haiti.
The irony is that for the 60+ minutes that I was in Haiti's airspace, with many repeated attempts, I NEVER talked to anybody at Port-au-Prince control. I highly doubt that they even cared whether I was there or not.
I finally made it into Higuero, Dominican Republic (MDJB) by mid-afternoon where Jochen, Jordan, and Tomoharu 3 pilots from New Jersey had been flying doctors and supplies into Jacmel, Haiti (MTJA) all day.
The UN also based some of their activities there...
I took a 20 minute nap in the terminal building, loaded up GKNT with luggage and supplies for the doctors and left for my first trip into Jacmel, a small strip on the south shore of Haiti straight south of Port-au-Prince
Final approach into RWY 18 Jacmel...
Nice strip, a few dangerous humps, high terrain on the approach end and palm trees.
Here's a few pictures of the "control tower"
The airport was in fact, controlled by the Canadian military... When I mentioned that they were the first controllers that I was able to understand in the last 10 days, I got the response "...we get that a lot".
The next picture is departing Jacmel to return to the Dominican. Note the sun slowly setting... night VFR is prohibited in the Dominican....Oh well.
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