Flying to Cuba tomorrow.....

What a bunch of paperwork. And the fun thing is its changing weekly.

Wish me luck.

 

Enroute now over S Mexico. Way too short of a trip. I'll write a more detailed report tomorrow. But yea, flew into MUHA, Universal did the trip support. Local agent was in the weeds. My Sat phone saved my bacon a few times......I think that little piece of gear was illegal haha. Hauling back some Cohibas, rum and trinkets for the dispatchers.

 

This is a cut and paste I wrote for our company Ops to put in the Cuba Binder. Kind of an 'Oh,by the way etc.' Universal Aviation and Trip Support did all the handling and permits (713-378-2783). There was about 15 small twins with N registration on the ramp when we left yesterday, so it can be all that complicated. Basically you have to clear US customs from a US international airport. US customs must notify the State Department(?) within 1 hour of your departure. The State Department will have cleared all persons to travel to Cuba before hand and approved their reason for the trip. There are 12(?) approved reasons to go there.

Here is my after trip report for the company:

U.S. cell phones are useless, but they take great pictures. Some U.S. carriers like Sprint and Verizion have roaming agreements with Cuba, but coverage is spotty at best. DO NOT TAKE A SAT PHONE. They are forbidden. At best you will get it taken away and possibly deported. At worst, go to prison like the last guy...I'm serious, Google it. Stand alone GPS receivers need to be left on the plane as they are also illegal. American Credit Cards / ATM cards are not accepted for anything by law and will not work in any ATM. Universal has a way to book/pay for hotels along with crew transport to and from hotel. Everything else must be paid for in Cuban cash that they will be more than happy to exchange for you.

Cash.......take plenty of it. The hotel will exchange it for local currency and take a 17% cut (approx). By law, they must take 10% and the other percentage is the hotels cut. A bank might give a better exchange rate but you will always have to pay the 10%. If you plan on getting catering, your hotel is the best bet.......and will need to be paid for in cash. The caterers on the field do large quantities for airliners and are not recommended by the handlers. $120 USD per person, per day should be fine for food/drinks.

Handling agent; We used Universal as per our Ops. The Handlers in Cuba try really hard, so be patient and expect the unexpected. Handler does not have any form of refrigeration or freezer, so plan on taking your catering/ambergris to the hotel. No food was confiscated on arrival. As of this writing, the handler could only communicate with Universal via Email. Print out all documents / flight plans and take it with you to the airport. Don't count on the handler to have a paper copy of your gen dec etc.

Crew transport; if you are a 3 person crew, request 2 cars. Otherwise they will try to stuff at three of you plus luggage and catering in a 1993 Toyota Tercell or possibly a 1952 Buick Roadmaster. They might be able to get some sort of crew van, but be specific or you will get a 60 passenger bus.

Ice; Confirm they have enough for your departure beforehand (remember they have no freezers) It's always in short supply at the airport and needs to be ordered from a caterer and be specific in the size and quantity.

If you are lucky, your hotel will have some sort of Wifi.......and if you are really lucky, it will work about as fast as the Wifi on your plane. VoIP apps like What's App didn't work for us anywhere, but the texting portion worked fine. They use the round, two prong Euro style of electronic outlets.

Most locals are super friendly and love Americans. But walking around at night isn't recommended out side of the touristy areas. Our nice hotel was surrounded by poverty like most places, so be smart and keep together outside.

Rum and Cigars. You can bring back $100USD worth of tobacco and or alcohol. The only places to get authentic Cohibas etc is in the factory shops or the cigar stores in 'luxury' hotels. Everything else is fake. Selling tourists counterfeit cigars is their national pastime........and building cars out of spare parts. Rum is about the same price everywhere, so don't kill yourself looking for a deal.

Good luck, have fun and wear sunscreen.

We stayed at the Melia Habana Hotel. Big, nice modern joint. Two pools, three specialty restaurants on the water. The Hotel Nacional is the famous hotel where heads of state stay and is in the heart of old town. I would try to stay there next time as it was booked for our trip. I would recommend going sooner than later before there is a Starbucks on every corner. Cuba is still stuck in the 50's officially but the people are starving for outside culture and modern conveniences.

 

Forgot to mention. Fchat.com was the only website I couldnt log onto. Gun sites, Ebay, AOL, FoxNews No problem. Tried to log on with my phone, laptop and Ipad.

 

Actually I kept getting the same error message, "Can not connect to server". It was like the computer could not connect to the wifi, but seconds later I could log onto other sites no problem.

I even tried googling Ferrarichat and going in by the search results. Like I said, nothing worked on multiple devices.