Fellow Pilots Team To Discover Old Aviation

By Grace Huseth

With recent commercial and travel developments in Cuba, pilots are itching to fly to the largest Caribbean island. Venturing down to Cuba is even easier for pilots using travel groups. In November a group with Baja Bush Pilots International will personally land their own aircraft in Cuba’s retro airports.

“Anyone can fly around the US, but going to Cuba is like going back 50 years,” said Baja Bush Pilots International president Jack McCormick.

McCormick has been leading flights south of the border to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for almost 15 years. This summer 20 pilots and friends flew to Cuba for the fourth time, but completed the last leg of the journey with a commercial flight. In November they proudly and confidently will check Cuba off their flying bucket list.

McCormick has built connections in Cuba and has formed a friendship with the Consulate General of Cuba, who happens to be a pilot.

“He personally invites us and gives us insight to the finer things in Cuba. The OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) has given us the ‘go ahead’ so we will soon be on our way,” McCormick said.

McCormick says flying to Cuba is like going back in time to the golden days of flight. In November they will spend 10 days in a historic flight that may be one of the first GA caravan flights into Cuba.

Last year, the Cuba trip flew into Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport and toured all that Havana had to offer, including driving to neighborhoods Cojimar and Miramar in classic American cars and taking Salsa dancing lessons.

Private pilots might also be interest in flying into one of Cuba’s less developed airports like Antonio Maceo in Santiago, the second largest city in Cuba and home of the music and the best-preserved Spanish-American military architecture based on Italian and Renaissance design principles.

FMI: www.bajabushpilots.com