Veracity Aviação

Summary

2009-10-25T07:37:00.001-07:00

An approximate summary of our trip:
9 days
12 countries
25 fuel stops
58.9 hours flying
940 gallons of Avgas
100 knot average ground speed

Countries Visited
United States
Bahamas
Turks and Caicos
Dominican Republic
Saint Maarteen (Netherlands)
Guadeloupe (French)
St. Vincent
Trinidad and Tobago
Guyana
Suriname
French Guiana
Brazil

Final Delivery

2009-10-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

The last day of flying was a good one. We had mostly clear skies all the way down. The new owner was at his ranch with his family so we made a stop there to show them the new helicopter and take some of his family up for a quick spin. Afterwards we were off to Curitiba which would be the last leg of a very long flight. It was a great way to finish because we saw some amazing waterfalls on the way. After 2 hours of flying, we landed at the new hangar and our journey was complete.

One of many small lakes

Most of the land was used for farming

Derrick taking new owner and kids up for a spin

Waterfall

Curitiba

7.3 miles to go!

Our last final approach

Parked outside her new hangar

Delivered!

Brazil Continued

2009-10-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

Today's flights took us deeper into Brazil. Most of the land was used for farming. The elevation gradually increased until we were flying in some small mountains. All in all, a great day of flying.

One of the many, many airports we stopped at for fuel

Hydro power is common in Brazil

Getting hilly

Beautiful place and completely deserted

These were ranging around 4000'

A cool waterfall

Up close

French Guiana to Brazil

2009-10-25T06:05:00.001-07:00

We were more than eager to get up and get moving out of French Guiana. Our first leg was three hours to Macapa, Brazil. Here we met up with a Brazilian pilot (Pedro) who would be flying with us the rest of the way. He helped us get through all of the import documentation, customs and immigration. The import process was well organized and after a quick lunch, we were back in the air. We made one more fuel stop before we stopped in a small Brazilian town for the night. We had a good meal and a good sleep which is much needed on a trip like this. The sad part of this day of flying was seeing all of the forest being burned down. I was more than happy to have some open fields to land in in an emergency but still sad to see whole sections of forest burning the size of several states.

Early morning flight over the Amazon

Pedro and Derrick in front

More signs of clear cutting

Active burning of the forrest

There was smoke for hundreds of miles

Can see actual flames here

Why are they having us hold here?

Yes that is a jet coming at us

Sunset in Brazil

This is just a normal sized bug here

Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana

2009-10-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

After another early morning wakeup (almost getting use to them) we headed out on the 30 mile ride back to the airport. I am fairly certain that riding in the taxi is much more dangerous than the actual flying over the jungle we are doing. Our first flight of the day took us to Suriname where we got held up for a while. We actually had to fly to one airport to pay fees before we could fly to the one that actually had Avgas. From there we jumped on over to French Guiana. We wanted to cover more ground today but we lost time in Suriname, we lost an hour because we were now in a different time zone and the next leg was 3 hours long. Putting all those things together meant we would still be flying after the sun went down and there was no way we were going to do that over the Amazon. This entire day we flew over jungle. I probably subconsciously checked the engine instruments 5,000 times to make sure we weren't having any issues that would force a landing attempt. Overall it was a pretty long day and we were hoping for a good hotel to sleep at. The airport seemed nice and we had had good luck with the French but the town in French Guiana was awful. The only good hotels were full so after about an hour of walking around, we found a place to stay. It was about 105 degrees in the room but it was shelter I guess.

Places like this look like long runways after 5 hrs of nothing but solid jungle

A small river in the jungle

Starting to get some hills

Some of the first signs of clear-cutting

Still haven't figured out what you are supposed to do here

St. Vincent to Guyana

2009-10-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

Saint Vincent was amazing. Everyone was friendly and there was great swimming, food and drinks. From Saint Vincent we flew to Trinidad and Tabogo where we had to dodge some rain to get in and then pay ridiculous landing fees on the ground. It took 2.5 hrs just to pay the fees before we had to start up, hover taxi to the other side of the airport and shut down for fuel. All in all they got us for around $600 for 30 gallons or so of fuel. Then off to Guyana. This was our longest stretch over water. It was a bit dicey trying to avoid a storm and Venezuelan airspace at the same time. Finally after a good two hours, we spotted land :) What a relief to be done flying over the ocean...or so I thought. From then on, all the way into the airport it was solid jungle! And by that I mean trees 200 feet high so thick we never saw the ground. After a while I started missing the Atlantic. The good thing was that on the way in we talked to some other R-44 pilots and we met up with them in Guyana. They knew where to stay so we went with them and got a good hotel and dinner.

Hotel in St. Vincent

Bay where we stayed and went swimming

The Grenadines

Diverting around weather at Trinidad

First land sighting in 2 hours (South America)

Solid jungle canopy as far as the eye can see

Water in all directions

2009-10-20T18:32:00.000-07:00

Coolest Island Ever

2009-10-20T17:58:00.000-07:00

Some pics from our journey to St. Vincent below. The further we go South, the better it gets. Wish I had time to write more but currently enjoying life too much. I am even almost getting use to flying in a small piston powered helicopter over the ocean...almost.

Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico

2009-10-20T03:41:00.000-07:00

The flights just keep getting better! Our next flight took us from Exuma, Bahamas to Turks and Caicos. Turks was rather populated and the landing fees were ridiculous but we kept on moving with a long leg over water to the Dominican Republic. I had no idea what to expect but it was absolutely stunning. There were lush mountains that came right down to white sand beaches and the water was as clear as I have ever seen. Easily the best place yet.

After some fuel, we were off to Puerto Rico. Being American citizens, we figured since we were going back into the US, everything should be easy. We were wrong. We landed on the West coast just before sunset and were exhausted. After we shut down, we were greeted by 4 border patrol agents who gave us a hard time for the next hour. Then they told us we had to go to San Juan international for clearance even though we told them we didn't have enough fuel to get there, it was night, we were tired and their was a warning for volcanic ash. All we wanted to do was go to bed, but instead we took off (luckily found fuel) and headed to San Juan where we waited and waited and waited....

Finally the officials came, cleared us and we were off. From talking to other pilots, it sounds like staying in the Domincan Republic would have been much less hassle.

Bahamas

2009-10-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delayed post. We have been flying non-stop. The flight leaving the US was incredible. We ended up having to wait tell late in the day because of afternoon thunderstorms but it was absolutely worth it. From Ft. Lauderdale we flew to Nassau, Bahamas then to Exuma where we stayed the night. Exuma was hot and humid but the people were friendly and hard to beat the coastline on the way in. I wish I had posted more earlier but this is a video of us leaving the US and a pic from the flight.

Much more soon I hope...

1000 Miles in one day

2009-10-17T08:26:00.001-07:00

The first thing you need to know about our trip is that Derrick is a morning person and I am not. Although we worked late Friday night, we needed to get to Fort Lauderdale on Saturday which meant getting up at 4am…about 2.5 hrs after I went to sleep. What a great start to a trip to another hemisphere of the world! After some final packing of the helicopter we took off out of New Braunfels at about 6:30 am. It was dark and overcast but we were on our way.

The sun started to rise by the time we made it to Houston. We got vectored around intercontinental but after getting over downtown, were turned back on course and headed on our way. After 2 hrs and 20 min we set down in Beaumont, TX with plenty of fuel left on board. After a quick turn we were back at it and on our way.

After several more hours of flying we were into Louisiana and over some remote terrain. There was nothing to see but trees. Not a place and would want to land or live for that matter.

After the skies opened up, it turned out to be a perfect day for flying. This was taken flying over the Mississippi River. The second one is in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Once we got into Florida, the scenery was even more amazing and we got the lowest altitude clearance I have ever heard. ATC told us to stay at or below 300' above the ground.

We didn't get into Ft. Lauderdale until about 8pm. A good bit after dark. In total it was about 10.5 hours of flying. It was an exhausting flight but we made it and rewarded ourselves with a good steak afterwards.

Here is a short video in Pensacola.

Tomorrow we head to the Bahamas!

Tracking

2009-10-17T05:34:00.001-07:00

No time to blog now but the tracking link was not correct. To see our progress updated every 10 minutes, view this link:

http://www.spotadventures.com/user/profile?user_id=48495

Trip of a Lifetime - Flying from Texas to Brazil

2009-10-05T13:10:00.000-07:00

Here at Veracity Aviation we are known for not letting anything hold us back to complete the mission whether that happens to be flying on short notice to Mexico or just working from 5am to midnight to help get a student through their training as fast as possible. Along those lines comes our newest adventure where the owner (Derrick Smith) and I (Kevin Mackenzie) will fly a helicopter from Texas to Brazil to deliver to a new customer. We wanted to share the experience with everybody and will be blogging with pics and stories every chance we get so here we go...

So here I am coming up on the big 3-0, that is to say that I am turning 30 at the end of the month (Halloween to be exact) and I must admit that I have not been looking forward to this day. On too many birthday’s, I have ended up going out with friends downtown in Austin. It has always been fun but not as adventurous as I would have liked. In my late teens and early 20s, I was fortunate enough to travel all over the world via airline passes from my dad who has since retired (well kind of). My first overseas trip, in fact, took me to Italy and Egypt where my older brother and I ended up sleeping on the streets more than one night and sharing power bars that we convinced ourselves constituted as lunch and dinner. It was some rough travelling but 25 countries, 6 continents and more stories than people care to listen to (i.e. riding motorcycles through Thailand, climbing mountains in Ecuador, Safaris in Africa), I look back and know that I have seen more than most people ever will.

Getting back to turning 30 – I realized that the latter half of my 20s, I spent very little time travelling internationally. I did some travelling for work around the US but nothing that came close to the adventurous I had when I was younger. For my birthday I had pretty much given up on anything more exciting than another night on 6th until my boss, Derrick, told me that he sold one of our helicopters to a company in Brazil (South of Rio de Janeiro). More importantly, he told me we would be ferrying the helicopter down there ourselves. Sounds like my kind of adventure!

Flight Plan with LOTS of fuel stops

I have always wanted to fly a small aircraft to a cool destination, but this trumps anything I had ever dreamed of. The trip will cover about 5,000 nautical miles through multiple countries (some of which I had not even heard of before) starting here in Texas, then over to Florida, down through the Caribbean, then Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and finally Brazil. Since helicopters don’t tend to have great range, we will be stopping often on the way down for fuel. I don’t mind though because some of our stops will include Turks and Caicos, Trindiad and Tobago, Rio de Janeiro and more. As luck would have it, not only will we be flying over some of the most beautiful places on earth, but we will also be doing it in style. The Robinson R-44 we will be flying is one of the nicest I have ever seen. It has air conditioning, leather, moving map GPS, Bose headsets and more.

Rio de Janeiro

Grand Turk

Since we will be flying a piston powered single-engine helicopter over open water for extended periods of time there is, of course, some risk involved but we will do our best to minimize that risk by proper preparation and planning as well as taking plenty of emergency equipment. Let’s all just hope that Derrick doesn’t have to use any of his rescue swimming skills he learned in the Navy.

The trip will likely take about two weeks to complete and we hope to post pictures and stories from our trip every night. We will also have a map setup showing our progress in near real time. Check back often to see how we are doing and feel free to leave us comments!

-Kevin