Flying a Skylane From Canada to Belize

“Hey, do you want to go to Belize?”

“What? Sure!”

This was the actual conversation that started the journey for this green commercial pilot. The year was 2017, and I was two months into my first pilot job flying skydivers in the C182 at a small Canadian drop zone, when my boss approached me with this question. Our company had been offered an opportunity to fly a winter contract in Belize running the same skydive operation for the winter months of our off season, and we were quite excited about the prospect. This would require ferrying our little Cessna all the way down there, and I was eager and a bit nervous in anticipation of this daunting task. The final route flown took me 3,600 nautical miles from Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, Canada across mountains, desert, rural farmland, cities, ocean and coastal jungles to Belize City, Belize!

My 3,600 mile route from British Columbia, Canada to Belize City, Belize.

All the planning, packing and preparation was finally done, and the day came to depart. This came after a week of weather delay with some of the thickest fog I had ever seen blanketed Vancouver Island. Our airplane is certified for day VFR operations only, so my progress was at the mercy of daylight length and good VMC.

My progress for the trip would be at the mercy of daylight length and good VMC.

Day 1

The first leg of my flight was international and short—30 minutes across the Strait of Georgia brought me into Bellingham International (KBLI) in Washington to clear US customs. All our paperwork was in order and I was in and out in 10 minutes. I checked THE weather and made plans for the next leg.

My original plan was to cut across the valley routes through Washington, Oregon and through Boise, Idaho, but all the valleys in the Pacific Northwest were socked in with impenetrable fog, and were forecasted to stay for days. My employer wanted me to make headway regardless, so I continued my way down the West Coast, looking for a clear route across the mountains with no luck.  My first day wound up finishing just outside Portland, Oregon in a town called Troutdale. I had a long way to go yet as I had only covered 276 miles that day.

Day 2

The second day of my journey started with more promising prospects, though this would include some VFR on top time through the Oregon valleys. After conversing with the weather briefer, I was confident that the weather would be clear at my planned destination of that leg in Winnemucca, Nevada. The weather was just as expected as I cleared the Blue Mountains at 9,500 feet and heard aircraft on the radio shooting ILS approaches into the solid cloud layer in the valley below me. Upon reaching southeastern Oregon and western Nevada, I had clear skies and an uneventful flight.

My second and final leg for that day was planned to St George, Utah.  The weather again was forecasted to be favorable with a tailwind the whole way to boot!  This was indeed the case as I observed my GPS indicated ground speed to be 165 Knots. This leg of the trip was the most desolate and remote terrain I had ever flown over with mountain peaks reaching 11,000 feet, and long stretches of  seemingly soulless desert.

Day 2 included flying over the most desolate and remote terrain I had ever flown over with mountain peaks reaching 11,000 feet.

My approach into St. George Regional Airport (KSGU) brought some unexpected views for which I was not prepared. Upon clearing the Pine Valley Mountain range, I began my descent once clear of its 10,000-foot peak past breathtaking red sandstone cliff walls to the 2,800 ft elevation field. I had an unexpected gust of wind at short final with full flaps, and somehow my flap lever disengaged and all my flaps dumped out at once! Fortunately, I reacted quickly with nose down and smooth power application and continued a stable approach without having to initiate the go around. I later determined that the flap lever was not fully locked into position on the final setting.

Day 3

The next day of my journey would clear me out of the mountains with my first landing in Moriarty, New Mexico (KOEO). I encountered unexpected headwinds to start, slowing my groundspeed down to 75 knots at times. Fortunately, I had planned for delays such as this with fuel considerations, along with having a ferry tank with an additional two hours of cruise fuel. This leg also brought me over the most memorable place I had ever flown at the time: Marble Canyon. I have no words to describe this remarkable view.

I have no words to describe this remarkable view of Marble Canyon.

I completed the rest of the leg with a routine flight and some more mountain terrain with spectacular views although I did encounter solid cloud ceilings with the terrain sometimes less than a thousand feet below me and the cloud layer 500 feet above.

Landing in Moriarty was somewhat odd and memorable, as I was expecting a busy airport with its long runways and did not encounter a single soul. I saw tumbleweeds blowing by and just had to laugh.

My final leg for this day became very uneventful as the terrain began to drop from here and was featureless and flat. I found it amusing how I was missing the stress and excitement of the more hazardous mountains. I completed the day in Addison, Texas, giving me a taste of busy Dallas airspace and how little priority I was compared to the big guys. I was three miles from my destination for about 30 minutes as they vectored me around and around.

Day 4

The following day brought more straightforward and uneventful flying. I crossed the remainder of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and continued into Florida. I ended the day in Daytona Beach (KDAB), where the plane would receive its required 50-hour inspection, as per Canadian Commercial aircraft standards.

After spending the weekend in Daytona, I departed Monday afternoon for Key West, after a quick detour to Deland, Florida to pick up some parts and say hello to the staff at my old flight school.  For the route to Key West, I followed the coast down, and the highway through the Keys, arriving into Key West right at sunset.

Day 5

This was it, the long and final leg—580 nautical miles from Key West to Belize City, with half of that over straight, open ocean. Many have asked why we picked the long way around via Florida, so I will add that our routing was planned to avoid flying through Mexico as my employer was worried about the potential hassle involved since they had never done this before. In retrospect, it would likely have not been too difficult, but international ferries were new to all of us.

I was certainly anxious as I lined up on runway 27 at Key West, knowing that upon clearing the end, that I would not see land in my single engine plane for 250 miles. Enroute, I experienced solid cloud layers for 80 miles, an ATC rerouting away from Cuba that added 50 miles to my flight, and some erratic instruments at times. I lost my GPS for 30 minutes and had to hold compass headings, and had lost contact with ATC for a while in my transition from Miami to Havana Center. Additionally, the needle on my altimeter at one point was swinging through 500’ increments!  One can imagine the relief I felt upon finally seeing the Mexican coast in the distance.

Another hurdle I experienced was the fact that my electric fuel pump installed for the ferry bladder tank would not run for more than one minute without tripping its circuit breaker, so I had to hand pump the ferry tanks with a backup pump we had installed for this purpose. It took about 30 minutes of pumping to empty the 25-gallon bladder, which is very taxing while attempting to hold straight and level along with a heading!

From Cancun, the navigation was simple as it was coastline flying all the way to Belize International Airport (MZBZ).

Lesson Learned

I neglected to fully pump the fuel bladder’s contents into the right-wing tank, thinking there was still enough in there to suffice until landing.

I had one small mishap enroute that got my heart pumping, and was a mistake that I am thankful that I had opportunity to learn from. The Skylane I flew was equipped with fuel gauges for each wing tank and they were mounted above the passenger and captain’s door. For some reason, they were erroneously reading 1/2 full at the time of approach into Belize, and this did not make sense with my fuel calculations. With that, I neglected to fully pump the fuel bladder’s contents into the right-wing tank, thinking there was still enough in there to suffice until landing. As I descended from 8,500′ to 1,500′ feet about 20 miles north of Belize City, the engine sputtered.

Instantly my training reflexes kicked in: mixture full rich, switch tank to the left one and add power. The engine roared back to life and I quickly realized the issue. I began furiously hand-pumping the remainder of the ferry tank fuel into the right-wing tank. I made it into Belize with no other mishaps, and found upon landing that I had about 45 min of fuel remaining total, but it would have been useless if it had been left in the ferry tank.

Customs was an interesting experience, but that would be a story for another time, I suppose. Once all of our paperwork was stamped and clearances granted, I headed back to the plane and took off for my short 27 mile hop north to the Ambergris Caye, the island where I would be dropping skydivers for the winter. Upon landing, I found that I was to be immediately taking off again to drop our first skydiver before the sunset. What a wonderful end to a memorable journey for this newbie pilot, with the sun sinking on the Caribbean horizon.

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Andrew Flieder

Andrew has been enthusiastic about aviation ever since he was a kid reading of the exploits of those such as Otto Lilienthal and the Wright brothers.After pursuing a number of different jobs in his twenties, he finally realized his dream of becoming a commercial pilot with the first job flying skydivers.For the last several years he has been flying geophysical surveys internationally in the Caravan & Twin Otter.He has had opportunity to ferry through and fly survey in a number of countries such as India, Canada, Saudi Arabia & Australia.

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• Flying a Skylane From Canada to Belize - December 30, 2024