Landing in the Dominican Republic

 

Four hours and 20 minutes later Anthony eased the Baron onto the runway.  We were behind schedule, but thought we could make it up on the next leg to Barbados.  Again, it was to be one those days when the best laid plans was not to be.  Two hours later we were still waiting for the gas truck to come.  

 

By then the 210 had landed and we were waiting on Hicks to catch up.  By now it was closing in on 4:00 pm Eastern time.  This would mean a night flight over the Atlantic.  I don’t know about you, but this did not sound good to me.  As we stood around the planes talking, Anthony felt my tension and made a statement that made a lot of sense to me.” The Plane doesn’t know it’s over water, it simply goes where we tell it too” OK, OK, I know what you are saying, don’t go.  Well any other time, I would agree with you, but not this time. This was to be the kind to adventure that would last a lifetime. With that I climbed into the back seat for this leg and pretended to be Mr. T.  My plan was sleep for the next few hours.   By now, it was 4:30 and Anthony and Marvin cranked their respective planes.  

 

Again we were to be the first off because our speed.  At this point we still had not heard from John Hicks. Anthony received his clearance and roar down the runway.  Just as we lifted off, we heard Hicks requesting landing instruction.  I can’t tell how happy we were to hear them.  As we turned into the dark Eastern skies, I begin to settle back for the long flight. (4.5 hrs) Over the next few hours I tried to relax, but was constantly interrupted by the different controller speaking every language from Spanish to French.  Most of the time you were so busy trying to figure out what they were saying that you forgot we were over water.  We were constantly asking “What did they say?”  The highlight for the whole trip came when one of the controllers was giving Marvin an update to his flight plan.  After completing the instruction to Marvin in a language that only someone from Mars understood, Marvin begins his read back in his very professional voice.  

 

There was instant silent’s, and suddenly the controller stated in a very high pitched voice “THAT IS SO NOT RIGHT”.  We could hear the laughter coming over the mike as each pilots attempted to speak for the next fifteen minutes.  About 15 minutes later Marvin informed us that due to high winds they were going to land in Martinique, Port-de-France for gas. We continued our journey to the southeast.  Three hours later the approach controller at Barbados instructed us to start our decent.  30 minutes later we had touched down in Barbados.  

 

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