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Old 8th Mar 2005, 07:38
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Cameronian
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Mallorca
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Yes, Rotornut , there is. The company is called Aerotaxi and they've got quite a few of them that they use for ferrying tourists out to the "keys" along the north of Cuba.
I piloted one (CU-T1175) for an hour in 1997 - flying very, very, very low on a jolly around the Varadero peninsula. I had chartered it for some friends and "let slip" I had a PPL when I made the booking. We had just got strapped in (metal bench seats for parachutists in this aeroplane) when the pilot came back and offered me the right hand seat - much to the chagrin of the old gnarled minder with the Kalashnikov, who was there to make sure the next stop wasn't in Florida. After a very dramatic take off on that little bit of the runway which didn't look like the Somme, I was astonished to hear that I had control at 30 metres (100 ft on the metric Russian altimeter). Had the time of my life for an hour as the Captain repeatedly told me "lower, lower!". I had to fly round the local taxi office's (just a hut!) radio antenna ten minutes into the flight and was told "lower, lower!" twice more after that! We were flying so slowly that I don't suppose ground effect even existed! We'd have been met by the police on landing if we'd been anywhere else. It took two weeks to get the smile off my face. Great people!
I have no idea how old the aeroplane was but the registration may allow someone to tell us.
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