Airplane rental in Cuba

[mike_whiskey]

Hi,

I’ll be in Cuba for couple of days. We’d like to rent a Cessna 172 or sth like this to have some flights there. Do you know any olace that rents small airplanes in Cuba?


Regards,
Mike

[piperboy84]

Just came back from Havana last week, you'll be tight to get internet there never mind airplane rental. The closest your going to get to a Lycoming is the big block 235 cubic inch motor in your 1950's Chevy taxi. It's a beautiful place and the people are lovely but it is a police state and there is no way the Castro brothers would make GA available to the public as any local renting would make their bimble a one way trip to Florida.

Edit to add: All is not lost, when you see that birds down there the last thing that's going to be on your mind is faffing about in a ****ey old Cessna.

[B2N2]

Mike, I’m usually a little more helpful then this....but What are you thinking?!

It’s a beautiful island under dictatorship rule.
Thousands have drowned trying to escape on tractor tires and home made rafts.
Thousands have been jailed for attempting.
What in the world makes you think that you could actually RENT AN AIRPLANE?
Out of all the ignorant questions I’ve seen floating by over the years.....

[Planemike]

B2N2...... He only asked a question !! No need to "flame" him !!!

[Jan Olieslagers]

I can read no flaming there, only plain sense.

[piperboy84]

Just to give you a flavor for how they roll down there if you fall afoul of their rules. On a previous visit I spent 6 hours in a cell being grilled by military types which led me to miss my departure flight due to misplacing my entry/leaving sheet. While walking with a friend between the Revolution museum building to the center park to see Grandma (the yacht Castro used to launch the revolution) a small skinny kid demanded my friends camera case in Spanish, I told him in the most aggressive manner possible to fcuk off, he proceeded to pull the largest handgun I’d ever seen from his waistband under a loose fitting Hawaiian shirt. We resigned ourselves to being robbed and handed over the camera in its case, he took it inspected it and handed it back. He along with literally thousands of youthful casually dressed chaps with business like haircuts are secret police keeping an eye on the locals and any Yanks (mostly southern Floridians of a certain ethnicity) with a grudge against Castro for confiscating their families property and have a nasty habit of planting bombs in tourist hotels or symbols of the revolution. They welcome tourists but mess with them and your up **** creek, just check out what happened to some of the pushier members of Brothers to the Rescue group and their Cessna Skymasters.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_shootdown_of_Brothers_to_the_Rescue_aircraft

Again, a beautiful place with amazing people, but as B2n2 said it’s a dictatorship.

[mike_whiskey]

Mike, I’m usually a little more helpful then this....but What are you thinking?!

What in the world makes you think that you could actually RENT AN AIRPLANE?
Out of all the ignorant questions I’ve seen floating by over the years.....

B2N2, seriously??

Thanks for explanation. Now i know there is no chance. There are symptoms of commercialisation in Cuba so it makes start people thinking and looking for opportunitues. Thats the reason of my question.

B2N2, maybe it’s obvious for you that in a communistic country with all that shtt the state makes to it’s citicens there is no chance to have a GA. But it’s not so obvious if you stop looking so narrow at some things.

In my country during comunism GA was very well developed despite the fact that - yes - some people took (stole) GA airplanes and flew to the better life in democratic countries and some airline aircrafts were hijacked for the same reason. The political and economical system and the threat of giving people the toll for escaping the country didn’t disturb us to have top world pilots at that time achieving the top places on majority world aviation championships.

So please don’t call my question ignorant. I think it’s less ignorant than your answer.

[B2N2]

According to your profile you're a commercial Pilot on a DHC-8.
You shouldn't be this ignorant.

The political and economical system and the threat of giving people the toll for escaping the country didn’t disturb us to have top world pilots at that time achieving the top places on majority world aviation championships

What does this statement have to do with anything?

In my country during communism GA was very well developed

If you grew up in a Communist country it makes you're initial statement even worse, you should have known about Cuba and the situation there.
Now...if you'd been an ignorant American....

Keep on digging buddy, it was a stupid question.
Would have been better to admit it and get over it.

[BBK]

Mike W

No harm in asking! I did hear of friend of a friend having a flight in an Antonov AN2 but I don’t know where sadly.

The Revolution museum in Havana is worth a look. They have a Sea Fury amongst the exhibits. I’ve been going there for years without any problems. As always just remember to respect the locals and you’ll be fine I’m sure. Enjoy.

BBK

[mike_whiskey]

What does this statement have to do with anything?

Keep on digging buddy, it was a stupid question.
Would have been better to admit it and get over it.

My friend, this statement is to pove you that in communism GA can be realy well developed. And to prove you that communism in one country is not equal to communism in the other. Over and out.

Mike W

No harm in asking! I did hear of friend of a friend having a flight in an Antonov AN2 but I don’t know where sadly.

The Revolution museum in Havana is worth a look. They have a Sea Fury amongst the exhibits. I’ve been going there for years without any problems. As always just remember to respect the locals and you’ll be fine I’m sure. Enjoy.

BBK

They escaped mainly to Tempelhoff. Thanks for the tips.

[Jan Olieslagers]

I did hear of friend of a friend having a flight in an Antonov AN2 but I don’t know where sadly.

One An-2 escape was from near Krakow to near Vienna, I saw that plane beautifully restored at Krakow-Pobiednik Wielki airfield. Must have a picture somewhere, too.

[clareprop]

What are you thinking?!

A question asked of many entrepreneurial spirits who went on to achieve things others thought impossible.

[gasax]

Highly developed GA - all with very small fuel tanks.......

[piperboy84]

IIRC the Russian cadets or DOSAF were trained on yak 52’s with a range of about 300 miles and all training facilities being at least 500 from the border

[Ultranomad]

IIRC the Russian cadets or DOSAF were trained on yak 52’s with a range of about 300 miles and all training facilities being at least 500 from the border
False on two counts: firstly, Yak-52's full-tank range is about 500 NM, and secondly, there were many DOSAAF flying clubs much closer to the border than that - for example, St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) one was less than 90 NM away from Finland.

[piperboy84]

False on two counts: firstly, Yak-52's full-tank range is about 500 NM, and secondly, there were many DOSAAF flying clubs much closer to the border than that - for example, St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) one was less than 90 NM away from Finland.

Allrighty then I’m wrong and stand corrected, but it does beg the question why were all those poor folks going to the trouble of trying to climb over the Berlin Wall with bullets whistling round their ears and Alsatians nipping at their ass when they could have joined a Commie Sports Flying Club and lined up for a straight-in to Tempelhof and freedom.

[Ultranomad]

piperboy84, good question. Having grown up in the USSR, I'd say the vast majority of the population wouldn't even want to escape, and of those who would, very few would think of such a method. Also, the purpose of these flying clubs was to raise very patriotically-minded boys for the Air Force, so their ideological spirit was contrary to the idea of using the aircraft to escape.
By the way, few Berlin Wall escapes were so dramatic. With proper planning, it was possible to execute it in a much safer way. Again, the first and strongest line of defence against escapes was the Communist propaganda.

[_Ace_Rimmer_]

Propaganda works both ways of course and the west concentrates on the negatives and underplays such things as the world beating education and health services.

Renting is possible but only if you are discreet.

[Silvaire1]

I read an article a while back on GA in Cuba pre-Castro, with lots of photos. It was once a popular place for GA, and a lot of those planes were used by those who were lucky enough to escape, overloaded with their families etc. I wonder how they transferred them to N-register, presumably without Cuban cooperation to cancel their existing registration and issue an export C of A?

I've worked with any number of people who escaped the east block, and it seems most of them did it through vacationing in Yugoslavia. One by defecting from a sports team playing in Italy.

It's great to see many Yak 50s and 52s locally, now being flown by owners who fuss and take care of them. The Yaks eventually escaped too, but had to wait until the 90s or so.

[charliegolf]

I went to Cuba in 2014 for 10 days- just for a holiday with family, no flying link. We did the ancient American car tour with a guide, who spoke openly about the regime- when the driver was 'over there, minding the car'. Interestingly, foreign travel restrictions have eased significantly. The management method the regime uses, is to ensure that whole families never go together- a family of 'ordinary' Cubans will never get to go vacationing in Venuzuela and slip off en masse to a third country.

CG

[cavuman1]

Back before - way before - the U.S. embargo of Cuba, my father, a Commander in the United States Naval Reserve, was instrumental in the quasi-legal if somewhat surreptitious importation of Cuban rum. His choice of transport was the venerable DC-3; in Naval nomenclature, an R4D-2. The craft flew VIP's - Admirals and their (lady) companions - regularly between Miami and Havana. These sturdy craft had a fuel capacity of 822 gallons U.S. Dad greased the proper palms of the appropriate authorities and arranged to have the starboard wing tank filled with 400 gallons of high-proof rum. After a number of successful and highly profitable forays, Dad decided to go along on a flight to enjoy the bountiful beauty of that then-unspoiled Caribbean paradise. And he did... :)

Two days later he boarded the "Pack Rat" to fly back to Miami. He noticed a line boy mounting the starboard wing, laboring under the weight of the shoulder-slung fuel hose. Suppressing a grand mal epileptiform seizure and an inexorable urge to follow through, Dad lept from his seat and ran out of the plane onto the apron. "STOP!", he screamed at the top of his lungs. Too late! The line boy, missing a number of teeth, smiled broadly. He chortled: "Señor Capitan! Ju weel be glad to know that I have topped off jour right tank! Eet was theerty gallons low!" Ron Rico plus 100 LL do not a fine drink make, orange slices and miniature umbrellas notwithstanding. And thus came to an inglorious end my beloved and clever father's career as a rum runner! :=

- Ed :}

[piperboy84]

Now that is the kind of stories I like!

[Less Hair]

Here is somebody's story who took his twin Bonanza from the US to Cuba and back.
How To Fly To Cuba - Plane & Pilot Magazine (http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/how-to-fly-to-cuba/#.WpQHSIPOW70)

Some more info:
https://generalaviationnews.com/2016/01/28/how-can-i-fly-to-cuba/

I somewhere read all general aviation in Cuba is military. However the state travel agency gaviota seems to be military owned as well. Maybe you can get some dual or aerobatic instruction for hard currency?