Flying in Florida
 

Greetings

I will be visiting Miami from December 23 for some hour building and would really appreciate recommendations about Training / Rental outfits in the area.

Any information much appreciated...

;)

You are spoilt for choice over there you really are. Were you looking for recomendations for FBO's in the MIA area or would you go further afield? Florida Institute of Technology (FIT Aviation) based at Melbourne international rent out their 152's for $55 per hour including your fuel. Good place IMHO.

As for places to fly to: The Keys is a good one, Pahokee down by Lake Okeechobe was a favourite for me, Gainsville a little further north (get an ATC vector right over MCO!), Jacksonville but if you really wanna go silly fly all the way up the east coast like I did - great views and great airports but make sure the wx all the way up is good as you wouldn't want to get snookered!

VFE.

Thx VFE

I would consider going farther afield.
Possibly hire a car and drive to good FBO

Check out Tamiami or Fort Lauderdale. Plenty of places to hire around there. See if you can hire and actually keep the aircraft for a week or so for your own use. Then rather than flying somewhere then having to come back you could tour around and stop overnight wherever you fancy. Some great places to go in Florida are Cedar Key (check out the 1950's cab!) Venice Beach (Gotta go to Sharkies! fab food) or even upto Savannah and see if you can get around the Gulfstream factory. Fly over Disney land at night and watch the fireworks.
Have fun! I did!

I can recommend a visit to the Kennedy Space Center while you're there. Well worth it to see the Saturn V rocket etc. Space Coast Regional is probably the nearest airfield, although careful checking of NOTAMS might be advisable - you probably wouldn't want to get involved in a Shuttle launch ;-)

At the risk of being redirected to the "Flying in the US" thread, as I'm nipping off to Miami and the Keys for a quick week's sunshine in December, am I right in thinking that its Bob Hope and No Hope of me being able to fly whilst out there?

I've made no arrangements to date.

:) :) :)

ChiSau

You may have left it a little late. I sent my application to the FAA in early November.

Still you could call the Airmen Certification Branch on 001 405 954 3261 (from UK) and ask them directly about lead times.

Otherwise you could fly with an instructor but then you couldn't log the hours as PIC

Good luck:D :D

Flying over to the nearest Bahamas is a great outing and pretty straightforward (just set heading 090 and sit back and wait ;) ) There's info on the formalities here: http://www.bahamas.com/islands/exper.../index.html?13 But, if you fancy that -- you'll need to make sure you choose a rental outfit that'll let you (ie has sufficient insurance), has an aircraft with a US Customs sticker on it, and can lend you lifejackets (& raft).

Also check what maximum rate you'll get fuel purchases refunded at, the cost varies a lot around Florida so if you rent from someplace where it's much less than $2/gal then you'll be spending quite a bit extra everytime you take on fuel. You can check fuel rates on http://www.airnav.com/

Another fuel tip, if you're going to Key West, be sure to land at Marathon and refuel at the self-service fuel pump, south end of the apron, as it's virtually double the price elsewhere on the keys!

Check the rental contract for all sorts of other hidden costs, eg what do they do if you break down someplace? Authorise you to pay for immediate local maintenance attention, or insist on travelling out to fix it themselves, whilst you're stranded (& parked) at your expense? And check the insurance excess, if it's more than a thousand dollars that's not good.

And bear in mind if you fancy landing at Miami/MIA, it's about the only airport in Florida with a landing fee ($18), and if you want to stop off at the FBO, you'll need to pay a handling fee or buy some expensive fuel. Aswell as spend half an hour in a holding pattern whilst they try to slot you in...