2012 Bahamas & Caribbean Pilot’s Guide released

Now available is the 34th edition of The 2012 Bahamas & Caribbean Pilot’s Guide, which includes  newly designed island maps and hundreds of new photos.

Written primarily for pilots, this 400-page spiral bound Pilot’s Guide is organized into tabbed sections: the Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, Hispaniola/Cuba (Dominican Republic, Haiti), Western Caribbean (Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Yucatan, Belize, Roatan), Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands, Eastern Caribbean (Anguilla south to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao), United States (Florida airports with Customs) and Survival. Within each section there is travel information on the islands, accommodation and car rental listings, pilot info, maps and airport information. Included are frequencies, runway details, hours, fuel availability, color aerial photographs of every airport in the Bahamas and the Caribbean, GPS designators as well as longs and lats – a necessity to find some of the small airports that won’t be in your GPS database. The general information section covers customs, flight plans, forms, procedures, and required equipment in great detail

This edition of the Bahamas & Caribbean Pilot’s Guide features newly designed island maps of some of the Bahamas islands and Puerto Rico, and an extended Haiti section for humanitarian aid pilots. The new maps include major roads, hotels and resorts, more cities and settlements than before, beaches, and points of interest.

Because of mutual cooperation between the FAA and the Islands of the Bahamas, the procedures are straight-forward, forms are simple, and the fees are minimal. Only two airports have towers (Nassau and Freeport), but there are 21 airports of entry (AOE) from which you can begin your journey. After you enter the Bahamas through an AOE, you are free to island hop using a Cruising Permit. There are now six great out island FBOs in the Bahamas, a substantial increase from past years. First-class FBOs are also popping up in the Caribbean islands, making flying in that region more user-friendly, not only for jets, but for general aviation as well.

Published annually since 1979, the Bahamas & Caribbean Pilot’s Guide is the only complete airport facilities directory available for the region. Also available are two color VFR WAC scale charts. One covers the entire Bahamas and the Turks & Caicos, and the other is the entire Caribbean from Puerto Rico to the islands off the coast of Venezuela. The charts are $8.95 each, of both for $16. In addition, they offer a Forms Kit for $21.95 that includes multiple copies of the forms you need for the Bahamas. You can also purchase a pad of NCR General Declaration forms for $21.95. The Pilot’s Guide is available for $56.95 from Pilot Publishing, Inc. at 800 521-2120 or FlyTheIslands.com.