Leg 15: MDPC-TJSJ
Pilot: Bryan K.
The sound of young ladies giggling woke me up. Not a bad thing, but the fact that I was not too sure where I was did not comfort me. It was Wednesday morning, and I vaguely remembered that I landed in Punta Cana the day before and had headed to town not long after that.
For the rest, well let’s just say I figured out why this was a good place for R & R!
Painfully opening my eyes, I first padded around me to make sure I was alone in the bed. I then stood, and noticed several gals and guys lying around, either slouched in couches or sleeping on the floor.
- “Good morning Captain Canada!”, joyfully said a guy I think I was calling Tex the night before. He was lying on one of the couches in the room, right next to a young lady who, if my memory serves me right, had discovered the pleasures of Marguaritas the night before!
- “Heu… Where am I ?”, I murmured.
- “Actually, it’s your room, you invited us in last night”, shouted Tex.
While standing to urgently find some coffee, I noticed that the giggling that had woke me up was from a group of young ladies already “playing” by the pool that was just outside my room. Painfully, memories of yesterday started to come back.
***
After leaving the airport, I had found a room at Allegro Resort, and then proceeded to catch some sun and some suds.
After a few hours of small chat with the bartender at the pool side bar, I had stumbled into a group of American college students who were here to “relax” a bit. The party had started, and I remember sharing some flying stories with some of them…. Don’t ask me about the rest!
Looking at my watch, I now noticed it was already 10:00. My plan was to fly to Puerto Rico and St-Thomas this afternoon, so I had to start getting myself organized. Most of my “guests” were also waking-up and were already rapidly leaving for their own “nests”. I decided I needed a nice walk on the beach followed by a good breakfast to get my act back together, and then catch a ride to the airport.
I arrived at MDPC a few hours later, while most of the locals were having lunch. The clouds were forming, and I heard someone mention that some light rain was on the way for the afternoon. I checked the weather for TJSJ, and noticed that several thunderstorm cells were in the area. Not yet sure what to do, I decided to safely wait an extra hour. So I walked out to my Conquest and proceeded to… take a nap!
One hour later, I went back to the flight center to check on the weather in Puerto Rico. Light rain had started here, but that did not bug me too much. Thunderstorms had stopped in San Juan and were now moving east, so I figured I would be okay to go. I filed my flight plan for this short 135 nm trip and went back to my bird to perform the pre-start checks. By then, I had eaten a bit more, and felt much better than just a few hours ago. That little “power nap” had done me wonders!
There was more traffic at the airport this afternoon then when I arrived yesterday morning. A few American carriers had landed, and the place was quite busy. The rain was on and off and there were even some sunny breaks, but the guy at the flight center explained to me it was quite normal weather for this time of year. He also mentioned that pilots were reporting some major turbulence all the way to FL200 en route to Puerto Rico!
At 15:20, I fired up the engines once again, and requested taxi clearance to the active. This was rapidly granted, and I started rolling towards runway 09. The rain resumed, but it didn’t bother me too much, since I knew I would be able to climb out of it fairly quickly.
At the hold-short line, I contacted the tower for my takeoff clearance, and I didn’t even need to wait to get the okay from the controller.
My plan was to climb to 15 000’ and cruise for a short time before descending towards San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico. Not long after takeoff, I started to get bounced around pretty badly, and fought with the controls. I switched on the A/P, hoping he would be better than me at trying to keep a steady climb.
Reaching 15 000’, I asked San Juan Control to be cleared to FL200, hoping to get out of the turbulence. I will leave the details out, but let’s just say my abuses of last night were all “coming back to me now”! This serene looking picture does not indicate for one second the hell I was going through.
At 86 nm out of TJSJ, ATC started giving me instructions for my approach to runway 8. It didn’t take me long to get back into the turbulence, although it was somewhat lighter than previously. I also started listening in more closely to the approach frequency, since I noted a few heavy irons were also being vectored to the same runway at TJSJ. That got ALL my attention, since I was not looking forward to another approach like had happened in Miami a few weeks ago. Descending, I flew right over the city of Areciba, on the northern coast of Puerto Rico.
I then figured out my main “competitors” on final approach would be American Airlines flights 1963 (a B757 arriving from Fort Lauderdale) and 1075 (an Airbus A300-600 arriving from Orlando). While I was strategizing on that side of things, I was advised of a US Air flight that would be crossing me at quite close range. With the visibility not too bad, I got a visual on him fairly quickly.
No doubt about it, Luis Munoz Marin International Airport was quite a busy place. Their was a steady pace of incoming and outgoing traffic as I intercepted the glidescope and was cleared to land, while flying right over the city
It’s at about that moment I had the funny feeling I was behind followed… closely! My TCAS started going crazy, while ATC was advising AA 1963 that they were NUMBER 2 to land, behind the Conquest on final (that being me!).
The grumbling intensified as the big B757 roared right over me. A local even shared this shot with me afterwards.
While a hysteric controller was yelling in Spanish at the pilot of the B757, I fought like a madman to keep my plane steady. I got full control back just in time to line-up for a short final, and to see AA 1963 get a “go-around” and increase throttle to climb again. At the same time, AA 1075 was also creeping up behind me.
This “episode” had left me quite high on final, but with some runway to work with, I managed a smooth landing anyways and proceeded to taxi to the GA parking area.
I turned off the engines at 16:10 local time, and then just closed my eyes. This had been a quite eventful 135 nm! As another heavy iron rolled by, I wisely decided to change my previous plan of flying to St-Thomas, and went out looking for a ride to go spend a QUIET night in town! Who knows… maybe I will stumble upon the crew of AA 1963 somewhere.
To be continued….