Join Bennett Bidel, with 50 years of flight experience, as he discusses how to navigate, what aircraft to fly and what emergency precautions to know when flying abroad. Included will be Mexico, The Caribbean Islands in general, The British West Indies (especially Grand Turk and the Provinciales), Western and the sparsely populated Northwestern Canada, Alaska (U.S. but “foreign to most mainlanders”, The Cayman Islands, overflying Cuba, Hispaniola (Haiti & the Dominican Republic), East Africa to South Africa, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Kenya and Germany.
What charts are and are not available in these countries and how to navigate safely. How do their airspaces differ from the U.S. How do you rent an airworthy airplane and where and how do you refuel? Emergencies and survival procedures while similar may have some very local specific requirements. Bennett will discuss these and shed light on things many of us Americans never considered.
This presentation is extremely interesting and a must if you plan to fly abroad.
Brief Aviation Biography of Bennett Bibel:
I started flying 50 years ago, when after taking over a new assignment as Project Engineer for a highly classified military weapon system, I found that I had two DeHavilland Beavers (on wheels) in my inventory. I had a group of F-86s, and their pilots, assigned to the projects for various tests. I traded the use of one of the Beavers to one of the fighter pilots in turn for flying lessons for me on the other Beaver. Those Beavers were, and are, amazing aircraft, and later in life I flew one on floats as well.
Over the years I have owned, generally alone, but occasionally in partnership, a Cessna 120, a Cessna 150, two Cessna 172s, a Piper Archer, a Piper Dakota, a DOVA LSA, and three Mooneys. I currently own and fly a Mooney 201. I have Commercial, Instrument, SEL, SES ratings, and have flown several thousands of hours - mostly travel flying for business and pleasure. I’m 82 now, and I expect to fly for a few more years before “hanging up the keys”. I am also a sailor, boat owner starting in my youth, and I have done extensive sailing of the Coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, Mexico, and the Canadian waters. I’ve sailed in several sailboat races to Hawaii as a tactician / navigator, and I have also sailed to many islands of the Caribbean. My longest sail was to deliver a 40’ sailboat to Kaliffi, Kenya, and cruising through the Indian Ocean for several months. There was a great deal of crossover between flying and ocean sailing in navigational systems, and being prepared for the unforeseen.
I intend to recount all sorts of incidents, and personal experiences (good, bad, and very different) in my foreign flying, some illustrated with slides. I hope that this session will engender lots of questions as we go along, and I hope that some of these “incidents” will be learning lessons for some of the group, as they were for me.
This event qualifies for FAA Wings credit.
Any questions, contact us at (650) 946-1700 or info@sancarlosflight.com.
San Carlos Flight Center is committed to promoting safety in general aviation through our evening safety seminar programs. Space is often limited so it is important to sign up early through the FAA event notification system at FAASAFETY.GOV. SCFC members may choose to watch the seminar live over the web at home. Contact your SCFC member service rep at (650) 946-1700 to confirm secure online access to any particular seminar.
