www.PSFmagazine.com | March-April 2020 | 29 28 | March-April 2020 | Powered Sport Flying enjoy the beach,” said Tom. “Coming back we skipped Marsh Harbour and went from Eleuthera over to Freeport. You always hear stories about customs, but they were very accommodating. Freeport gave transponder codes to us to get back into the U.S. Prior to leaving Freeport, you call customs on the phone and tell them your departure times. You can’ t just fill out the manifest online, you have to call also.” Tom and his flying buddy flew about four hours over water each way—part of that over-water time was island hopping. He said flying over water was really no big deal. “You have to have confidence in your aircraft,” Tom said. “When I flew fixed-wing aircraft with Lycomings and Continentals, I had more expensive problems over time. When I started flying lsa with Rotax engines, I just loved it. It ’s like they were bulletproof. There’s always the potential for problems, but based on my past experiences, I was really confident in this engine. I just didn’ t have any problem whatsoever. The engine doesn’ t know it ’s over water.” Although Tom did admit to checking the engine parameters a little more often. He said his new M24 with the 915 Rotax performed wonderfully. “I had no issues whatsoever,” he said. “We filled up with 24 gallons, the max that it would take. We were right at gross and it had great performance with about an 1100 ft per minute climb rate, even on hot days. I flight planned for seven gallons per hour but burned about 6.3 gallons/hour.” Tom said he would do the trip all over again. “At each little airport everyone would come streaming out,” he said. “Customs, mechanics, they were all taking pictures. Most had never seen a gyro before. That was fun. I would love to do it again. It was a lot of fun.” •
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