Help me plan a trip from New Mexico to south tip of South America

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MountainDude

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MountainDude
My wife and I would like to do this sometime between Dec 2020 and April 2021.
Would love input on best time to go (which months?), specific airports, handlers, charts, warnings, countries, islands, and any other recommendations.

The route:
Follow central America, down the west coast of S. America, then up the east coast of S. America, through the Caribbean, then back home. I could also do it clockwise if that is advantageous. The plan is to spend 1-2 months, stopping in several countries.

Some of the highlights we'd like to see from the air and visit:
- The Andes
- Volcanoes in Bolivia (saw them from the ground already)
- Patagonia (already spent 2 weeks on the ground there and it was awesome)
- Tepuis in Brasil
- Angel Falls in Venezuela from the air (without stopping in the country)
- Birding in Colombia, Peru and Guyana
- Dominica, St. Lucia, and Barbados

The plane:
1966 C182 with a 260 HP engine (we regularly fly between 14K-18K)
Oxygen
~7 hrs of fuel
Thinking of installing BRS before the trip

My experience so far:
550 hrs in the same C182
Flew to Alaska and back
Flew to Puerto Rico and back (also visited DR, T&C, Bahamas)
Daytime VFR only (not interested in IFR or night flying)
 

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I'm leaving on a motorcycle trip from Quito, Ecuador to Ushuaia, Argentina and back starting in October of 2020 - plan to be in Ushuaia for New Years. That'd be a hoot to catch up along your journey.
 
EvilEagle said:
I'm leaving on a motorcycle trip from Quito, Ecuador to Ushuaia, Argentina and back starting in October of 2020 - plan to be in Ushuaia for New Years. That'd be a hoot to catch up along your journey.
Click to expand...
Post it up on Advrider.
 
The Venezuelans may require that you stop and "check in." Bribes may then need to be paid to get cleared to leave with the aircraft.
Also, your insurance may not necessarily be valid in or over Venezuela. I would skip it, unless you somehow have the wheels already well greased. I've never figured out how to achieve that.

You might be best advised to fly direct from Guyana to Barbados or Grenada. Grenada is cheaper and quieter. Trinidad and Tobago are awesome for birding, but the environment is GA-unfriendly.

There are some lovely airports in the Grenadines (but no fuel). Mustique requires a competency check before you can get approval to land independently.

Martinique is about the most GA-friendly environment in the region. A couple of the small airports around Guadeloupe also require advance competency checks.

Canefield Airport on the west of Dominica is friendly. But, it's normally closed on Sundays, so you would have to arrange in advance for the tower to be tended (and you would have to pay an overtime fee).

Montserrat requires advance notification of your arrival.
 
upload_2019-8-28_13-12-53.jpeg

Ushuaia has a GA field, as well as their main airport, but I don’t know anything about it other than there was a Tomahawk that was doing touch and goes.

There is also an airport further south in Puerto Williams, Chile.
 
Last edited:
steingar said:
Post it up on Advrider.
Click to expand...
I will when we finalize some stuff. I've already PM'd a few folks in SA on ADVRider and gotten some contacts. My buddy and I are trying to decide how much social media, writing/posting and video uploading we're going to do on the trip. I love reading well written ride posts - really liked "everywhere man"'s thread. I don't want to advertise it too much if we aren't putting the effort in.
 
Wanna make it a 2-ship? :D

I was thinking of a similar trip, at a similar time.
 
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