“We’re landing there?!” I shouted to my copilot. The narrow strip of pavement—runway is too strong a word—didn’t look like it could possibly handle our mighty Cessna 310, and yet, there we were on short final, just a few hundred feet over the turquoise water of the Bahamas. The only reaction from the right seat was a gentle nod, so we continued. The landing turned out fine—ahem, on second attempt—but the experience was like nothing I had seen before.
More than 20 years after that “guys flying trip” through the Caribbean, I can still picture the view out the front of that 310. More important, I can still remember some of the lessons learned. My companions were all multi-thousand-hour pilots with diverse flying backgrounds, and I received a priceless education over the course of that long weekend. Most of what I knew about flying were S-turns and wind-correction angles; these guys knew short-field landings, thunderstorm avoidance, flight-planning hacks, customs procedures and more. Even casual conversation contained valuable insights on flying in the real world.
