As Tom Harris walked out of the Ft. Lauderdale International Airport terminal the 78-degree heat along with the sun on his face washed away his anxiety of arriving one day late due to a snowstorm that closed John F. Kennedy Airport, causing him to make last minute changes to his vacation plans.
Tom and his wife Jane had been planning their trip for six months. They chartered an elegant 116-foot yacht from the yacht company for a weeklong voyage throughout the Islands of the Bahamas. Tom chose Chub Cay to start the voyage because it is one of Tom's favorite places to fish. It was not well serviced by the airlines so Tom received recommendations from his friends and the yacht company to charter a plane from Gold Aviation Services.
Gold Aviation Services had a diverse fleet of propeller planes and jet aircraft and are extremely experienced in flying to and from the Bahamas. Tom called Gold Aviation Services and was immediately impressed with the friendliness and helpfulness of Barbara the Charter Coordinator. After a review of his needs for performance and weight capacity Tom chose a King Air 200 to take him from Ft. Lauderdale to Chub Cay and to pick him up a week later at whatever Island the Harris' found themselves.
The King Air 200
Barbara flight followed the Harris's from New York to Florida and timed Gold Aviation's courtesy van to be waiting outside of baggage claim for Tom, his wife Jane, and kids Steve and Alexis.
It had been an exhausting 24 hours since the Harris' flight to Florida began, but he was glad to be on the van headed for his voyage. The van pulled through the gate at Gold Aviation's private terminal and drove straight to the King Air 200. Pilots Kal and Tim greeted the Harris family and the line service started to load the aircraft with their luggage. Ten minutes later the King Air 200 was lifting off the runway as Jimmy Buffet's song Margaretville played and Chub Cay was only forty minutes away.
The Harris family breezed through customs in Chub Cay and were greeted by their yacht's first mate. Unknown to the Harris', the first mate had just arrived that morning on one of Gold Aviation's Navajos piloted by Bert and Steve. The original first mate had woke up with a fever and the shakes. The Captain decided to replace the first mate, but how could he get another one out and familiar with the yacht before the Harris family arrived? He called his office in Ft. Lauderdale and they contacted Barbara at Gold Aviation to fly a new first mate out, on a Navajo, to Chub Cay to meet the yacht and pick up the sick first mate. They also took advantage of the Navajo's luggage capacity and had supplies sent over with the aircraft. Bert and Steve were standing by when one hour later the new first mate showed up with bundles of supplies. The first call from the Captain was at 8:00am and the new first mate was at the Yacht by 10:15am. Imagine charting a 112' yacht with no first mate!
After a wonderful 6-day voyage around the Bahamas and a great deal of fishing, snorkeling, swimming and pampering Tom called Gold Aviation to pick him and his family up at the North Eleuthera Airport the next day. They were concluding their voyage at Harbour Island, the Harris family's favorite Island. There is no airport on Harbour Island so they would take a ferry to North Eleuthera and a quick cab ride to the airport. Kal and Tim were standing outside of
customs and escorted Tom and his family through customs to the King Air 200. Barbara had briefed Tim upon his checking in from North Eleuthera, that the Harris' airline flight was delayed at least 4 hours. Tim passed this information on to Tom and the anxiety he felt one week ago came back to him. Tim let Tom know that Gold Aviation could have a Learjet standing by in Ft. Lauderdale and it could have them in New York two and a half hours later. Tom was ecstatic since he had a very important meeting the next morning and wanted to be home early enough to prepare. He discussed it with his wife and they decided to do it. Tim called Barbara to have the plane standing by. The Harris family boarded the King Air and left Bahamian soil ten minutes later while listening to Bob Marley's song Three Little Birds.
One hour later the King Air was taxing onto the customs ramp and Tim notified them over the PA system that their Learjet was waiting on the next ramp. Tom and his wife smiled knowing the voyage they were planning for so long and worked so hard for was not over yet. They would finish the voyage off with a flight on a Learjet!
The customs agent asked Tom the normal questions: where they had been, how many days had they been out of the country and if he had over ten thousand dollars in cash on him. After a short pit stop the family was walking on the tarmac to a Learjet escorted by Kal and Tim. They introduced the Harris family to Doug and Amber their flight crew on the Learjet. Mrs. Harris turned to Tim and asked if there would be anything to eat on board since they would be flying through dinner. Tim smiled and said Gold Aviation has taken care of everything, and upon boarding the Learjet Mrs. Harris saw that the catering was laid out for them and knew they had made the right decision to charter the jet.
Two hours and thirty-five minutes later they were taxing into New York Jet Center at the Islip Airport on Long Island. The kids had just finished watching Harry Potter on DVD and Tom and Jane finished their last book of their voyage. Barbara had arranged for a Limousine to meet the Harris family at the airplane and drive them home only
ten minutes away.
Tom felt great the next day at his meeting and when everyone asked how his vacation went he would smile and said "it was a great adventure" and then recited a line from a Bob Marley song, "everything going to be all right."
This article was written by Leonard Goldberg,
Gold Aviation Services.
