About a month ago, I had the opportunity to fly with a friend of mine to the Dominican Republic from Stuart, FL. It was one of the most magnificent flights that I think I have taken in a long time. Filed IFR but was in extreme VFR pretty much all the way down. My partner has dual citizenship and had done this before which was a great help although I do admit, the procedures were pretty easy. We left KSUA about 7;30am in the morning—landed at Exuma International to refuel—then went direct to Santiago. Total flight time was around 7 hours with a bit of a headwind---not too bad!
Beside being a spectacular flight, I had the opportunity to visit a paint shop in Santo Domingo. My friend actually was taking his PA-28 down to have it painted. He has a contact there that paints aircraft and has done so for over 25 years. I saw other single and twins that had been done and the quality is spectacular! I also had the opportunity to see the paint shop. Even better is the fact that the cost of painting is ½ of what it costs in the US! As you can appreciate, this is a labor intensive business and labor down there is plentiful and cheap! If you have interest in getting more information on how to do this, feel free to contact my friend—or myself—you can use the email address mark@caribbeanpatinair.com.