I am currently not a Cessna owner but have most of my GA hours in Cessna's. 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--my partner owns a PA-28.
Beside being a spectacular flight, I wanted to share with other Cessna owners that the reason we flew down there is that my friend was taking his PA-28 down to have it painted in the DR. He has a contact down there that paints aircraft and has done so for over 25 years. I saw other singles and twins that have been painted down there 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! I wanted to share this with Cessna owners—particularly those in the SE part of the US. 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 airpaint@caribbeanpaintair.com.
Mark

Thanks for the reply--just out of curiosity--what do you own? Where did you have it painted? What did you pay? Is the scheme pretty simply--single color with a couple stripes? Thanks for the reply in advance.

Mark