B737 Undifferentiated or Other Model
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 210; Flight Crew Total 11700; Flight Crew Type 4000
Situational Awareness
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Aircraft; Company Policy; Human Factors
Flight was Sabre flight-planned to come in close proximity to the Cuban FIR just before entering the Port au Prince FIR at JOSES intersection.  As it turns out; we had to deviate west of track for weather and I became concerned we would need to enter Cuban airspace.  I could not find the Cuban overflight permit number in the Sabre briefing package.  Fortunately I did not have to enter their airspace; although I estimate that I came within 5 miles of the border.  Querying dispatch via Sabre SMEs; they replied 'We only provide the data for the plan route of flight and the countries and FIR's that are progressed during the plan. We can add NOTAM with the permit data for the adjacent FIR's but this would be difficult to manage and update. The crew can always ask the dispatcher for the permit number or they can refer to the airport database and get the permits they may need during the preflight briefing.'  I do not find this to be adequate as we cannot always foresee the need to deviate and by the time one is in flight looking at a thunderstorm area it is too late to look up the permit number on the internet.  In comparison; under [the old system] we were routinely given the Cuban overflight number as a company NOTAM. As a separate issue related to that deviation; the depiction of FIR data (frequencies); FIR notes; and special intersection notes are inadequate on the Jeppesen enroute chart in the EFB.  The tiny area that has to be touched to trigger display of the notes is hard to target in turbulence and the notes are incomplete (frequencies are not localized by sector location and the intersections do not provide the special notes that are on the paper charts).  Currently the iPad enroute chart is not an adequate replacement for paper charts in WATRS operations.
B737 Captain laments the lack of a Cuban overflight permit number while avoiding thunderstorms adjacent to Cuban airspace. He also believes that iPad displayed enroute charts cannot take the place of paper charts due to the lack notes and the difficulty bring what notes are available using the touchscreen in turbulence.