 Welcome back everyone to Sun and Fun 2008. Our speaker this afternoon was born in the Bahamas. His beautiful wife was born in Pueblo, Mexico. They both love to travel. Pia loves to find grand accommodations, destination places, and ways to get people to their dream, where it happens to be. Rick is an expert in traveling in the Mexico, Central America, and the Bahamas. Together they live their dream. Rick is an aviator. He belongs to the General Aviation Council of the Bahamas, and also the General Aviation Council for Mexico. He's an AOPA and an AOPA, meaning International AOPA, Mexican Contact. Ever wonder what would happen to you if you got to Mexico and someone in your party got ill? Rick and Pia can help. What if an alternator went? They can help you there as well. What if you just want to go and do it with a guide? Guess what? You've got Rick. And then, what if you just wanted to go, have a good time by yourself, but know the best places to go? Once again, you've got Rick Gardner and his beautiful wife Pia. Today, Rick's going to give you a whole lot of information about Mexico. So please, hold those questions, even make a note if you need to. Rick's going to give you all that information, and at the end of the program, have those questions ready, because he'll be ready to answer them. Please welcome Rick Gardner. Well, good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us. It's a pleasure and an honor to be here at Sun & Fun 2008. It's also a joy to be able to talk about something that's our dream, that we thoroughly enjoy, which is international travel. And specifically this afternoon, we're going to talk about travel to Mexico, which is where we live in Cancun. I know somebody has to do it. We're making that sacrifice for you. We're natives to the region, and we're based there. And we think that's very important to know the lay of the land, to understand who the good quality service providers are, and to be able to offer the level of service that we think pilots should receive. We've got relationships with government officials through the participation on the Aviation Council, and also through other councils in Mexico and the Bahamas that we participate in, as well as ICAO regional activities. We're also on the Executive Council of the Mexican Pilots Association. Again, all these things allow us to be able to build relationships, get information, and whenever questions come up, get answers for you for those questions. Mexico is a very interesting and fascinating country to visit. With over 6,000 nautical miles of coastline on the Pacific Gulf and on the Caribbean, it really, for those of you that like water sports and beach activities, it really offers something for everybody. It's got the world's second largest barrier reef, and it's got around 1,300 airports, approximately, 54 of which are airports of entry. 75 VORs. Your altimeter settings will be given an inches. Your altitude will be in feet. Your distance will be in miles. But fuel is going to be in liters. So for those of you that are not up on the metric system, be ready to convert. Bring your E6B or your conversion table, because you'll need it. ATC speaks English, and that's one of the questions that I often get. Well, can they do the controller speak English? They do. You'll notice that those airports where you get more international visits, more pilots from the United States, they'll speak more fluently, and others you might notice more of an accent. But what we have found over the years, one of the most important, if not the most important thing to a successful international trip, is to relax. Don't expect a quick turn. Don't expect things just like home. It's different. It's international. So just if you get ready to just relax and take it easy, everything will go fine. As far as pilot documents, you're gonna need the same documents you need in the United States with the addition of the restricted radio operator permit. This is an FCC requirement. We, for operating a radio outside the United States, an aircraft radio in this case, we need to get a restricted radio operator permit. For the passengers, even if you're US citizens, you need to have a valid passport in order to re-enter the United States. If you come down and you forget your passport, well, you're just gonna have to stay in Cancun with us and help us drink all the margaritas. If you're coming with a minor and both parents aren't traveling, it's a good idea to bring a notarized letter. For the aircraft, basically the same documents you need to fly an airplane in the United States is what you need to fly in Mexico with the addition of the radio station permit. Remember the old arrow, the A-R-R-O-W, there's that radio station permit. If you're wondering where to get it, there's a link on our website. You can go to caribbiantsguidetours.com, go to the links page and it'll take you straight to the FCC website where you can go ahead and process those. You also need insurance coverage in Mexico. Now, Mexico will honor your US-issued insurance provided three things. Number one, that it says you're covered in Mexico. And number two, that you have liability coverage of at least 280,000 US dollars. The third thing you need, provided you've got the first two, is a photocopy because they're gonna wanna keep a photocopy of that when you arrive in Mexico. The other thing you're gonna need, if the airplane's not in your name, if it's co-owned, rented, if it's in a name of an LLC, you should bring a notarized letter. And Murphy grew up in aviation. What I found is, if you bring that notarized letter with you, no one's ever gonna ask you for it. But if you don't bring it, that's probably when they will. So it's a good idea to bring that. And that's true for the Bahamas or any other country that you might travel to. Customs and Border Protection Decal. This is a US Customs and Border Protection Decal. It shows that you've paid your user fee for the year. You can get it online, also off of our website. And it's a good idea to get it before you go. You can get it when you come into the United States. But what I have found is that there's a correlation between how easy you make things for the customs officer and how easy things will go for you. So it's a good idea to get that done before you go. Charts, very important. There's a number of different charts that you can get. We've got those available on our website. IFR, VFR charts on our online pilot shop. So if you need charts, that's one source to get them. You also will need 12-inch N numbers on your aircraft. That's to comply with the Part 99 requirements of crossing the Air Defense Identification Zone. So if you've got an aircraft with a small numbers, you can even make them with duct tape. They just need to be two inches wide, 12 inches tall and of a contrasting color to the aircraft. You also need a Mode C transponder and two-way radio so that ATC can see you and you can speak with ATC. If you're coming over water, you need a life jackets and a life raft. Now, when we travel internationally, we are expected, we are required, to follow the regulations of the country we're flying in. And Mexico requires if you're beyond gliding distance from shore that you're supposed to have a life raft and a life jacket. I can tell you, regardless of what the law says, when you're out over water, it's a darn good idea to have those. Again, Murphy grew up in aviation. I've had my life raft and life jacket and I've yet to go swimming, but it's a very, very good idea if you're gonna go over water and that's true of the Bahamas as well. And as any cross-country trip, you should have suitable survival equipment. Now, one other thing that's important is oil and spare parts. Mexico is a very large country. It's very sparsely populated and sometimes it can be a challenge to find spare parts in oil. Every aircraft that we've bought, we've taken down to Mexico to operate. We've bought a spare starter, spare alternator and a voltage regulator. Anybody wanna guess how many times I've had to change any of those items on any of those airplanes? Zero. Again, I think Murphy grew up in aviation. So if weight and space allow, it's a good idea to bring if you already have them, tuck them away, bring them with you and chances are you'll probably never have to use them. In addition, you should bring a prop lock in the part of Mexico where we operate, which is the Yucatan in central Mexico. We've never had any problems with aircraft thefts or break-in, but it's prudent. I use it even in the U.S. when I bring my aircraft to Miami. We put the prop lock on there as well. Tie-downs, there's many airports have anchors, but the tie-downs aren't there, so it's a good idea to bring your own tie-downs and chocks as well. Unless you have a burning desire to find out more about the Mexican legal system, these are things you don't wanna bring. Do not bring firearms, ammunition or illegal drugs. That's a big no-no. For those of you who are hunters and wanna go to a lodge, it'd be a very good idea that you contact us first before you even consider bringing a firearm into Mexico. Now, what do you need to do? Well, we've got all our equipment in our documents. What do we need to do? Well, the first thing is we need to decide which airport of entry we're gonna use. You must enter Mexico through an international airport of entry. We have a pilot guide that has all those airports listed so you can pick from those as to where you wanna go. The next thing you need to do is you need to file a flight plan. That's a U.S. requirement. We must file a flight plan to fly to Mexico regardless if you're going BFR or IFR. If you're crossing into Mexico over land or from the Texas border, Arizona border, you can file a U.S. domestic flight plan. If you're coming over water, say from Key West or from Marathon, then we must file an IKO international flight plan. And Miami Flight Service will walk you through what's required. It's basically the same information as you would need to do. The order is a little different and they also wanna know information about your survival equipment. And the next thing you're expected to do is to fly the plan. That means we need to activate it if it's a VFR flight plan. You can get flight following. Mexico has flight following. Their centers do provide it. And Mexico wants you to contact ATC as soon as you cross their border. So once you enter their airspace, if you're coming over water or over land, they want you to contact the nearest tower, approach, or center. Establish contact, who you are, where you are, where you're going, and they will enter you into the Mexican ATC system and start alerting towers along the route. And then once you arrive, you will close the flight plan. They do want you, when you first enter Mexico, until you make that first landing, they do expect you to fly the published airways, even if you're VFR. One of the things you don't wanna do, if you're coming over from South Florida, is to cross into the Cuban inter-atis. That's definitely not a good thing to do. So if you're coming VFR, please make sure that you fly around. That keeps you outside of the Cuban inter-atis. But what you don't wanna do is to make any unauthorized stops prior to an airport of entry. That's definitely not something that you should do. So if you're flying along, let's say you're coming from Brownsville and you're planning to fly to Veracruz. And for some reason, headwinds, whatever, you realize that I'm not gonna be able to make Veracruz, then alert ATC and select another airport of entry. For example, Tampico, okay? So if something occurs and you can't make it, always try to find another airport of entry that you can use as a suitable landing spot. And again, coming from Florida, don't cross into the Cuban inter-atis. When you arrive in Mexico, the first person that's probably gonna greet you as a soldier. The Mexican Army is responsible for security at the airports in Mexico. And obviously they're very, right now there's a tremendous emphasis on cracking down, on organized crime. So there's a fair amount of attention being focused. But all of our experience with the soldiers in Mexico, they're very courteous, they're very friendly, and all they wanna really know is where you're coming from and where you're going. So after a few questions, they'll be on their way. And once you have completed that, the entry process into Mexico is very similar to that. You may have experience in other countries. There's a general declaration, which is the standard format that most of you have seen that have flown to the Caribbean. If you've flown to Mexico commercial, you'll recognize the immigration form that you have to fill out. They're gonna tear off the bottom part of the form and give it back to you to keep until you leave. Customs form that's filled by the head of household, head of each family. And for the aircraft, there's an entry permit. And in Mexico, there's two types of entry permits. So we cover those in our pilot guide. There's a one time and a multiple entry permit. But the key thing is regardless of whether you get either one, this form, this GHC001 form, it's gotta be stamped by immigration, customs, and civil aviation. That's the form that shows that your aircraft entered the country legally. So it's a very important form, make sure that you have one. And finally, if you've arrived at a towered airport or an airport where there's a civil aviation office, they're gonna want you to fill out an arrival report. And that's it, you're done. Very similar to what you would go through, say, on a trip to the Bahamas. Once you're inside Mexico, getting fuel is pretty straightforward. Most of the airports, the fuel is provided by ASA, which is a government entity. Right now, AvGas is running around $3.70 a gallon in Mexico. So it's a very, very good, very attractive price. And in Mexico, 100LL is called Gas Avion, which is a literal translation of AvGas. And JEDA is called Turbocina. It's typically provided by ASA, as I said, in those bright yellow trucks. And getting weather, weather is provided in Mexico by CENAM. And CENAM is a part of the Secretary of Communications and Transportation. It's a sister organization, federal organization, to the DGAC. And the difference is CENAM does your weather. They also operate the control towers and the radar centers. So it's kind of like the operational part of the FAA. You can also get weather from different public and private resources, aviationweather.gov. If you're an AOPA member, they've got their website. And also, we've got some links, free links on our website to help pilots who plan to travel or are traveling within Mexico. Airspace in Mexico is very similar to the United States except you're gonna see this MM, the mic mic. And that just says this is Mexican airspace. So a D is what they call a danger area. It's similar to an alert area in the United States. A P is prohibited and an R is restricted. So just kind of, if you ignore the first MM, just very similar to what we're accustomed to flying in the United States. CTA is center. And then you have these things on the charts called ATZs. And they sure do look like what? They look like class Delta airspace, exactly. And that's pretty much how you wanna think of it. Typically it's a 10 nautical mile radius. So it's a little bit larger. And it's called an aerodrome traffic zone. And what you need to do is contact the tower, get permission, enter the airspace. And they're gonna then just tell you which runway is active and what pattern to fly. Now, you will also see something called a TMA. And a TMA is the equivalent of a TCA. In fact, it's a terminal control area. Where the M came from, I have no idea, but that's what it is. And at the larger airports of Mexico, you can see a TMA sitting on top of an ATZ. And it looks very similar to a class Charlie or class Bravo airspace, but they're all class Delta. And although they look ominously large on the charts, many airports in Mexico don't have radar as we do in the United States. And so what they wanna do is they want you to contact them. They want you to tell them where you are. And that way they can provide position reports to other aircraft in the area or aircraft that may be departing the airport. So although they look ominous, it's really not that big of a deal. All they want you to do is contact approach and tell them where you are so that they can alert the aircraft. You'll also see airports with something called an AFIS, which is an Aerodrome Flight Information Service. And you can think of these like an LAA in the United States, a local airport advisory. It means somebody from Flight Service is on the field, monitoring the radio, and will provide you with weather and traffic information at the field. Just be aware that sometimes if there are several airports in the area, one might be underneath a TMA. So if you depart a non-towered airport, just like in the States, if you're in Clash, Charlie, as soon as you get airborne, contact approach and get clearance so that you can continue climbing up into the TMA. Regulations in Mexico are very similar to those in the United States. They're based on the ICAO regulations with some differences. Flight between sunset and sunrise in Mexico is only IFR. There's no VFR night flying. And I'll tell you, if you've been out over the ocean or if you've been out over the Yucatan Peninsula at night, where there's basically very few lights if any, you'll quickly realize that it's really not a good idea because there's not much of a horizon to see. So it's really not a good idea to try to fly VFR at night. A basic VFR is similar, although the ceiling is a little bit higher in Mexico. It's 1500. The common traffic in Mexico is 122.5, although some airports, especially as you get closer to the U.S. border, you'll find they use 122.8. And so in our pilot guide, we clarify for each airdrome that's not towered, which frequency is typically used. Right now, experimental aircraft are allowed. You must have an airworthiness certificate and a registration. Left-hand traffic patterns prevail. Cardinal altitudes begin at 2,000. Speed restrictions are a little different if you've got a turbine-powered aircraft, and we cover those in our pilot guide. It depends on altitude, what the speed restrictions are, but they are slightly different. And no deviations just in the states. If you file a flight plan to a particular destination, they do expect you to fly to that destination. So if along the way, you say, you know, I was gonna go to Cozumel, but boy, I'd like to go to Blyat of the Godemann instead because there's something neat I wanna do there. Just you need to contact ATC and say, look, I was off of Cancun, I've got a flight plan to Cozumel. I would like to change my destination to Blyat. That way, no one's gonna start looking for you when you don't show up in Cozumel. Within Mexico, we need to file flight plans. And the way, the rule of thumb is, if there is a civil aviation office at the airport, then you typically have to file a flight plan using the IKO format. Our pilot guide has a section on how to fill it out. It's basically the same information. The equipment codes are a little different and you have to put the survival information, life jackets, life raft, and color. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same information. So you'll fill one of those out. The DGAC or the Civil Aviation People will stamp it and they'll give you back the top copy of the original. It's a sort of a similar process to what you might have experienced in the Bahamas where you have a C7A, you have to go to customs when you arrive and they stamp it and when you get ready to depart, they have to stamp it again and put the time. So you gotta think of it that way. And when you arrive, you need to file an arrival report, like you do in the Bahamas at Freeport, Nassau, where there's a towered airport or civil aviation's present. You fill out a form, which basically says where you're coming from, who was on board and the time that you arrived. And that's pretty much it. Flying in Mexico's pretty straightforward. The skies are wide open. There's not very much traffic at all in Mexico. And certainly in the Yucatan, the weather is very similar to what we experienced in South Florida with the exception of today, but it's usually a scattered 1500. When you get ready to return to the United States, when you've been in Mexico, you're ready to go home. What you need to do is to plan your route. And what you want to do is to select an airport of entry from which to depart. The Mexican immigration law requires us, when we depart Mexico, we must do it through an international port. So pick an airport of entry and Mexico doesn't care. Just like on the airport's of entry inbound, Mexico really doesn't care where it is. It does not have to be at the border. So if you're coming into Mexico, that airport of entry you picked on your way in, it could be 500 miles inland. It doesn't matter. You don't have to stop at the border. And the same holds true when you're returning to the United States. You can pick an airport that's three, four, five, 600 miles inside. It could be on the southern border of Mexico. It just needs to be an airport of entry. So pick one and then you need to select which US Customs and Border Protection designated airport. That one does have to be, the first one needs to be the closest one to your point of border or coastline crossing. That's the one they're gonna want you to use. They want you to go straight there. Don't pass, go, don't collect 200. You need to go straight to that airport and no further. And then determine your route and what your ETA is gonna be. And they're gonna wanna know what time you penetrate the ATIS. A lot of times flight service is gonna tell you what time you expect to reach the border. The next thing we recommend is call flight service in the US. You will get a briefing from Cineam in Mexico, but Cineam does not see the FDC nodems. So if the President is on visiting a location on the border and there's a TFR sitting right on the edge of the border, there's a good chance that the people in Mexico may not be aware of that. So it's a good idea to call flight service and make sure if you're going VFR that you know what's on the other side. It's also a good idea if you're going VFR to let them know as well and they will make a record for triggering your ADCUS and your ATIS penetration information to the military. And then if they let you, you can actually file a DVFR flight plan with them as well, even though you're gonna be filing one in Mexico. And third, you need to call customs and border protection. Don't rely on the ADCUS, it's very important. Call customs, our pilot guide has all the customs designated airports and their phone numbers. Call them up, tell them who you are, they're gonna wanna know your tail number, your name, who's coming, how many are US and what your ETA is. But very important folks, ask them for a name, a badge number or initials. And typically they will give you initials when you call. When you get ready to depart, as far as the Mexicans are concerned, they just want you to file a flight plan just like you were doing to fly within Mexico, just file your flight plan north, fill out your outbound general declaration, which is the same format you used when you came in, very similar to what you've, if you've flown through the Caribbean, the same format. And lastly, that little immigration piece, the stub they tore off the immigration form that they gave you, you need to return that. And that's showing, I'm now leaving and they have a record of when you departed. And so as far as the Mexicans are concerned, that's all you need to do for departing Mexico. As you approach the United States, this is primarily if you're VFR, you need to make sure that you contact flight service, make sure that they did receive that flight plan from Mexico, if not, that's where it helps to have already given them your flight plan information. So for whatever reason, the information from Mexico has not yet arrived. They've already got your info, they can trigger and give you your squat code. Don't enter the air defense identification zone without a discrete code, otherwise no one knows who you are. So unless you wanna see an air show up close and personal, make sure you've got your squat code. I highly recommend leave the viewing of F-18s and F-16s for here at Sun and Fun. You don't wanna see one up high over the border. Now, once you've entered, when you've landed at the designated airport, you wanna taxi up to Customs and Border Protection. Well, some of the Customs and Border Protection just have one giant ramp, okay, with really no markings or anything, and sometimes you'll see on the edges, they may have boxes. Well, one way to get on the bad side of Customs and Border Protection is to just park up and hog that whole ramp and just shut down right in the middle, because what may happen is right behind you, and there might be two or three other planes, and now, and some of them might be large, could be a larger private jet, and now they can't come in, and there's nothing that will be more annoying than to be halfway through your entry process that the tower calls and says, could you ask November one, two, three, four to please move their plane? We've got aircraft backing up on the taxiway, so be courteous when you go in, find a convenient spot, but try not to block the ramp. And the other, some airports have these lanes. You'll see the taxi lanes, and it'll be a long red box. What they want you to do is taxi to the end, first in, first out, taxi all the way in, make room for people coming in behind you. Once you're there, you're gonna need to fill out a Customs Declaration, one per family, and fill out an arrival report. We've got a link on our website, so you can download the 178. That's another nice thing to do ahead of time. You can download it, fill it out, and that way, when you land, all you have to do is put the time that you landed, and boom, you're ready to go. Makes the officials happier, makes your processing time much quicker. And if you haven't already done so, don't forget to close your flight plan. When you, one thing you don't wanna do, when you arrive at a Customs and Border Protection Station, is to just open the door and let everybody loose. You still have not entered the United States, so unless there's a sign that says, like at Tamiami at Opalaca, that says, pilot and passengers, please bring your belongings into the building, they really expect you to stay in that penalty box, in those red boxes. That's what they really want you to do, so don't run off and go chat with another guy that's parked at the ramp, or run over, use the phone at the FBO or something. They won't be very pleased if you do that. Some of the things that we have found that have been very helpful, that I'd like to share with you, some safety tips, is one of them is using a 406 megahertz PLB, and there's some suppliers here at Sun and Fun that are offering these and have literature, very effective, and I've had several discussions with the Mexican Navy, the people in charge of search and rescue, and they have a process in place, so when a 406 megahertz PLB goes off, the Operations Center contacts the Navy in Mexico City, they contact the regional, the commander, the sector commander, where that signal originated from, and they will launch aircraft, primarily helicopters to go look, and there was an incident where a gentleman actually took his PLB on a fishing boat and had some type of a, I think it was a heart attack, and they activated it, and they did come in a helicopter, so it does work, it does work, and we highly recommend it. Another is bring a GPS with a moving map. If you've ever been out on the water, like out in the Bahamas or crossing the Gulf, and you're out there, you get this little voice in the back of your head that starts saying, you know, it's been a while, you know, am I going the right way? Shouldn't I be seeing something right about now? Well, having a GPS with a moving map where you can actually see yams, I am pointed in the right direction, can be a really, really big help, and over the Yucatan Peninsula, that jungle, it's just one big carpet of green, it's just like being over the ocean, so a moving map's a good idea. If you're over water, dual cell life rafts and life jackets are a good idea. Pay a little bit more, but get the dual cell ones, it's much better. Pack a machete and survival equipment's always a good idea, especially if you're over a jungle, we have kits that are on our website, an overwater kit and a jungle kit with suitable equipment, and when you're over the water, here's a good idea. If you're flying out there, say you're coming from Key West down to Cancun, and you're flying along enjoying your ride and everything's going great, and you see a ship, what I do is I create a user waypoint on my GPS. I just hold the enter button, create a user waypoint. So if I ever had a problem, all I have to do is hit nearest user waypoint and it's gonna take me right back to wherever that ship is. Now here's another tip. If there are two ships in that location, and one of them is a container vessel, and the other one is a Royal Caribbean, I highly recommend you choose the Royal Caribbean. Unless you have a burning desire to spend the next 30 days with some sweaty sailors crossing the Atlantic, you could be on a Royal Caribbean with the bar and the food and the unlimited, all you can eat. So that's just my humble recommendation. Use other aircraft. If you ever have problems communicating with ATC, if you're in a remote area, ask other aircraft. Mexican pilots are great to work with. They're very, very accommodating, the commercial guys as well as the private guys. So ask other aircraft, hey, you know, I'm trying to reach Merida Center, could you please relay my information? I KO English, I call it I KO speak. English is not always English in the aviation world. The I KO glossary is not exactly the same as the glossary we're accustomed to. And one occasion I had to jump in, the controller said taxi to the holding position. The pilot understood taxi into position and hold. Taxi to the holding position means hold short. Taxi to the runway one, two, hold short, okay? So if you're in an airport and they give you something and it doesn't quite sound right or quite sound like what you are accustomed to, ask the controller. And they know, they get pilots from the United States, they know that we say taxi into position and hold. They know, so they'll clarify it for you. So any doubts, always play it safe and ask the controller to clarify what it is they want you to do. Make position reports to ATC. Mexico does not have a whole lot of radar coverage, but they have Daisy chained most of their towers together with a little microwave link. So when you take off from a non-towered airport, nobody knows that you took off. So what I do is I contact the closest tower and say, hey, if I am off of Playa del Carmen, which is no tower, I'd say contact Cozumel Tower. I say, I'm off of Playa del Carmen, I'm VFR to Cojun Lich, which is another airstrip in the jungle. And so then they will then contact Chetumal Tower, which is further down the coast and let them know, hey, I've got a Cessna 337, it's headed south. So when I get close to Cojun Lich, I contact Chetumal Tower. And just as soon as I see that Cojun Lich airport, I say airport in sight, I'm landing. And that's sort of an informal way of getting flight following and getting a search and rescue coverage in Mexico. So giving position reports is a very good thing and flight following is available. Certain parts, certainly the Yucatan Peninsula, if you go high enough, because it's so flat, you can get flight following from Merida Center. Other parts of Mexico because of the mountainous terrain that can be more challenging, especially if you're in a normally aspirated aircraft at lower altitudes, they may or may not. That's when calling the towers can be a really good idea. If you're landing at a non-towered airport, especially if it's a remote one, it's always a good idea to overfly the runway. I do it at 500 feet. In fact, the Mexican regs actually encourage it. And it's just to make sure that there's nothing on the runway that shouldn't be there. Flying at higher altitudes is always a good idea. Better temperature, better performance, it's cooler. Try to fly early in the day. Mexico, like Florida, especially in the summer, you get the thunderstorms in the afternoon. So it's always better to fly in the morning, cooler, better performance, and avoid any thunderstorm activity. Consider terrain, Mexico's got peaks up to 18,000 feet. So certainly you wanna take that into consideration as you plan your route. Verify density altitudes, a lot of places are high and hot. And always plan on an alternate. Most airports in Mexico, even the big ones, don't have parallel taxiways. So all it takes is to be low on fuel and an aircraft be stranded. Right smack dab in the middle of the runway to really ruin your day. So I always tell people, always plan an alternate. Try to make it downhill and before the destination if possible so that way you've got an out. And we're still waiting on these Mexico whack charts. They were due to be out a week ago Saturday. I've actually got the files for it, the PDF files, the electronic files. They look fantastic. Just there's been a hold up with the printing. And we have a new section on our website. As soon as they're available, we'll let everybody know when and where they can get them. So now that you've had an overview of what it takes to fly to, from Mexico, within Mexico, what I'd like to do is to take you on a brief journey on some of the places that we visit on our escorted tours so you can have an idea as pilots. What is there out there that I can see when I go over to Mexico? So what we'll do is we'll start from our home base in Cancun and travel around the Yucatan Peninsula and South Central Mexico and show you a few places. First stop is the island of Olbosh. It's located right off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula. And it's home to a little fishing village that you see off the nose of the aircraft. What we like to do is, well, there's not a whole lot of options as far as hotels, but there's a couple of little boutique hotels that are real gems, one of which is Shaloc that we use. And you can see what the hotels look like, those little bungalows right on the beach. And for our customers, we spare no expense. When you travel with us, you can expect your stretch limo will receive you at the airport to whisk you away to your beachfront bungalow. This is a shot of on one of our trips and that's pretty much how you get around on Olbosh, either golf cart or on foot, there's no paved streets. And this is a shot of one of the hotels that we use on our trips. So if you're into relaxation, you want to get away from it all, this is one great place to do it. And that's a view of the beach from the rooms. One of the big attractions on Olbosh, which is right around the corner, is the whale shark. And what we do is we charter fishing boats that come right up to the beach, we get on and off we go and you can swim with a whale shark. World's largest living fish, they're actually whales that look like sharks. They are filter feeding, they just take in big gulps of water and filter out the krill and the plankton from the water. And they're very, very docile creatures so you can snorkel right alongside. As long as you don't do anything to, as long as you don't do anything to startle them, they'll just keep swimming right along the surface. Another interesting place to visit is the island of Isla Mujeres, the Isle of Women, which is located about five miles from Cancun. And it's sort of the alter ego of Cancun. Cancun's got all the big hotels. Isla Mujeres is all the opposite. Very rustic was another fishing village and it's got a nice little airstrip there. It's run by the Navy, but we have great relations with them. It's open to civil aviation and it's a neat place to visit. As we come along the east side of the Riviera Maya, we'll make our first stop in Cozumel. Cozumel was a fishing village by the Mayans and it was also a center of worship to the god of, if it was Excel, the god of fertility in the Mayan world. And it's now a very popular destination for scuba diving, any kind of water sports that you might enjoy, you can find on the island of Cozumel. Headed southwest of Cozumel, back on the mainland is the archeological side of Tulum. Tulum is breathtaking. It sits up on a hill overlooking the Caribbean. It's a fabulous place to visit with a spectacular view and near Tulum are the underground caverns of Actunchen. Actually, the east side of the Yucatan Peninsula has got one of the largest underground cave systems in the world. And you can go underground and see these enormous caverns with these sinkholes that have formed in there that go down another 200 or 300 feet, crystal clear, fresh water. And then south, heading further south, is the biosphere reserve of Siankan. No development, no hotels, a whole lot of nothing. There is, however, a little fishing lodge that was grandfathered in. It was a coconut plantation called Punta Pajaros, that's a view of their beach and they have a small air strip there. On one of the islands, you can land in there. They'll send a little skiff, a little boat over to pick you up and carry you back over to the mainland. And heading further south now to the border with Belize, we have the town of Skalak. There's only a handful of hotels and there's a couple that Pia has picked out which are really jewels where you can do some fabulous fishing and scuba diving. Skalak is way off the beaten path, but it has a 3,900 foot paved runway. So most aircraft, most piston aircraft will have no problem getting in there. And you can visit some spectacular reefs and do some fabulous fishing in the area. And as you can see, here's a view taken in the air of what that coastline looks like. There's a whole lot of nothing there. It's a great place to go and get away from it all. You're not gonna run into all the people coming in in Belize or coming in from cruise ships and all that. There's just a great place to get away. Coming around the south side of the peninsula, we go make our first stop in Koh Unleach. When the archeologists were exploring the Yucatan Peninsula, the only practical way of getting people and supplies and equipment in and out was to build a 3,000 foot airstrip in the jungle. So they would carve out these strips and use them. And later over time, the government paved some of them so they could have access to these remote villages in the jungle. This one in particular, Koh Unleach, is one of our favorite stops. It's 3,280 feet long, it's paved, and it's near several interesting things, one of which is a five-star echo resort with a spa. So if you wanna pamper yourself and really go to the middle of nowhere, this is one great place to visit. But it's also near several very interesting archeological sites, Sibanche, Kinnichna, Koh Unleach. One of the things that's interesting about Koh Unleach is that you can see what the pyramids originally looked like. They weren't just a big pile of rocks. They were actually covered with stucco carvings and painted. And when they excavated Koh Unleach, you, they uncovered sections of the pyramid where you can see, in this case, at the temple of the mask, what the original exterior of the pyramids looked like. So very, very interesting. And again, very off the beaten path, very remote, but yet if you have an aircraft that can get into 3,280 foot paved strip, this is a great destination. Another interesting one is Spuhil, which is located a little further west into the jungle. And as you can see, there's an archeological site right off the side of the runway of Spuhil. But what we really enjoy doing is to go to Calakmul. Now Calakmul is believed now to be the largest Mayan city. It rivaled Tikal, historically rivaled Tikal. The difference is that the road to Calakmul is very, very rustic, okay? It's a narrow road. It is paved, most of it anyway, but it's very, very narrow. You can't get buses through there. A lot of times it's just single file. You can only one car can fit through. But the thing that's spectacular about Calakmul is it's over 6,000 structures. They tower up, the pyramids tower up over the jungle, over the canopy of the jungle. And when you climb up to the top, you have some unbelievable breathtaking views. So very, very interesting places to visit. And in this particular visit, the last visit, we were there, the archeologists were excavating. We were actually able to go inside the pyramid. They had dug a tunnel and you can see they had uncovered what the previous pyramid, because as each family or as each regime took power, they would build a pyramid on top of the old pyramid. But now you can see the exterior of the pyramid that was buried underneath. So these are things that you can see in these places because they're remote, there's hardly any tourism and you can get to do and see things that are definitely you can't do at Chichen Itza. Pyramid of the inscriptions is in Palenque, located on the foothill of the Sierra Madre Mountains. And on that tour, we go up into Chiapas to Aguasul, which is considered one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Mexico. And coming around, we go to the state of Yucatán, around Merida. And one of the things that's very, very interesting is they were haciendas, which were working estates. This particular one used to cultivate sisal and make sisal fiber, sisal products, sisal rope. Some of these haciendas have been restored into boutique hotels where you can rent a room. They're very small, 10, 12, 13 rooms. Or you can visit some that are basically in the exact same state as when they shut them down. And on some of them, you can get the caretaker to grab the key ring and take you on a tour where you can see all of the original machinery basically in the same state as when they shut it down. And in that area, in addition to the haciendas, you've got the pre-colonial history with archeological sites, like Ushmal, Cava, and of course, Chichen Itza, one of the seven wonders of the world. Next, we run down to Campeche, which is one of our personal favorites. Campeche was a very, very important port city for the Spanish. Now, what do very, very successful wealthy port cities attract back in those days? Anybody wanna wager a guess? Pirates, you got it. And Campeche attracted its fair share. So what they had to do, they had to build a wall all the way around the city with six bastions and two forts on the hills straddling either side of the city to protect it from the marauding pirates. Much of the wall is still in place. The bastions are still in place and you can tour the city. And each one of the bastions is a museum. You can tour the narrow streets of the center of the city, the Socalo, the city center, the churches that are inside the city center, and the forts that protected it from the pirates back in the colonial days. In central Mexico, you have the port city of Veracruz, which is where Hernán Cortés launched his invasion of Mexico. Now, Hernán Cortés had a very effective way of motivating his troops. He burned the ships. No ships, there's no going back. Now, we promise we're not gonna burn your planes if you go with us to Veracruz, but we will show you some of the lively activity in the center of the city in the evenings, the Marimbas, the Mariachis. Sometimes there are competitions going on of the traditional dances and of course, the Lecheros, of which Veracruz is famous for with the coffee and milk which many people enjoy and it's quite an art how they pour that milk without getting it all over you or all over the table. Next, we go into central Mexico, the city of Puebla, which is where Pia's from. My wife, Pia, this is the city where she's from. Very lively, lots of architecture. This is the church of Don Ancintla. Each one of those up there is a little head. This was done by the local indigenous Indians. They decorated the inside of this church. The picture doesn't do it justice, folks. It is an absolute spectacle to see. And then you have the great pyramid of Cholula, which sits in the town of Cholula, just next to Puebla. And what's remarkable here is there's about four kilometers, four to six kilometers of tunnels underneath there that the archeologists have dug where you can explore and go and see what the other pyramids buried underneath this one look like. So if you're into adventure and exploring, this is another good site. And of course, more haciendas in the center of Mexico. Hernán Cortés built a number of haciendas, and some of them have been restored into boutique hotels as Vistermosa. This is their dining room. They still have working aqueducts. The water comes in from the rivers. It's used to irrigate the fields, so it still comes through the hacienda. You can hear the water rushing through there. And of course, they've got beautiful gardens and grounds and accommodations for you to stay in. On one of our trips, we go down to Tascot, a silver mining town built on the side of the mountain, little narrow streets winding up the side, lots of jewelry stores, and danger, danger, danger abounds in Tascot if you go with your spouse, because those mines are still working. So a lot of these jewelry stores are still very, very well stocked. So be very careful with your wallet if you go to Tascot because you'll probably wind up buying something there. And just to the north is Queretaro with its many little plazas and colonial buildings, truly a beautiful city to visit. And of course, lots of things to see. So very quickly, what are the most common questions that we get? Well, the first is what about bribes? Mordidas. I'm very happy and very proud to say that the Mexican government does not condone that activity. Gilberto Lopez, mayor, the director general of the DGAC, I've seen him take very swift and decisive action. They don't condone it. We certainly don't condone it. And if you have any worries about that, that's where the Mexican government, that's the position that they take. As far as charts are concerned, we do have an online pilot shop with VFR and IFR charts. If you have any questions, we'll be glad to help you. Will my aircraft be safe? What we do on our trips, we typically pick airports that have 24 hour security. If we go to remote airstrips, we contact the army. We've got good relations with the army in our region. We contact the operations captain, let them know where we're going or if we're sending a customer. And they'll typically send some people out there. And many times we'll leave two or three soldiers there with the aircraft. So that's one of the steps that we take. And experimental aircraft we've covered earlier, as long as you have an airworthiness certificate that does not say that you can't fly it outside the United States and a registration that then you can come. Controllers do speak English. And we don't need a Cuban overflight permit as long as you fly around Cuba. And to get to Mexico, it's just a slight curve. There's no need to cross over the top. And what do I do if I have a problem? Well, the comandante is the head of the civil aviation at the airport. He is legally the maximum authority at any airport. So if you have a problem, you think something's not right, ask to see the comandante, tell them what your concern is and let him deal with it. If you still have a concern, call us. We're based in Cancun. As I said, we've got relationship with many different departments of the federal government in Mexico and the Bahamas. And we'll be glad to intervene if that's necessary. A little bit about us, as I said, we're natives to the region and the relationship is important. We are involved in all of these councils. And I guess the important thing is this is not something we do two or three times a year. We don't go to Mexico, just do three or four. We do this every day. And that is very important because if you're down there and you have a mechanical problem or you have a medical problem, who are you gonna call? How do you find out quickly? Who to go to? Who can help you? Who do I need to go to? And who do I need to turn away from? We've got a number of different services, the website, Pilots Guide, and I'll cover the Pilots Guide here quickly. Mexico, those 1,300 airports, only 85 of them, are in the Aeronautical Information Publication. And of those 85, only about 30 make it to Jefferson. So what we found was important was to develop a document where you could go to get that information. And so we get the official database and we go to every single airport to verify the information. We also do destination planning. We do telephone consultations to make sure we understand what you're looking for. We put together a personalized itinerary that's based on your interest and schedule. We recommend hotels and rates, restaurants and activities, and we make transportation arrangements. I don't know if you noticed that picture of Cojón Leach where we were turning final on Cojón Leach, but there wasn't a taxi stand there. So getting transportation coordinated to come to you is very important. On the Aeronautical side, we schedule a conference call with a pilot. We go over all the Aeronautical information. We give you all the pilot guides, charts necessary for your trip, update fuel availability and prices. We review what safety equipment you have and if you have any questions. We obtain overflight permits. If you're going to Costa Rica, for example, and you need overflight of El Salvador, Guatemala, we get all of those permits for you. And very important, we advise each airport of your intended arrival. We call the comandante. We tell them you're a customer of ours when you're arriving and we ask them to look out for you. But what we also do is we give you a number where you can reach us. You will reach us, not a call center, and that's very important. If you have a problem, you're not alone. The fly-ins, the escorted trips that we do is basically have all the benefits of the vacation planning. Plus, we're there with you the entire time. We meet you in the US and we take you back to the US. You get a chance to meet fellow pilots. We take care of all the paperwork and hassle. You just fly your plane and have fun. And all of the logistics is taken care of. We do pre-flight briefings before each leg of the trip. And you get a chance to see how the process works. So if you're thinking of a trip to Mexico, a great way to start off is do an escorted fly-in, go with us, see how it's done, and that way you'll be much further ahead of the game when you get ready to do it yourself. So with that, I'll open it up to questions and answer them as best as I can. Yes, sir. You're right there. I wonder, are all the rules that apply to Maine and Mexico applied to Baja? Yes. All of the regulations that I've covered are for all of Mexico. It doesn't matter if you come in over land or over the coast. The entry requirement through an airport of entry holds and the departure through an airport of entry is the same there as it is for anywhere else. Okay. Thank you very much. You've created a new wonderlust in me, which my husband will be very happy to hear. Great. Great. One of the things that I was wondering about is do you do safety briefings for pilots? Do you give them any ideas about, even I know you mentioned altitudes, but are there any other versus runway safety? Yeah, what we do before each flight, we do the evening before each flight, we get all the pilots together and we brief the trip. We'll go over the departure procedures, enroute procedures, arrival procedures, lost procedures. But even before then, before we even begin the fly-in, the aeronautical consultation that we have, we do that on our fly-ins. We'll call each pilot and review what safety equipment do you have, what should you have, and if you don't have it, we recommend where you can get. If you want to rent a life raft or rent a life jacket, we take care of all of that before the trip ever begins. But certainly before each flight all the way through the trip, the evening before we get everyone together and we go through it and if there's any questions. And we also have our own air-to-air frequency. And it usually starts out very formal and we periodically ask your DME from a position so we know where you are and what altitude. But usually by the end of the week, once everyone gets to know each other, it's usually a forum for a lot of abuse between pilots. Well, Rick, you've made our world much broader in our horizons, so thank you very much. Thank you, Vicathleen, thanks very much. I appreciate the other people who have come. There's an air show this afternoon, it sounds as though it's going, in spite of the weather and all the fun stuff that's happening. So with your permission, come on up, talk to Rick a little bit more and let's finish up our program, thank you. So come on up, we'll see what we can do. If you come around here, we'll see who's gonna come.