Has anyone ever flown to Mexico? I live in San Diego and we also have a house in Ensenada, MX. Now that I own an airplane it would be great to fly to the house in Ensenada. Has anyone ever done it and what do I need to go south of the border?
There's a couple instructors in the area who do Mexico Checkouts, basically explaining the process of flying in and out of Mexico. I did a Mexico checkout in 2016; cant say I remember all of it but I remember enough of it that I could probably get by with some pre-planning without major issue.
Total flight time from KMYF to MMES and back (with a stop at KSDM for US Customs on the return trip) was about 1.5 hours in a Cutlass (C172RG) according to my log books. I forget how long it was to process everything in Ensenada but remember it took a while. Afterwards my instructor and I grabbed lunch and flew back and it was like 6 hours total including preflight, planning, flight, customs, lunch, flight back, etc.
The process is pretty simple once you know it and is pretty similar for flights to Canada and the Bahamas, in fact Mexico I've heard (and sort of found but with only 1 flight to each, I'd hesitate to call it a general rule) is more difficult/less accommodating than the other 2 to GA. Mostly in terms of language (Mexican controllers seem to speak spanish at every opportunity and dont stick to english even when requested), availability of services (at the time in 2016 and I see no reason why this would have changed, fuel was only available at select airports controlled by the military in Mexico in order to combat drug trafficking) and general helpfulness clearing customs (again language barrier but also in terms of "I messed something up" the Mexican authorities seemed more stringent and provided much less assistance in correcting the issue whereas the Bahamas practically goes out of its way to welcome GA and make it easy and the Canadian authorities were less picky and more helpful too).
Just a couple other notes to add since you have your own plane and clearly intend to make the trip multiple:
1) Dont forget to get a Radio Operator's License for both yourself and the plane. If I'm not mistaken, its $10,000 fine if you are asked for and you cant produce your radio operators license for US Customs. I've only been asked once out of 3 international trips so cant say how common it is.
2) Dont forget to get your own CBP decal for your plane.
3) Mexico does require that you have insurance and it also requires you be authorized to take the aircraft overseas so make sure you check with your insurance and draft a letter as the owner, authorizing yourself as pilot to take the plane, especially if its owned under another name or LLC. (I believe the letter also needs to be notarized)
These are pretty straightforward and any instructor should cover them with you but they are things easily forgotten/overlooked since they are not common and/or attached to the plane, not the pilot and are not available "day of" like customs forms or eAPIS (Its my understanding that technically the CBP decal can be purchased day of and you just have to show a receipt but I've not gone international in a plane without a CBP decal) so they require some pre-work.
Also, bring pesos. Though USD is a popular secondary currency in Mexico, the airport landing fee and customs services will not accept USD or Credit Cards in most instances and MMES doesnt have an ATM (nor can you leave the airport to get cash until cleared, which requires payment upfront)
