Well, last night after 47.9 hours and a bit under 7000 miles of flying (actually probably 7000 or so when you figure that we didn't go direct for a good portion of the trip), the Aztec, Laurie, and I made it back to Williamsport where we'd started. The trip was a partnership between Cloud Nine Rescue Flights (my non-profit -
www.cloudninerescueflights.org) and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (
www.ifaw.org), details here:
http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw_united_states/media_center/press_releases/7_14_2010_63179.php
Those who want more info on the animal aspects of the trip can check out the blog (not posted yet, give me a week or so), I'm going to focus on the flying aspects of the trip here.
As with any major trip, there's a lot of preparation involved. First one is getting appropriate charts for the trip. For IFR charts, I just ordered the Jeppesen trip kit. For $100 ($130 if you count the plastic binder to put it in), Jepp will send you their complete "manual" for Mexican flight, with current en route charts and approach plates for all of Mexico. If you're not used to Jepp charts, I would spend some time to look over them and get used to them. I use the NACO stuff because it's cheaper and suffices for me just fine. The charts are pretty self-explanatory, they just look different. You'll also need to have your survival gear. This can be rented from various FBOs or else purchased. In my case, I borrowed a nice raft and some vests from a friend of mine. Make sure that they're easily accessible. Putting them in the nose of the plane won't do you a lot of good if you're over water and need to land. We kept it behind my head where any of the three people on board could easily grab it, with vests behind the second row passenger (figuring the raft was significantly more important).
Filing your flight plan to Mexico is just as easy as any other flight within the US. A few things to be aware of. First, Cuba has the inner and outer ADIZ zones. Going into our fuel stop prior to heading to Cozumel on the first leg, I asked approach if they had my clearance, and they said I needed to refile. So I got a phone number to call Miami center, and found out the guys there didn't realize it was alright to fly through the outer ADIZ without prior approval. We settled that, and I was on my way.
Florida has a lot of warning areas, and as such they gave me a convoluted clearance around them before I got on B646 Marathon to somewhere out over the Cuban outer ADIZ where I picked up the other B route that goes straight into Cozumel. Expect to be on airways over the Gulf. For one, over a large part of it they may not have you on radar. At 6,000 ft heading from Florida to Cozumel, we were always in radar contact. However the same was not true over the Gulf heading from Cozumel to New Orleans, or from Cozumel back to Florida (they sent me home on a different route than they sent me out on).
You don't need to call Mexico ahead of time to let them know you're coming. Just file your flight plan (make sure it's landing at an international airport), and be on your way. Calling ahead to confirm availability of fuel and parking is a good idea (a tip from Dave Siciliano), but they wouldn't give me a fuel price ahead of time. However you do need to file your outbound eAPIS with the US. Make sure you get your eAPIS account ahead of the trip.
Havana center and Merida centers were very polite and professional. If you're used to IFR flight in the US it's pretty much the same there. The controllers actually gave more proper speak rather than a lot of the abbreviated communication that we get used to in this country.
Cozumel airport is actually very nice. Most of the flights they get in are from American companies. I think the direct flights are from Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta. There is also a healthy number of piston and turbine GA aircraft that go in.
Once you land in Mexico, you'll have to go through Mexican customs and immigration. About 7 people came out to the plane (including the military folk in full out camo gear and guns) to ask us questions. They were very polite and friendly, but it was the first of a number of forms we had to fill out. This was just about who was on board. Inside was standard customs declaration and getting the passport stamped, then getting the bags inspected, any food items taken away, etc. Each of these people requires that you fill out one form.
At this point you think you're done, but you're not. For one you have to get the plane refueled at the FBO. The fuel price was actually not bad at all (I don't have an exact price, but it was in the $4.50 range, I think), but of course they don't speak very good English. In Cozumel they did accept credit cards to pay for fuel, but you had to tell them ahead of time. As a reuslt, I ended up paying cash since the fuel guys filled out the form assuming cash.
You also need to close your flight plan. Cozumel has a flight service station there where you file your trip completion report. The man there was quite friendly. This form is filled out in triplicate (no joke), and you have to get stamps from four people, all located in different parts of the airport. It's a scavenger hunt. The first person is Operations, with whom you pay the immigration tax. This must be paid in cash. Crew are exempt from paying. So if you have more than one pilot on board, claim the other pilot as crew. Since Laurie is a pilot, we claimed her as first officer. I don't know if you could claim a third person as flight engineer...
The second and third stops are customs and immigration. You will have already talked to these people, but they will now require another form each, each of which has the same information you have had already. Write down the name, nationality, birth date, and passport number and expiration of each person on board, plus address. You'll need it for eAPIS and coming in and out of Mexico. Also pilot's certificate numbers for all pilots.
The fourth person was "Commandancia", basically the airport police. Make sure when you go to him you have your registration, airworthiness certificate, and Mexican insurance policy ready. They will make sure that your aircraft is legal, and will then issue their fourth stamp. Additionally, you will pay this person the aircraft entrance fee (in cash). This is supposed to be paid once per calendar year, so he should issue a multi-entrance paper. Of course, he doesn't want to do that, because he has to then fill out more forms (and probably means he won't be able to pocket the cash you just gave him). Make sure you get it from him. The person we talked to was friendly, but told us he was doing us a favor.
The whole process from landing to being ready to leave the airport and fully fueled up took 2 hours the first time, and 1 hour 15 minutes the second time. It helped that we knew where we were going, and plus the fuel guys knew who we were and drove right up as soon as we landed. That helped expedite things. However it would have taken much longer if we didn't have a local who assisted us with translation. Although he had no idea about how the process worked, he spoke Spanish and was able to converse with the people we dealt with (who didn't speak English very well).
Leaving was effectively the same process in reverse. Filing the flight plan was somewhat fun since I was actually talking with the flight service station person (to his face). He called up Cancun approach to confirm they would be alright with the route I wanted, and walked me through all the individual bits, including survival gear. Of course, this form (filled out in quadruplicate) needed four stamps from the same four people, and more forms. Operations charged the leaving Mexico tax (once again, not applicable to crew), customs and immigration (again, two separate people with separate stamps) needed their (separate) forms of who was leaving with passport numbers. Commandancia wanted to reverify that the plane was legal, although at this point the multipass form was acceptable. This took a bit over an hour the first time, and about 45 minutes the second time.
At the end of your journey, you shall be granted the final reward: your flight plan will be filed, and you can leave Mexico and go home! I found the Cozumel tower controllers to read clearances differently than Americans, and am told that's normal in Mexico. You get the same information ultimately. A lot of Mexican instrument procedures include DME arcs (both for coming and going), but so long as they have radar working, as soon as I took off I got told to proceed direct to whatever fix and resume own navigation.
Flying to New Orleans puts you over a longer section of the water, much of which where you won't be able to talk to Houston at the altitudes that a naturally aspirated aircraft will want to fly at. I relayed position reports through jets. Yes, a real position report like they taught you in IFR training and you never thought you'd use!
For customs returning to the US, you'll need to file your eAPIS (of course). Don't forget you need to also call the airport of entry you're landing at ahead of time. This is a good idea anyway to make sure they'll be there. A lot of them have hours that you may be landing outside of, and that will typically require prior arrangements. The same goes for Canada flight. The customs people I dealt with were very courteous and quick, even including all the animals I was bringing into the country. Really, they just needed to see the same sort of documentation that is required for any legal transport of animals, so it's not a problem.
Gulf weather is interesting. Aside from the Gulf area forecast (available at
www.aviationweather.gov), we also looked at the Caribbean satellite from
www.intellicast.com and local METARs to get information on what was going on. There's not a lot in the way of storm predictions over the gulf, but the satellite gives you a good idea of what's going on if you look at it. Personally, I think that unless it's a perfect day (which our first two gulf crossings were), having on-board radar is a good idea. XM provided me some satellite images, but no radar, and you definitely don't have center to rely on. You can paint something of a picture of what's going on with how jets are diverting (or not), but it really is best to have your own.
I am told that Cozumel has had a lot of drug trafficing recently, and as such is especially strict with their procedures. The fact that it took as long as it did may have to do with that Mexico itself. I can only speak to my experience in Cozumel. In retrospect, I'm not sure if I would do it again if it was for personal visitation, but I think the flight over the gulf itself is worth doing, and it is a neat experience. You need to have a GPS at naturally aspirated altitudes. I don't know if you can pick up VORs in the flight levels, but I certainly couldn't for more than half of the flight. I found the jets to be very helpful in relaying messages for us. While I probably could have gotten away with not doing it, I felt a lot more comfortable knowing that center knew where I was and that I was still alive.
The rest of the trip was great. In 47.9 hours I had barely 1 hour of actual and zero instrument approaches. We only had one weather delay, which was waiting for some storms to dissipate before crossing the gulf back to Cozumel from New Orleans to get our second trip going. The weather couldn't have cooperated with us any better to my mind - the trip actually could've been done without an instrument rating, although I think it's easier filing IFR for all the different international legs. I would recommend it, although I'm not sure I would recommend Cozumel simply because of the time that it took to arrive and leave. However I can say that the plane was certainly safe where it was kept. No problems whatsoever, and there were several much nicer aircraft there.
Pictures to come later.
, smell the flowers and leave your type A personality at home
.
I suspect that by now they might have computadores. Good luck and enjoy the trip.
