Hello everyone, I saw the post about building an airstrip in Mexico earlier in a couple years ago, and I would like to follow up on that if anybody has any further information. We’re getting to that point where we’re gonna want to retire and be able to keep, our aircraft in our house.
Hey there, I moved to the US earlier this year, but lived in Mexico for a while. Fly-in communities might be non-existent in Mexico. The percentage of people that can afford aviating is lower than the US and the percentage of the people that can afford it and also decide to fly is also lower. So it's hard to get enough density of demand to justify a fly-in community.
Some of this is because of the war on drugs and the misguided belief that closing down smaller strips would reduce drug movement. Predictably, it didn't, but it did reduce the fun of GA aviation because there was a reduction in places to fly. I have a friend, for example, that has had a strip since the 70's when his Dad built it. He's in a really beautiful area in the mountains, but only logs 30-40 hours a year because the aviation picture there is really about going places, not about doing thousand peso hamburger runs on weekends.
This one has been proposed and slowly trying to get developed for over a decade.
https://www.taema.mx/about-taema/taema-airpark
We tried to do something in Guanajuato, but the combination of bureaucratic hurdles and complex land purchases eventually made us give up.
There has been a group at Oshkosh the last couple years trying to sell lots at a proposed development, but I'm not aware of them getting much accomplished.
Some friends of mine near Leon got as far as putting a couple strips in their giant property, but couldn't get any further. I made a
video about that trip almost a decade ago talking about how they would soon have an airpark. I've stopped asking about it because it seemed to make them sad to keep giving disappointing updates.
So, the advice remains as it has ever been. Find an airport near where you might want to settle down (Ajijic and the
Aeroclub Chapala or Valle de Bravo and Aerodromo Valle de Bravo might be good options) and live nearby, but not actually with, your airplane.