I added the first picture to the photo section regarding the Baja Fly-in. More as I find time.
Cloyd indicates that this is the first Baja Fly-in, but that is not quite true. More on that a little later.
The idea of the Baja fly-in came up a number of months ago from a southwest region member. In context, the idea was to offer a side trip option to a future BAC Fest Fly-in. We also thought it might be useful to gain some experience in south of the border flying between now and then.
We posted the idea on BAC and Gary Cavasos, a South Central member from Loa Alamos, offered to allow anyone interested to tag along on his already planned March 2007 whale watching trip to Mulege. Gary was very helpful with information and coordination over the last few months to make the trip easier.
I wish that more BAC members could have gone, but we wound up with a pretty sizable group regardless. As it was, Gary and I were the only current BAC members, but one of the other pilots used to be a member.
Gary was part of a group of four aircraft headed south. Gary's Musketeer, an RV9 (also from Los Alamos), a Cessne T-182 and a Piper Cherokee 6 both from Tucson. Their plan was to fly out of Marana Airport (in Tucson) to Mexico on March 8. My plan was to join them there and make it a flight of 5 aircraft.
We all left Tucson near 10:30 am that morning. The Cherokee 6 was off first and beat us all to Guaymus. The Musketeer, RV9 and my Duchess went out as a flight of three (there will be pitcures) and the T-182 left a little later. The three of us flew along together for awhile, actually until we got tired of slow flight with Gary's Musketeer. We all wound up together at customs check-in at Guaymus, give or take 20 minutes or so.
Flying in to Mexico was interesting. You file a flight plan with the FAA that simply ceases to exist once you cross the border. No need to call back and close it. We talked with Hermosillo approach on the way, reporting 30 out, overhead and 30 out the other side. Guaymus approach, tower, and ground are all the same frequency.
Once landed at Guaymus all the aircraft are placed in a line, nose to tail, and an official determines what bags you need to bring into the check-in building. All went very smoothly, but there are a number of steps. We showed them our aircraft registration, pilots license, medical, Mexican issued insurance, and passports. We paid a landing fee, wing span fee, fuel charges and visa fee. All told my check-in (for two people) came to about $280 including the 125 liters of fuel.
Once through all of that we all departed to Mulege, which is about an 80nm flight across the Sea of Cortez. Mulege was my first dirt-strip landing and it all went very well. There is a runup concrete pad at the approach end that I was advised to land beyond, which I did. Apparently someone made a mess of their aircraft sometime back because the concrete is not exactly even with the dirt.
I said earlier that we had five aircraft. In those aircraft we had a total of 18 people. this is really the best part of a trip like this. Besides all the good flying stories, there was plenty of friendship and comraderie. Gary's kids (young adults) and wife came along and it was great to meet them.
More in next post.
