We drove to Guadalajara Airport and got there around 9:15. I did the usual back-and-forth among the different GA offices...first opening a flight plan, then bringing it nextdoor to have it stamped by somebody else (I don't understand this separation, but I'm happy to conform). Then back to the original office to give them one of the stamped documents. Then over to a third office to settle up for overnight parking, landing fee, etc. That took a few minutes as the guy prompted me for information that he proceeded to enter into the computer. Finally he handed me the printed invoice for about 241 pesos (about 22 bucks) -- which breaks down to a landing fee of about 3 bucks, ramp fee of about 3 bucks, and overnight parking for three nights for about 15 bucks. Way cheaper than I thought it was gonna be. I didn't have any pesos on me, and I could have paid in U.S. dollars (probably suffering from a disadvantageous conversion), but before I had the chance my father whipped out a wad of pesos and paid the bill...thanks! After that we went through the metal detector to get out onto the ramp (where commuter airline passengers enter the ramp to board planes) and walked out to the plane -- which was obviously still there, totally secure. (phew)
The fuel tanks are adjacent to the tiedowns, so I just pushed the plane over and the fuel guy topped me off. 128 liters (33.8 gallons). I didn't know what to expect price-wise, but I quickly found that the price of fuel must be regulated by the government, because it was priced identically to Obregon. 6.46289 pesos per liter plus 15% I.V.A. worked out to $2.51 per gallon. Not bad. Each towered airport seems to have an "airspace fee" that is based on the amount of fuel you take on -- at 0.80 pesos per liter, I believe it's the same at all airports. That worked out to about 9 bucks on top of the fuel bill. It gets combined when you buy fuel, and in this case the bill came to just over 1000 pesos. I asked if I could use a credit card, and the guy said there would be an additional fee of 40 pesos. I probably should have gone for it, since the alternative was to pay him $100 U.S., which I ended up doing. I figured it would be quicker that way. The extra 5 bucks or whatever I lost in the conversion -- consider it a tip! Total spent in Guadalajara for all fees, three nights' parking, and fuel: $115.54. Hard to beat that.
Time to head out! By about 10am I was on my way.
Before taking off, tower asked me what my intended initial course was, and I replied 294, which was the direct heading to Tepic VOR. She came back and recommended a heading of 305 in order to avoid restricted airspace. There are two pretty big sectors of restricted airspace just northwest and northeast of Guad. I don't really have a clear handle on what it equates to here in the U.S., i.e. whether it's equivalent to a MOA or a hot restricted area. Not sure. Anyway, I obviously just followed instructions and flew the 305 course until I was clear.
At that point I had a choice of heading west toward Tepic, or heading more northwest, cutting the corner up to Mazatlan. The latter would take me over higher and more rugged terrain, but that's what I ended up opting to do.
It is absolutely gorgeous in that area. Like I mentioned previously, it reminds me of some of the terrain you see near the Grand Canyon and near the Sierras.
There were canyons, mountains, rivers, etc.
So I'm flying along, and I see this town off to my left. And in huge white letters on a hillside I see "SAUZA" spelled out. In an act of pure ignorance, I checked the map and looked for the town of Sauza. Hm, I don't see Sauza...but there's Tequi...oh, what a dumbass I am. Yeah, that's the town of Tequila, and that's where Sauza tequila is manufactured. Hehhheh. Must have been the altitude, yeah, that's the ticket. By the time I scrambled for the camera and got a shot of the "SAUZA" on the hillside, you could barely see it. Oh, well...such is life at 180 knots. All those plant patches all around are apparently agave, the cactus from which tequila is made.
More canyons on the way toward Mazatlan.
Well, I had headwinds coming down, and sure enough -- headwinds going home.
It got greener as I got closer to the coast.
Notice those "polka dots" all over the wing? Yeah, those are water spots. That's what you get when you "polish" your wings and you leave the thing outside in any sort of precip. Pretty ugly.
This view is to the south, looking toward the Tepic area.
There's that volcano again.
Tepic to the upper left, and all the farmland and green stuff all around it.
I was running short on camera memory, so I took fewer photos today than on the way down. Little did I remember I had a spare card in my camera bag. Yeah, it was just one of those days. Despite my ignorance I did manage to get home in once piece. How, we'll never know.
Anyway, cutting ahead a bit, I flew over Mazatlan and Culiacan, and then headed on into Obregon. I found a patch of air where the winds were light and slightly on the tail by a couple of knots.
Somewhere over Culiacan, the controller asked me, "November 14D, what type of experimental is that?" I told him it's an RV-7. "Who makes it?" I told him Van's. "Is there a place on the internet where I can see photos of that type of plane?" Hehhe...well...since you asked... 8-) I gave him the URL for this site. I don't know if he copied all of it correctly, but you never know!
This was about 2:40 into the first leg, and I was about 25 minutes out of Obregon. Everything was lookin' great.
After landing at Obregon, I walked around like I owned the place. Well, no, not really. But I was very comfortable there, having been through the process a couple of times. I got fuel (124 liters or 32.8 gallons), took a leak, turned in my flight plan, turned in my entrance authorization, filed a new flight plan, and settled up. Total bill was 1174.85 pesos, or $104.81, which I paid by credit card (yet again, another cute chick working the desk). So in the end, the only thing I needed cash for was the $52 entrance authorization and the $100 fuel bill at Guad (which I could have paid by credit card for that 40 peso surcharge). For all the talk about needing lots of cash, I really didn't need much cash at all. I'll probably still bring it next time, though, just in case.
I was in and out of Obregon within about 35 minutes this time. Easy. I took off and headed northwest toward Hermosillo. I don't remember exactly where this was...somewhere along that route northwest of Obregon.
This was looking northeast somewhere between Hermosillo and Penasco. The clouds were casting shadows in such a cool way, I had to get a shot.
Cut ahead an hour or two. After about 50 DME northwest of Hermosillo, I was instructed to contact Tijuana approach within 80 miles of Tijuana. That was a pretty long stretch between those points where I wasn't talking to anybody. Not a problem, just strange by U.S. standards -- seems like around here there's almost always a center or approach facility to stay in contact with.
Around the Penasco area, I wanted to contact San Diego Radio's RCO to update my customs arrival time at Brown. The BBP book mentioned 122.4, if I recall, and the map showed 122.5. I tried both frequencies, alternating between them every 10 miles or so, and never got a response. Finally I looked back through my notes that I had taken the night before leaving, when I listened to the San Diego FSS recordings, and I saw I had written down 122.6. That was Yuma's frequency in the BBP book and on the map -- but of course I got an immediate, clear answer from San Diego Radio. Like I said, it was one of those days. I guess San Diego uses Yuma's facilities or something like that. Regardless, 122.6 is where it's at. I probably wasted 15 to 20 minutes mucking around on the wrong frequencies before I found that simple answer. Anyway, the night before I headed south I had spoken with San Diego FSS and advised them of a "customs notification northbound" with a 3pm PDT arrival at Brown. The GPS said I'd be there at 22:57 Zulu, which is 2:57pm. With all the potential variables, and with my absentmindedness on this particular day, for the timing to have worked out so exactly was just sheer dumb luck at that point. Even though I was right on time, I still wanted to contact San Diego Radio to update and confirm the arrival and to make sure all the ducks were in a row. They had me on file for a 3pm arrival, and everything was lookin' good.
When I flew down, I came down from the east, relatively speaking, since I flew straight down from Mexicali. Going home, however, I chose to re-enter the U.S. at San Diego Brown field (the alternative being Calexico), which took me out to the west toward Tijuana. I hadn't really seen this terrain until now. It was a stark contrast. After crossing the northern end of the Sea of Cortez, the desert started exposing these mountain tops which appeared to poke out of the sand. And then off in the distance was a huge raised plateau.
Literally, you've got desert running flat, right up to rugged incline. It was awesome.
It's like a mountain range that rises out of a sand ocean.
It looked pretty dry in there, with some evidence of where water runs off during the rainy season.
This was the view straight ahead, over the plateau toward Tijuana.
Around this time I was finally able to reach Tijuana approach. I had been hearing airlines talking with them for miles, and I could hear approach if I pulled the squelch off, but I had been too far out for them to receive my transmissions. Anyway, I made contact and reported my position.
This was the last photo I could fit on the memory card. It worked out well, since there was nothing really interesting to see after this. It got really hazy heading over Tijuana, across the border, and into Brown field.
The border crossing northbound was trivial. I just talked to Tijuana until a mile or two from the border, and they just handed me off to Brown tower. That was it. I landed at Brown at 3pm on the dot, and I taxied over to customs and shut down. I stayed with the plane until the officer came over. He asked if I had my general declaration form and showed me an example on his clipboard. I had printed out both an empty and mostly filled-out (minus the actual departure airport and arrival time fields) general declaration form, but it looked a little different than the one he showed me. His version was in landscape mode, and the one I had printed off the U.S. Customs web site was in portrait mode. I was confused and for whatever reason told him I didn't have it. He gave me a blank form to fill out and went over to inspect another plane. I filled it out, he came back, he poked his head around the plane looking for a customs decal. He said that I should come into the office with him to fill out the form for the user fee decal. If I had already had the decal, I would have been out of there at that point. If I had already had both the decal and the general declaration form, the whole process would have taken about 45 seconds! No big deal, though. I was "home" and was in no rush. I went inside and filled the form out, and he was kind enough to let me fill it out for the 2005 calendar year. The decal comes from Washington by mail, so I'll have it for all my international exploits next year. Once that form was filled out and the general declaration turned in, that was that. I was free to go.
I pulled over to the pumps and overpaid for about 9 gallons, just enough to give me plenty of reserve for getting up to Corona to top off. $3.00 per gallon...yep, I'm back in SoCal.
I took off and headed up to Corona, topped off for $2.56 per gallon...which while it's relatively cheap in this area, it's still more expensive than the fuel I bought in Mexico!
A five-mile hop later, I was taxiing up to my hangar at Chino. It was around 4pm. Not a bad day. Not a bad trip!
As I mentioned, I tallied up all of my expenses for this trip, and including all the fuel (last U.S. top-off included), all the fees, etc., the bottom line was $499.18 round trip. That doesn't include insurance, which should in most cases be a once-per-year thing anyway. The tally does include a couple of unfavorable conversions, though, and I also realized later that Obregon accidentally charged me a landing fee for 2 tons instead of 1 ton on my return leg. Just need to check the invoice more carefully before paying. It only made a $5 difference, but every little bit counts!
Anyway, this trip was about 2600 statute miles total, and I averaged 19 miles per gallon -- much better than I would have gotten if I drove down in my Tundra, that's for sure. I spent 13.8 hours in the plane and burned 137.5 gallons at an average of 9.96 gallons per hour. This was way more convenient than a commercial airline trip, and to say it was more enjoyable and more enriching is a serious understatement.
Having done this once, I definitely intend to do it again and again. There are lots of places in Mexico that I would like to explore. I highly recommend flying to Mexico if you get the chance. For me, this was yet another consummate experience in this plane. The plane performed flawlessly, totally reliably. Economically, quickly, comfortably. This is definitely the way to travel!