cowtowner
Line Up and Wait
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2009
- Messages
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Cowtowner
A great safe city just one hour south of Laredo in a Cherokee.
Ever since my first lesson back in 1995, I thought how cool it would be to go to the Bahamas or to Baja. Well, Monterrey isn't either of those, but it is a very cool destination close to Texas. It also happens to be the manufacturing hub for northern Mexico, and I have a factory there I am negotiating some business with.
Cue the three months of intense research, reading everything I could get my hands on, watching YT videos, talking to other pilots.....
First thing I had to do was get a new ELT, as my old one didn't meet the spec. When I did that, I had my AP replace all my tires and did a few other things to make sure I wouldn't be stranded over something stupid like old plug wires.
I ordered my CBP sticker, did the FCC paperwork (Neither of which was even looked at).
My wife and I were scheduled to fly down to Veracruz with a guy out of Austin that arranges some group flyouts to Mexico. It was going to be a great way to go and learn so I could do it on my own. Well, after I paid the deposit for the flyout, my wife informed me that it was the same weekend we promised to take our granddaughter to Disney World.....hey, I had a blast at Disney. Really... I love the place.
So it came down to final negotiations with the factory on an order, but before I would pull the trigger I wanted to visit the factory myself. Heck, round trip on some budget Mexican airline is $250, it would be so much cheaper to fly commercial. But where is the fun in that?
Looked at a weather window and last Thursday I was wheels up at 11:00am headed south. I had filed my eAPIS (Used Baja Bush Pilots for eAPIS) for 2:15pm departure from a small airport in south Texas with Cheap gas. Had a great tail wind and even after refueling I was early taking off headed south. Flight Following handed me off to Nuevo Laredo on crossing the border. NL told me to report 10 miles south of the airport, and when I did they basically told me I was on my own, to report 15 miles from Monterrey to MMAN tower.
It's an easy flight, at 6500 feet I was right over the toll road from NL to MTY. You follow it to the pass and then call up MMAN tower and they drop you to 1000 feet agl for the last 10 miles. Landed without an issue and taxied to the customs circle. An army guy met me at the airplane and asked for my license, which he took a picture of. The guy I was supposed to go on the flyout with had been very helpful, walking me through each step through texts. Once I landed he texted to find a guy in a green vest, an OPS guy, and they would help. And boy did they help.
From one office to the next, Immigration, Customs, Flight Plan, Commandant's Office, and back again multiple times. It was the first time my plane had flown into Mexico, so apparently there was some extra paperwork. I had organized all my documents in a 3 ring binder, with plenty of copies of each thing. The one thing they loved seeing was a single page copy that had my AC, Registration, Medical and Front and back of my Pilots Cert. Each place kept a copy.
The one issue was my insurance, it covers Mexico, but the stupid insurance people put a paragraph after saying it was covered basically saying "Some places in Mexico don't accept this coverage" After some back and forth they agreed to let it slide. in the future I will just PS that paragraph out of the coverage and then include this letter I found on BBP website that is from the Mexican Government saying to accept all American insurance that say it covers Mexico. I forgot my copy as it sits here on my desk at the office. Its going in my 3 ring binder for future trips.
The cost was a little under $100 buck to clear into Mexico. The factory driver waited about an hour for me then it was off to discover MTY.
I had a good day Friday and I even considered checking out and heading back after lunch, skies were clear. But I wanted to do some sight seeing so I stayed. It rained all day Saturday, just limited to the MTY valley, and the TAF and MOS predicted clearing, but it didn't happen. So extended another day and flew back Sunday.
It took all of 15 minutes to get fuel and get cleared out of the country on Sunday. $4.95 a gallon full service and waived all the fees. Through immigration, customs, filled my flight plan out and got it stamped at all three places including the commandante's office.
I had filed my eAPIS and Flight Plan for 10:00am, it was now 8:30, so I sat around and drank coffee, did a really good preflight and then off north after filing my flightplan on foreflight and calling CBP in San Antonio to let them know I was coming.
Kept at 1000 agl for 9 miles north, directly towards the mountains before the cleared me back on course and to climb to go over the pass. Then about 30 miles from the river I contacted Houston Center and got my squawk code and crossed into the USA. Landed SAT and taxied to Customs where the guy was having a horrible Sunday as his computer crashed. I had to call him to let him know I had been waiting on the ramp for 20 minutes. He came out and within 60 seconds I was done, after he apologized for leaving me waiting.
I headed to Fredericksburg for lunch, then on to Ft. Worth. Good first trip out of the county...will do it again maybe next week.
Ever since my first lesson back in 1995, I thought how cool it would be to go to the Bahamas or to Baja. Well, Monterrey isn't either of those, but it is a very cool destination close to Texas. It also happens to be the manufacturing hub for northern Mexico, and I have a factory there I am negotiating some business with.
Cue the three months of intense research, reading everything I could get my hands on, watching YT videos, talking to other pilots.....
First thing I had to do was get a new ELT, as my old one didn't meet the spec. When I did that, I had my AP replace all my tires and did a few other things to make sure I wouldn't be stranded over something stupid like old plug wires.
I ordered my CBP sticker, did the FCC paperwork (Neither of which was even looked at).
My wife and I were scheduled to fly down to Veracruz with a guy out of Austin that arranges some group flyouts to Mexico. It was going to be a great way to go and learn so I could do it on my own. Well, after I paid the deposit for the flyout, my wife informed me that it was the same weekend we promised to take our granddaughter to Disney World.....hey, I had a blast at Disney. Really... I love the place.
So it came down to final negotiations with the factory on an order, but before I would pull the trigger I wanted to visit the factory myself. Heck, round trip on some budget Mexican airline is $250, it would be so much cheaper to fly commercial. But where is the fun in that?
Looked at a weather window and last Thursday I was wheels up at 11:00am headed south. I had filed my eAPIS (Used Baja Bush Pilots for eAPIS) for 2:15pm departure from a small airport in south Texas with Cheap gas. Had a great tail wind and even after refueling I was early taking off headed south. Flight Following handed me off to Nuevo Laredo on crossing the border. NL told me to report 10 miles south of the airport, and when I did they basically told me I was on my own, to report 15 miles from Monterrey to MMAN tower.
It's an easy flight, at 6500 feet I was right over the toll road from NL to MTY. You follow it to the pass and then call up MMAN tower and they drop you to 1000 feet agl for the last 10 miles. Landed without an issue and taxied to the customs circle. An army guy met me at the airplane and asked for my license, which he took a picture of. The guy I was supposed to go on the flyout with had been very helpful, walking me through each step through texts. Once I landed he texted to find a guy in a green vest, an OPS guy, and they would help. And boy did they help.
From one office to the next, Immigration, Customs, Flight Plan, Commandant's Office, and back again multiple times. It was the first time my plane had flown into Mexico, so apparently there was some extra paperwork. I had organized all my documents in a 3 ring binder, with plenty of copies of each thing. The one thing they loved seeing was a single page copy that had my AC, Registration, Medical and Front and back of my Pilots Cert. Each place kept a copy.
The one issue was my insurance, it covers Mexico, but the stupid insurance people put a paragraph after saying it was covered basically saying "Some places in Mexico don't accept this coverage" After some back and forth they agreed to let it slide. in the future I will just PS that paragraph out of the coverage and then include this letter I found on BBP website that is from the Mexican Government saying to accept all American insurance that say it covers Mexico. I forgot my copy as it sits here on my desk at the office. Its going in my 3 ring binder for future trips.
The cost was a little under $100 buck to clear into Mexico. The factory driver waited about an hour for me then it was off to discover MTY.
I had a good day Friday and I even considered checking out and heading back after lunch, skies were clear. But I wanted to do some sight seeing so I stayed. It rained all day Saturday, just limited to the MTY valley, and the TAF and MOS predicted clearing, but it didn't happen. So extended another day and flew back Sunday.
It took all of 15 minutes to get fuel and get cleared out of the country on Sunday. $4.95 a gallon full service and waived all the fees. Through immigration, customs, filled my flight plan out and got it stamped at all three places including the commandante's office.
I had filed my eAPIS and Flight Plan for 10:00am, it was now 8:30, so I sat around and drank coffee, did a really good preflight and then off north after filing my flightplan on foreflight and calling CBP in San Antonio to let them know I was coming.
Kept at 1000 agl for 9 miles north, directly towards the mountains before the cleared me back on course and to climb to go over the pass. Then about 30 miles from the river I contacted Houston Center and got my squawk code and crossed into the USA. Landed SAT and taxied to Customs where the guy was having a horrible Sunday as his computer crashed. I had to call him to let him know I had been waiting on the ramp for 20 minutes. He came out and within 60 seconds I was done, after he apologized for leaving me waiting.
I headed to Fredericksburg for lunch, then on to Ft. Worth. Good first trip out of the county...will do it again maybe next week.
