373 How to Fly a Small Plane to Mexico and other Countries + GA News
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Today we're talking with Ron Ferry-Denova, and I'm excited to have him on the show because he demystifies the process of flying internationally from the United States. And while he'll be talking about flying to Mexico, virtually everything he says applies to flying from the U.S. to other countries. And of course, he'll tell stories about his many trips to Mexico.

Hello again and welcome to Aviation News Talk where we talk in general aviation. My name is Max Trescott. I've been flying for 50 years. I'm the author of several books and the 2008 National Flight Instructor of the Year. And my mission is to help you become the safest possible pilot.

Last week in episode 372, we talked about the crash of November 2 Uniform Zulu Bonanza in Virginia, which suffered an engine failure but didn't make it to the runway. We also gave an update on the Learjet crash in Scottsdale and the crash of a Cirrus SR-22 in Santa Barbara. So if you didn't hear that episode, you may want to check it out at aviationnewstalk.com slash 372. And if you're new to the show, you just found us, welcome. Glad to have you here. Now,

Now, please, in whatever app you're using to listen to us, touch either the subscribe key or if you're in the Apple podcast app or Spotify, the follow key so that next week's episode is downloaded for free. And my thanks to these people who've signed up in the past week to support Aviation News Talk.

They include new monthly donations from Jeff Butler and Jim Mackey and a repeat one-time donation from Barry Harper. So thanks to all three of you. And if you'd like to hear your name next week, sign up now to support the show by going out to aviationnewstalk.com slash support. Coming up in the news for the week of March 3rd, 2025, high winds in Texas lead to two jets going off runways. If you're buying an airplane for business, well, we have good news. And a famous pilot goes west.

All this and more, and the news starts now. There were high winds in Texas on Tuesday that exceeded 70 miles per hour at several airports and resulted in two jet incidents. Here's information on a takeoff incident from listener P.J. Smith in Austin, Texas, who wrote, I witnessed a Challenger 300, November 283 Bravo, operated as a lead air flight 300, attempt to take off from runway 36 right at

KAUS, that's the Austin, Texas airport, today, March 4th at approximately 1900 Zulu with wind at 270. So that would be a direct crosswind. The aircraft made it a short distance down the runway before entering a lateral oscillation skidding from side to side with dirt and tire smoke plumes being kicked up. It looked like both wings hit the ground at various points and the tower reported seeing the wing hit the grass and kick up FOD closing the runway.

The aircraft was eventually stabilized and able to taxi back to the FBO with a fire department escort. There wasn't obvious damage from the photos that the other guy, plane spotting at the time, took, but it was a serious loss of control. Although the air crew was able to bring the aircraft to a safe stop, it looked kind of violent.

The crew's decision to take off with sustained winds at the maximum demonstrated crosswind speed plus gusts into the 40-plus knot range, with a building trend reaching over 32 knots sustained, leading to traffic being diverted to San Antonio, created a situation where fire resources were dispatched, and a fire engine responding from outside the airport collided with a vehicle at the entrance to the airport, leading to one fatality and one serious injury in the passenger car.

and less serious injuries to the fire crew on the engine that struck the car. I want to emphasize that the runway is north-south, and the wind was out of due west, so it was a 100% crosswind, which is a very unusual wind for this area, as well as one of the strongest frontal wind systems that we've seen all year.

I hadn't even gotten my camera out, but the other person there snapped a few shots, although the photos he posted were not during the most extreme parts of loss of control. Now, elsewhere I've read that as this incident unfolded, the winds increased to 33 knots, gusting to 46, causing the control tower to physically move. Now, FlightSafety.org says that the main gear tires were damaged in the incident, though it would seem that there was probably some damage to the wingtips as well.

I've looked at the ADS-B data for the incident on ADSBExchange.com, and here's what I saw. As the aircraft moved left of the center line, it reached its maximum speed of 97 knots. Now apparently at this point the crew started rejecting their takeoff. The aircraft had slowed to 83 knots when it reached the left edge of the runway, at which point one of the wings apparently touched the ground.

The aircraft remained along the left edge for about 200 feet, accelerating to 75 knots, and then began turning back toward the center line. It overcorrected, went through the center line at 57 knots, and ended up almost at the far right side of the runway. It then corrected to the center line and exited.

Now, I've looked up the maximum demonstrated crosswind for the Challenger 300. One source says 25 knots and another says 28 knots. So as this listener pointed out, the sustained winds were right at this aircraft's maximum demonstrated crosswind and the gust greatly exceeded it. So I think the key thing for pilots to take away when looking at crosswinds, don't just look at sustained winds when making a takeoff or landing decision.

Also look at the gusts, because if the gusts exceed the maximum demonstrated crosswind for your aircraft, then you're really gambling that you don't get a gust at the worst possible time. And that's not a bet that you're going to win every single time.

Now, just 20 minutes earlier, at the San Antonio International Airport, which is just 57 miles away from where the other incident occurred, a HondaJet, November 524 Hotel Juliet, landed on runway 31L and veered off to the left side of the runway due to winds. The right landing gear was damaged. The winds reported 14 minutes after the accident were 270 at 19 gusting to 36F.

The ADS-B data from ADS-B Exchange shows the aircraft exiting the left edge of the runway at heady 1 knots, crossing through the grass and finally coming to a stop on a parallel taxiway. There was also other damage caused by these winds. At the Fort Worth Alliance Airport, winds caused a hangar door to blow off its track and onto a King Air, breaking the left engine off of its mount so that it was at a 45 degree angle contacting the ground.

Also at the same airport, two parked Challenger 300s were blown into a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17A Globemaster overnight due to strong winds, so I'm guessing that these aircraft jumped their chocks and rolled into the C-17. Also, I saw a Facebook post of a Cessna 150 owner who said that he had tied his aircraft down tightly, but that airport personnel later moved the plane without his knowledge and apparently didn't tie it down as well as it now has visible damage to both wings.

And the preliminary NTSB report is out for the Learjet that crashed in Philadelphia shortly after takeoff on January 31st. We've talked about that flight in a couple of recent episodes, and I've said that from the data, it appears the aircraft lost power to one and perhaps both engines shortly after takeoff. The report says that the cockpit voice recorder, or CVR, that was recovered from the bottom of an 8-foot hole contained no data.

The recorder displayed significant impact-related damage as well as liquid ingress. After extensive repair and cleaning, the 30-minute-long tape-based recording medium was auditioned to determine its contents. The CVR did not record the accident flight, and during the audition, it was determined that the CVR had likely not been recording audio for several years.

And the NTSB final report is out for Charlie Foxtrot Bravo Whiskey Hotel, a Piper Saratoga that crashed almost exactly a year ago in Nashville, Tennessee. You may recall that that accident killed a family of five who'd flown down from Canada. The report says that the male pilot, age 43, had an estimated total of 200 hours in all aircraft. Of those hours, 43 were flown in the accident airplane make and model. The pilot's documented total night flying experience was 18 hours.

The flight was at night in VMC. The pilot contacted the controller at the John C. Toon Airport when he was about 8 miles north of the airport and again about 5 miles north of the airport as instructed. The pilot was subsequently cleared to land on runway 20 with a request to confirm the airplane type. The pilot responded with the airplane type but did not read back the landing clearance.

The airplane's flight track was aligned with the runway's centerline during the three nautical mile final approach, but one mile from the runway, the plane remained at an altitude of 2,400 feet MSL, and the pilot subsequently informed the tower controller that he wanted to overfly the airport at 2,500 feet MSL and come back to land on runway 20. The reason the pilot did not land could not be determined.

The pilot requested to go around and come back to zero. The controller replied, Sir, you can overfly the airport and contact Nashville Departure. I have multiple inbounds behind you, sir. The pilot acknowledged and stated he would contact Departure. As the pilot was overflying the field at 2,500 feet, he contacted Departure and stated, I'm overflying the field at 2,500 feet and need to come back to land.

The approach controller instructed the pilot to contact the tower. However, the pilot replied that he had been instructed to contact departure control. As the pilot was at 2,500 feet MSL and flying on a heading of about 210 degrees south of the approach end of runway 2, the controller asked if the pilot still had the airport in sight. The pilot stated that his engine, quote, shut down.

The controller asked again if he was trying to land at the airport. The pilot responded with, quote, my engine turned off. I'm at 1,600, followed by, I'm going to be landing, I don't know where.

The airplane was descending through 1,200 feet MSL when the departure controller declared an emergency and repeatedly cleared the pilot to land on runway 2. The pilot indicated that he had the runway in sight but was too far away to make it as he was descending through 900 feet MSL, about 450 feet AGL. No further transmissions were received.

Examination of the fuel system revealed that the fuel selector was between the off and left main tank positions. This setting would starve the engine of fuel and was likely the result of the pilot changing the fuel selector handle in preparation for landing. The first step of the manufacturer's approach and landing checklist was, quote, fuel selector, proper tank.

Given the lack of other mechanical anomalies found during the examination, it is likely that the pilot moved the fuel selector at some point during the overflight and approach, but failed to fully seat the selector in position resulted in a restricted fuel flow that was less than that needed to sustain engine power.

Following the loss of power, the remaining altitude was insufficient to glide to the runway. Probable cause? A pilot's failure to ensure the proper placement of the fuel selector during the approach and landing, which resulted in fuel starvation and a subsequent total loss of engine power. And as a general guideline, anytime you have a loss of engine power, think about whether you just did something within the prior minute or so and try and undo whatever that action was. From FL360Aero.com,

FAA opens probe on why flights approaching Ronald Reagan Airport receive false alerts of nearby aircraft. The FAA has started investigating a report that some flights while on a landing phase to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport received alerts about other possible aircraft nearby, despite none being present in the area.

As per sources, multiple cockpit pilots are reporting TAs and RAs during morning time when coming to land at runway 19 at around 1,000 to 1,200 feet. TCAS ideally sounds an alarm and gives pilots a command of where to fly the aircraft if the system senses an impending collision. However, it is unclear what caused the false alarms this past weekend.

And in other news, from GeneralAviationNews.com, GE Aerospace's Catalyst turboprop engine has been certified by the FAA. According to officials, the Part 33 certification involved more than 23 engines and more than 190 component tests, with engines completing more than 8,000 hours of operation. The engine is designed to compete with the Pratt & Whitney PT6, which has led the small turboprop market for 50 years with over 51,000 units produced.

Twelve 3D printed parts replace 855 parts. They're printed from a titanium alloy. The engine will debut on the Beechcraft Denali, which seats up to 12 passengers, which is expected to be certified later this year.

From FlyingMag.com, the administration has announced plans to reinstate 100% bonus depreciation. Bonus depreciation allows businesses to immediately deduct a substantial portion of the cost of qualifying assets in the year they are placed in service rather than spreading deductions over time. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 initially permitted 100% bonus depreciation, but this benefit has been gradually phasing out in recent years.

From PaddleYourOwnCanoe.com, Flightradar24, a popular flight tracking website and app, is facing an ongoing cyber attack that has affected the ability of millions of users to look up flights and other aviation stats. On Wednesday, they announced they were fighting a distributed denial-of-service attack in which cyber criminals flood a website with fake traffic in a bid to slow a website down or crash it.

The website has activated a special system from cybersecurity company Cloudflare in a bid to stop the cyber attack, and the company says its online services are gradually getting back to normal. And finally, from AOL.com, actor and pilot Gene Hackman has passed away.

Andy Wells, a retired military pilot and flight instructor, first met the couple back in 1987. He said, quote, Jean was a licensed pilot, but he hadn't flown for a while, and he wanted to get recurrent, which didn't take much because he was already a licensed pilot and we flew together several times. He said that Jean's wife, Betsy Arakawa, was also interested in taking pinch hitter courses, partially as a backup in case of emergencies.

Quote, Gene was really eager to get back in the cockpit. He just couldn't wait to get in that airplane and start the engine. He was eager. He loved airplanes. He loved flying. He was good. He was a licensed commercial pilot. He had the moves. According to Wells, Arakawa showed a similar interest and ability in flying. It was great. She was so focused, he said, of giving her lessons, and she was so sweet and beautiful and smart.

In a 1990 LA Times interview, Hackman said he'd done aerobatics as a hobby for 12 years. Quote, I just bought an Eagle, a two-seater aircraft. I wish I could fly more, but I can't when I'm in a picture because of insurance. You can't be a weekend acrobatic pilot. Otherwise, you'll be an ex-acrobatic pilot, he said at the time. Hackman made a surprise visit to the EAA Aviation Museum in 1989 and toured the facility with then-Senior Vice President Todd Poporesny.

According to the old EAA publication, Hackman called the visit one of the most enjoyable days he had experienced in quite some time. And last night, I watched once again The French Connection, which of course starred Gene Hackman and came out in 1971. The movie has one of the greatest car chase sequences in movie history, and it was fun to watch it again. Gene Hackman was 95.

Coming up next, a few updates. And then our conversation with Ron Ferry-Denova about what you need to know about flying to Mexico. All right, here on the Aviation News Talk podcast. Now let's get to the good news. First, congratulations to Chaz Ryan. He says, hello, Max. Thanks for all you do and the experts you have on the show. I earned my commercial certificate last week and use the oral exam guide authored by Jason Blair. I'm now prepping for my CFI written exam. So congratulations, Chaz.

And last week I mentioned one of my articles in Flying Magazine, which is now available online. And guess what? This week, my January column is also online. In it, I talk about the trade-offs between choosing between ILS and RNAV approaches. But, you know, when the minimums are the same, how do you choose? Well, like many aspects of aviation, it depends.

Generally, though, not always. I prefer our nav approaches. And if you want to read the full article, I've included a link to it in our show notes. And hey, do you like free stuff? Well, who doesn't? And how about free stuff worth almost $1,200? Yes, I'm talking about the free top-of-the-line DeltaZulu headset that Lightspeed will be giving away to a lucky Aviation News Talk winner. Actually, let me correct that. Not all of you are eligible to win. Only a small subset of listeners have a chance of winning. The

Because to win, you have to sign up and enter the giveaway. And so far, only a small percentage of listeners have done that, which means your chances may be better than you think. So take a moment now and go to aviationnewstalk.com slash giveaway to enter. And of course, anytime you buy a Lightspeed headset...

They will send a check to support Aviation News Talk, but only if you first go to this special link that we've set up for you to get to their website. So when you buy, go first to aviationnewstalk.com slash lightspeed, which will take you to their website where you can make your purchase. And now let me tell you about Ron Ferry-Denova. He's a software engineer and an international aviation consultant who has run group pilot trips to Mexico. And he's instrument rated and flies a Piper Cherokee 235.

And now here's our conversation with Ranfari Dhanava. Ranfari, welcome to the show. So good to have you with us here today. Max, thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Also, before we dive deep into this topic, I'm sure this is on everybody's mind. Is it safe to fly to Mexico? And what suggestions do you have about how we should conduct ourselves when we're there?

So, Max, that's actually one of the most common questions that I get. I was recently at a trade show here in Austin, an aviation trade show, and

And literally the number one question and the first question that I was asked by every single person coming to my booth was, is it safe to go to Mexico? And in short, absolutely. It's definitely safe. In the so many years that I've been flying and going to Mexico, I've never had any issues whatsoever whatsoever.

But, you know, the best thing is just to have a laid back attitude when it comes to everything. If you're not looking for issues, if you're not looking for trouble, no one's going to give you trouble. And the city, the cities, the country, the towns are so beautiful. There's a lot to explore there.

And people should definitely give Mexico a chance. And it's really amazing. The people are amazing. The food is amazing. It's a really nice place to fly to. Yeah, I've been there about a dozen times flying a GA aircraft, but it's been 20 years since I last did that. And I know things have changed quite a bit. So before we talk about the how to fly to Mexico, tell us a little bit about the joy of flying in Mexico. And what are your favorite places that you like to fly to and why?

Sure. So I live here in Austin, Texas, and at least here in Texas, or at least in Central Texas, it's very flat. When you fly, there's really nothing to see. I'm sure it's quite different when you fly in Colorado or other states, right? But one of the things that I really like about flying to Mexico is the terrain. You have beautiful mountains, really nice weather.

And it's really laid back. There's also a lot less traffic compared to the US. So you're not speaking on the radio too much.

And you really get to enjoy aviation, kind of like bush flying or backcountry flying. And as far as destinations to go to, believe it or not, I've never been to any of the really popular destinations, such as Cancun or Cabo, Cozumel. I've never been to any of those places. I really like to go to the smaller towns, the hidden gems, places.

to explore the real Mexico, the real people. Lots of towns all across the country that you could definitely explore and get that real Mexico feeling. You had a story about a week-long trip that you planned to Mexico. Tell us about that. Sure. So about three years ago, my wife and kids and I planned a trip all across Mexico. We started the trip in Brownsville, Texas, and

And we're going to do a clockwise flight all around the country, making several stops. I think we had about six or seven stops planned throughout the whole week. And this was going to be about a week long, um,

And the plan was to stop at each city, explore the city, slip there, and then fly the next day to the next destination. First destination that we went to was Tampico, Mexico. Beautiful place, nice beaches, and good food, but nothing extraordinary per se.

On day number two, we went to Veracruz, Mexico. And from the moment we got there, we loved the town. There was so much to do there. And we ended up extending our trip in Veracruz from a day to five days. And this was at the specific request of my wife. So we got a tour guide and we probably got to see maybe...

20% of what the city had to offer, there was still a whole lot more to do. And it's still in our bucket list of places to go back to and revisit again. Okay. Sounds like a good recommendation. Now, suppose someone's listening and they hear us talking, they decide today that I'm going to go to Mexico. What's the lead time? How many days is it going to take for me to get the long lead time items done so that I can go to Mexico? Yeah.

Yes. So assuming that you have zero preparation, zero work that has been done, I would say at least a week or two is pretty good. What I can share with you is that when I made my first flight to Mexico back in 2016, I

It took me two months worth of research on how to do this correctly. Back then, there were very few to no resources on how to do this. It was pretty much word of mouth. And of course, several horror stories from other pilots who said,

told me not to do it. And eventually I ended up hiring an instructor out of Mexico who taught me the ins and outs on how to do it. Plus a lot of reading on my side on resources like AOPA, Baja Bush pilots, and the Caribbean Sky Tours.

And I eventually did it. I also subscribed to the equivalent of the FAR AIM in Mexico. It's called the PIA or the AIP. And again, it's the equivalent of the FAR and the AIM. I read both books cover to cover just to learn all the regulations on how to do the flight.

So with the knowledge that I have today, if I wanted to fly to Mexico, I could literally get it done in one hour. And that's because there is a requirement to do some paperwork one hour before departure. But otherwise, I have my Mexico Go folder. I have my passports ready to go and I'm ready to go. But again, back to your question, assuming that you had very little paperwork done, as far as the lead times to be legal,

We need certain documents that do take a couple of days to come in. The ones that take the most would be the FCC documents, which would be the radio station license and the restricted radio telephone operators permit. And once you apply for those licenses, it does take about one to two days for those to come in.

And they come in through a PDF nowadays, whereas when I applied for mine, they came in the mail a couple of weeks later. So that's the only thing that takes a little bit. Everything else, you can literally get it done within a couple of hours, including the CBP decal. Even though the decal is mailed to you, as long as you have the receipt, that's sufficient for you to fly within the next hour.

In creating an EAPIS account and setting up the passports and all of that good stuff, you can also do that within a couple of hours. And there are some good resources where you can also use applications to expedite the EAPIS process.

One of my favorite ones would be FlashPass. And once you set it up, you can submit a manifest within 60 seconds. Okay, good. I can actually verify what you just said on the radio operator permit because I just got mine literally printed today. And it did take a couple of days. And it's interesting, when I went to click on the links, they didn't work. Finally, what I had to do was the alternate route, which was to go to the FCC's license manager, which they do provide a

a link to in the email that came back and I was able to download my radio telephone permit that way. But let's start off with aircraft requirements. Talk about all the different pieces of equipment and documents that we need in the aircraft in order to fly to Mexico.

Sure. So there are six core documents that we need today in order to fly to Mexico. And there are some other requirements that are required according to the book, but no one really checks for them, but it's nonetheless a good idea to have. So the core requirements that would be a showstopper for you to fly to Mexico will be a valid airworthiness certificate, valid registration, and the registration is the biggest gotcha item.

Because they do expire and we very often don't check the expiration dates on our registrations. So it has to be a valid permanent registration, not a temporary one when you just newly purchased a new airplane.

You need your pilot certificate, your medical certificate, and Mexico does accept basic med. So you are definitely welcome to go to Mexico with basic med. You need insurance and your standard U.S. policy 99% of the time will already cover Mexico. Although you can also get a Mexico specific policy as well for a couple of dollars. So either way will work.

And the last item, and this is fairly new as of a year ago, you need a new document called a LOPA, L-O-P-A, and that stands for Layout of Passenger Accommodations. And all that is is just a picture of the seating diagram of your airplane.

If your POH doesn't have such a diagram, you can literally take a picture with your cell phone and that would be sufficient of the cabin. Or you can use the weight and balance graphical diagram for a flight or a garment pilot.

And we just carry that picture with us or we have to submit it somehow? Yeah, you just carry that with you inside your Mexico folder. There is a process to submit the paperwork in advance. It's not required, but it's often a good idea to submit paperwork in advance just to have the Mexican government vet the paperwork and ensure that it complies properly.

with our regulations. Okay. Let's dig just a little bit deeper here. I think you were mentioning both some pilot documents and some aircraft documents as well. Let's see, we've talked earlier about the radio station license. So you've got to apply for that. You also have to have your own personal radio telephone permit. So that's actually two things from the FCC that we need. Talk a little bit about the liability coverage, the insurance that's required

Does that something people have to buy separately? Is that going to be typically included with their U.S. insurance? Sure. So back in the day, and by that I mean probably over 10 years ago, there was a Mexican requirement where you needed to purchase a policy written by a Mexican company or a Mexican underwriter. And the coverage had to have been a minimum of $300,000 equivalent.

So that was, it was fairly easy to get such a policy, even though it's written by a Mexican company. You could go online and purchase it and it would be available for you within a day or so. And you can still buy those policies today.

But it's not required anymore. About nine, 10 years ago, the Mexican government published a memorandum essentially saying, if your standard U.S. policy offers the minimum liability coverage, which is $300,000, and specifically mentions Mexico as part of the coverage territory, you're welcome to bring that policy along with you to Mexico.

And out of the probably hundreds of policies that I've personally seen for my clients, every single one of them already offer Mexico coverage. But some pilots still prefer to buy a Mexico specific one just because they remember in the old days that that used to be an issue. And again, people are welcome to do that. You can usually buy a whole year's worth of coverage there.

for about $150 to $100, depending on the airplane. But that's just minimum liability. Sure. Yeah, and I know the flying club that I teach at, their policy does not include Mexico, so you would need separate coverage in that particular case. So let's see, we're going to need our POH with a weight and balance. What about radio equipment, stuff that people might not have if they're not flying near Class Bravos and Charlies and things like that?

Sure. So yeah, that's not very typical. You do need a two-way radio communication. But yes, you're correct. Maybe you're flying in a legacy aircraft like a Piper Cub that doesn't have radio equipment or maybe it has the smaller end numbers versus the newer 12-inch end numbers. So that would be also a requirement. The workaround for something like that is just to bring a handheld radio if you don't have a radio on board.

For the 12-inch N registration numbers, you can literally put in temporary numbers with tape, and that will be sufficient to satisfy the requirements. Mexico doesn't care about the N number specifically. It's my understanding that they want you to have 12 inches. It's more of a U.S. FAA requirement so that when you cross the border, you can be identified if they so choose to identify you visually.

But again, Mexico doesn't care whether you bring the small numbers or the big numbers. You do need ADS-B out on the 1090 megahertz extended sweater band if you're going to be in the class Bravo airspace. And that really only applies to Mexico City. And outside of Mexico City, you should be perfectly fine without ADS-B out.

But nonetheless, if you have a DSB out and in, I think it's a perfect tool in order for you to have that situational awareness to see other airplanes that you're flying with as well. Okay. And what about mode C transponders and notarized letters? Yeah, so you do need at least – so assuming that your transponder is not –

ADS-B out, equipped, it still has to be at least at mode C, especially if you're going to be operating in controlled airspace.

The notarized letter, so if the airplane is registered under a corporation, such as an LLC, it's recommended, but it's not required anywhere. So there's no law or regulation about this. It's recommended that you bring a letter stating that you, as the pilot, you're allowed to operate the aircraft there.

during a specific window of time in Mexico. So I carry my own letter, and I've been asked to present this letter once or twice, but it's not required. And I'm sure that if I didn't have it with me, I could show additional documentation that basically shows that I'm owner of the airplane that I fly. And what about the ELTs?

So we do need a 406 megahertz ELT in Mexico, and this is required as of 2020. This is an interesting subject because it's

Absolutely no one in Mexico will ever ask you about the ELT or check to ensure that you have the correct ELT versus the legacy 121.5 ELT. But it's my suggestion that if you get the chance, you most definitely want to get the newest ELT just because it's safer. And if you end up having an accident,

we can get rescue to you way quicker. So to me, it's not so much about a regulatory point of view, but more about a safety and you just can budget or you don't have any playroom when it comes to safety. All right. Makes total sense. So what about the pilot documents? What are all the stuff that we need to have in our pocket when we show up there? Sure. So just two documents from the pilot's perspective, that's going to be

your pilot certificate, and your medical. You need to be at least a private pilot. If you're a student pilot, you won't be able to fly solo to Mexico. You can fly with an instructor if the instructor is technically the PIC, but you can't fly to Mexico with a student pilot certificate.

And then the medical, yep, your standard class one, two, and three will work. And as of about two, three years ago,

Basic Med is now also accepted in Mexico, as it is in the Caribbean, I believe, and a few other places. But it's not acceptable south of Mexico. So Guatemala and other countries south of Mexico, Basic Med will not work at the moment. And, of course, we'll also have our radio telephone operator permit, our passport. And talk about the English proficient endorsement. I'm not even sure I have that on my standard U.S. license.

Yes. So mine has it. I think all licenses or certificates, I should say, that were issued in the last two decades probably say English proficient.

But I honestly don't know much about it because I wasn't a pilot back in the day when licenses did not automatically have the English proficiency endorsement. So I think all of them have it by default. I don't think that DFA will issue one without that endorsement anymore. Maybe someone can correct me in the comments. Yeah, I remember there was a time when the U.S. standard pilot certificates were

were not accepted internationally because they didn't say English proficient on them. And maybe that's been corrected. But anyway, I always thought that was kind of amusing. All right. So passengers, what do they need to bring with them? So for passengers, all they need is a valid passport and the passport must not expire within the next six months.

Mexico does not have a requirement saying that if your passport expires in two months, that you're not allowed into the country. But it's generally a good idea to have one that will not expire in the next six months. And if you're flying with a child and one of the parents...

is not flying along to Mexico, you may also want to bring a notarized letter from the absent parent, granting that the other parent or relative permission to fly with that child to Mexico. Yeah, that is essential and was even when I was making these trips over 20 years ago. And I did have one occasion where I took my daughter and my wife was not with us and had to bring that letter along. So, yep.

The devil is in the details. Yep. So let's talk about all the stuff we need to do before we leave the country. What are the many different things that we need to have created accounts for and signed in on and so on and so forth? Yes. So ideally, you should already have an EAPIS account with the U.S. government. That's going to be done through the CBP website.

And your EAPIS account should already have the pilot's information, passport information, and if possible, even the passenger's information, passport, data birds, that sort of stuff. But what I really like to do while preparing for the flight is

It's more along the lines of let's look at the weather. Let's see what can maybe stop us or prevent us from flying. So what I do a day or two days in advance is I look at the big picture. I look at the weather. Are there any NOTAMs that are scheduled along my route of flight? Any thunderstorms? That is my number one priority the day before.

And then the day of the flight or the morning of the flight, that's when I usually do my submission through EAPIS to notify Mexican and U.S. customs of my flight into Mexico. All right. Talk a little bit about FlashPass and how that can save some people some time and effort when they're working with EAPIS. Yes. So FlashPass was developed by a friend of mine, Arturo Espinosa.

Guerra, and he is based out of Monterey, Mexico. And I believe you've had him here at least once in the past. He's an amazing guy and personal friend of mine. He developed an application that basically converts a one-hour process into a one-minute process. His application collects data about passports and airplane information and

And within the app, you can easily transmit and manifest and get all the confirmations and lots of documents such as the general declaration forms and other forms that you will need to fly out of the U.S.,

His app not only works for Mexico, but it also works for any other country, so long as you go or return from the U.S. So you can also use it to fly into Canada, the Caribbean, the Bahamas, or any other country. And it's extremely user-friendly. You mentioned earlier that

You apply for the FCC license on the FCC website. You might remember how not user-friendly that website was. So it's the same thing with the EAPIS website. It's not user-friendly, and the application converts that experience into a positive user experience. And I've gone out on the web, and I see it's at flashpass.net, and they've got a great little video there that runs about five minutes that just shows users

all the different things that need to be entered there. Now, for passport information, are we just...

entering passport numbers. We're not scanning photo pages or things like that, are we? So the application has a feature that you can take a picture of a passport and it will automatically collect all the data and it will import it into the database. It does not save a picture of the passport itself. All it needs is the data, such as the name, the date of birth, country of citizenship,

and expiration dates. That's all the information that it collects. But by using the scan feature, you always ensure that you don't make a mistake and you accidentally plug in the wrong passport number and then have to do extra explaining with customs once you get either to Mexico or back into the US. So no, it doesn't save pictures because it doesn't need to, but it collects all the necessary data that it needs and it will save it for you for future use.

So that if you fly with the same pilots, the same passengers, you can quickly and easily reuse that same data. Talk a little bit about the manifest requirement, both going to and from Mexico. That's something we didn't have 20 years ago, so I'm not familiar with that. Sure. So they changed the requirements about a year and a half ago, at least for the Mexican side. There used to be a 24-hour requirement and then a one-hour requirement. They

They have consolidated that now so that it matches the U.S. requirements. So basically, whether you are going to Mexico or coming back from Mexico, it's the same requirement.

You need to submit the manifest at least one hour before departure, but you can also do it earlier. You could do it the day before if you think the weather is going to hold and you will not be delayed. I personally like to submit it as I drive to the airport because that will give me an hour from the time I get to the airport and I pre-flight and I'm wheels up.

But you can submit it earlier if you want. But that's really the only requirement nowadays to submit it one hour in advance. And typically within 30 seconds of the submission, you will get automated responses back from CBP and from Mexico confirming that the manifest was submitted successfully and that you are clear for the flight.

You always want to double check and ensure that the emails come in correctly and that you have been granted permission to depart. I have never seen an instance where you were not granted permission to depart, but it could happen if you accidentally make a mistake and submit a manifest either for the wrong airport that doesn't exist or maybe if you entered the wrong passport information.

But coming back to the U.S., there is one extra requirement. You do still submit the manifest one hour before, just like I mentioned. But in addition to that, you need to get verbal clearance or verbal confirmation from CBP granting you permission to return back into the U.S.,

And that's usually done via a phone call. And some airports are automatically sending that permission via email as well. And the email will very specifically say you can use this email as your confirmation to return back to the U.S.

Okay. Talk a little bit about flight planning. Now, for example, many of my trips were to Baja. Flight planning was pretty simple. We kept the blue side off the right wing and we kept the brown side off the left wing when we were southbound. But talk about flight planning, both IFR and VFR going into Mexico.

Yeah, so flight planning is done very much the same as it is here in the U.S. You can use applications such as Garmin Pilot or ForeFlight to do most of the flight planning. Both of those applications will give you winds aloft. They will give you weather information, METARs, TAVs. So I do all of my flight planning through Garmin Pilot.

But then as far as filing, when you fly to Mexico, you can file through both of the applications, Garmin Pilot and ForeFlight. But when you come back to the U.S., it has to be done on paper. And I think we'll discuss a little bit more about that in a moment. But VFR versus IFR. So you can cross the border either VFR or IFR.

If you are instrument rated, my recommendation is for you to file IFR. And that is because when you file IFR, the U.S. ATC and the Mexican ATC will have a handshake and they will communicate with each other and advise the next controller that you're coming in. And basically Mexico will know about you and everyone will know what's going on.

versus if you go VFR, which is totally legal to do. But when you cross the border, Mexico will not have an idea of who you are, where you're coming from, or what to do with you. So there will be a little more explaining to do. The other thing to consider is that Mexico does not have VFR flight following like we have here in the U.S. When you cross the border VFR, you might be able to speak with the controller on the other side,

but they won't be able to give you traffic advisory. So you're still going to be on your own without any advisors whatsoever.

The downside to flying IFR in Mexico, at least if you're going to be below flight level 180, is that you have to be, without exception, on airways, on Victor Airways. So here in the U.S., of course, we can fly direct to destination or direct waypoints. In Mexico, you have to be on airways.

And especially when you're in mainland Mexico, some of those airways can be as high as 15, 16 or 17,000 feet. And it may not be practical for the typical Cessna 172. So in that case, you basically have no option but to go VFR and just deal with the downside of flying VFR.

But whenever practical, definitely go IFR. All right. Let's suppose we've launched. We're in the air. And I'm correct. We can launch from any airport in the U.S., right? There's no airport we have to leave from as we're headed southbound.

Correct. That's a pretty cool privilege that we have here in the U.S. You're exactly right. When you depart the U.S., you can depart from anywhere. It can be from your backyard. If you have a grass strip in the backyard, it does not have to be an international airport. However, when you land in Mexico, when you make that initial landing, it has to be at an airport of entry or AOE.

That's the same as an international airport. To recap, leaving the U.S., you can leave from wherever you want, but you have to land in Mexico at an international airport. And then northbound coming back, it's going to be airport of exit and airport of entry in both countries? Correct. So when you return back to the U.S., you have to depart Mexico from an international airport, and you have to land in the U.S. at an international airport.

There's another restriction also when you come back to the US. You can't just land at any international airport. You have to stop at the first airport of entry along your route of flight. So as an example, if I'm flying from Monterey, Mexico back to Austin, Texas, I can't fly from Monterey direct to Austin, Berkshire International. I would have to stop at either Laredo, Texas or San Antonio, Texas.

Unless I have a special permit called a BOE, border or flight exemption permit, which is super easy to get. But it does take a month for you to get it. But with this special permit, this does allow you to skip that first airport of entry and go to your destination airport. But it still has to be an international airport when you return back into the U.S. Sure.

So here in California, many of my flights were to Ensenada, which was an airport of entry. We could leave from our home airport in California. We'd land at Ensenada. And then coming back on the U.S. side of the border, we always stopped at either San Diego, Brownfield, or Calexico. And those were basically the two places we had to stop before coming further northbound.

Yes, that's right. I've flown into Brownfield before. That's a really interesting airport due to its distance from the Tijuana airport. What was very shocking to me was that the Mexican controller for Tijuana International cleared me to land into Brownfield.

I wasn't expecting that. That was quite interesting. But yeah, as soon as I crossed the border, I switched over to the next controller, which was Brownfield Tower, and they confirmed that I was already cleared to land. Okay, good. And I can just tell you that I flew a lot with Flying Doctors Group, Los Medicales Voladoros, which I'm not pronouncing correctly, but

people can find it at flyingdocs.org. And generally, people in the group liked coming through Calexico. They always felt that was a little bit easier dealing with customs. So let's

Let's see. So we've taken off. We're coming up on the border. What does that conversation sound like as we leave the U.S. and as we contact Mexican ATC? Sure. So typically when you're departing U.S. airspace, regardless if you're IFR or VFR, the typical verbiage that ATC will say is,

November 1-2-3, Alpha Bravo, you are leaving my airspace. Radar services are terminated. Contact Nula Tower on 118.3."

That's what they usually say. And it's just a normal handoff when you think about it. They're just saying you're leaving the airspace and to contact the next controller. Sometimes they will say to squawk VFR at that point if you were flying VFR. But if you were on an IFR flight plan, your squawk code that you received from the U.S. will carry over to the Mexican side as well. And you just speak with the next controller in Mexico and you continue on your way to

The one thing that you will notice as soon as you cross into Mexico is that you will start hearing Spanish on the radio. Most countries, including Mexico, they allow their local pilots to speak in their native language, which would be Spanish for Mexico.

So what I personally like to do as soon as I cross into Mexico is I also switch over from English to Spanish and I do exclusively in Spanish once I'm on the Mexican side. But even though Spanish is my native language, there was still a learning curve when I learned how to speak the Mexican aviation lingo. Just because you know Spanish does not mean that you can speak to Mexican ATC.

I've had some interesting stories about that, about how I didn't understand what they were saying in neither English nor Spanish. Like for example, here in the U S we're used to hearing by the tower, we're used to hearing report midfield in Mexico. What they told me was report a beam, the tower. And I had never heard a beam, the tower before. So I had no idea what it meant. Uh,

I've heard of abimda numbers, so I thought he meant abimda numbers. And I didn't report abimda tower, and I got called out, and I was eventually told what to do, and I made a landing without a problem. But there are some differences in the lingo for sure. They still use position and hold instead of line up and wait when speaking in Spanish. So they'll say posicionar y mantener instead of line up and wait. And another interesting difference is

In Spanish, not just Spanish, but also English in Mexico, they usually won't say altimeter setting 2992. They won't use the term altimeter. Instead, they'll say QNH 2992.

So if you're not expecting that, you have no clue what Q and H means, but it's just the altimeter setting. All right, good tips. So let's say we've been cleared to land. We've touched down at our airport of entry. We're taxiing over to where we're supposed to go. What next? What happens from there? So that's where the fun starts, where the fun happens. If you're not prepared, it's going to be a zoo. But if you do some paperwork, some research on what to expect, it's not a big issue because

Typically, when you land in Mexico, as soon as you land, you will be greeted by the military and by customs next to the airplane. And they'll do an inspection of the airplane to ensure that you're not bringing any contraband into the country, but also to ensure that you're bringing all of your luggage inside the building so that you can pay insurance.

any sort of custom fees, if you're bringing any professional equipment and so forth. It can be a little intimidating seeing five military guys and two dogs approach the airplane at first if you're not expecting something like that. But in most cases, they're super friendly. They're just doing their job. They're doing a quick inspection. They'll take photos of the airplane, which is quite normal for them.

And they will ask you questions as well. But all the questions that they will ask you are easy to know questions like, what's your name? What airport are you coming from? What's the purpose of the trip? Just say tourism. You don't have to go into detail. You don't have to explain that you're going to a wedding. And then they'll let you go. Once you clear that first stage, you will take your luggage inside the terminal building and

And there inside, you will do the immigration process and the customs process.

Immigration is typically fairly quickly. Shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. You're going to hand them your passports. They will stamp your passports. If you're a pilot and you're declaring yourself as a pilot, you'll get a free entry into the country. Good for seven days. And if you're a passenger, you will get a permit to be in the country for up to 180 days. But you do have to pay the immigration entry tax, which is about $40 right now.

But again, the process is fairly easy. All the fees, by the way, not just immigration, but every single fee, including fuel, everything is paid for with credit card only. You can't really use cash for anything in Mexico anymore as far as the airports go. And you should always be able to get a receipt for every single transaction that you do.

Usually after clearing immigration, you will go next door to customs. They will scan your luggage through their x-ray machine and you will fill out a form stating that you are or you're not bringing any valuables that need to be declared and they'll let you go within five minutes.

If you're a passenger, at that point, you're free to go. But if you're the pilot, there is an extra step that you need to do, and that's to get an airplane permit for the airplane to operate in Mexico. And that permit is called the AIU, which stands for Autorización de Internación Única de

This permit used to be called the multi-entry and the single-entry permit. So some of the listeners may remember that term from the past, but now it's just a single permit.

good for 180 days, and good for an unlimited number of uses. And to get this permit, that is when we're going to present the six documents that I mentioned earlier, which are the airworthiness, registration, pilot certificate, medical, insurance, and the LOPA. So you will go to an office and

You will present those documents. It's going to take them roughly an hour for them to issue the permit. And once you have this permit, you're also free to go. All right. Suppose we're going to be traveling on to another airport from there. Let's just say we're going to leave Ensenada and proceed to VFR southbound. What's that process like to leave the airport and go to the next place? Sure.

So first thing to consider is that aviation is very regulated, highly regulated in Mexico. They don't have many of the privileges that we have here where you just go to the airplane, you pre-flight and you go without necessarily speaking with anyone or getting permission from anyone. Of course, if you're departing out of a class Charlie airspace, you still need to get some sort of radio clearance.

But in Mexico, there has to be a paper trail for every single transaction. Even if you're just going to do touch and goals for proficiency, you still need to file a flight plan. And it's always done on paper.

So this flight plan can be an IFR flight plan or a VFR flight plan. And it's a standard ICAO flight plan. I think by now most of us are familiar with the ICAO format. But if not, there are great resources on AOPA on how to file an ICAO flight plan. But you will just get four copies of this flight plan. And then you will go to that airport. You will go to the dispatch office, which is the flight service station there.

And this person will take in your flight plan and they will give you an in-person weather briefing as well. And then once they give you the weather briefing, they will upload the flight plan to the computer. And then you get to go out to the airplane pre-flight. You might have to do an outbound military inspection as well. And then you get to fly.

So I would say just the paperwork alone, depending on the airport, it can take you between 15 and 30 minutes worth of paperwork if you're doing a domestic flight within Mexico. Yeah, I remember some interesting things that seemed a little funny. We would

sometimes go to airports where there was virtually no staffing. I'm thinking of Isla Cedros, a little island off of Baja and some other places. And when we finally got back to Ensenada, we would have to file a flight plan for the flight that we just did. So it doesn't matter if the flight's done, paperwork still needs to be done. So that form, you might be able to see it here maybe.

It's called a cierre de plan de vuelo, or it literally translates to fly plan closure form.

But in English, they call it the arrival report. So yes, you need to do a flight plan closure. Now, since the last three years, those forms are no longer required. They're only required if you're making your first arrival into Mexico from a foreign country. But once you're within the country, we don't do the flight plan closure forms anymore because ATC will automatically close the flight plan.

for us. An interesting fact about the flight plan form in the arrival report is

is that here in the U.S., our flight logbooks, we use the honor system. You record your flight time using the honor system. In Mexico, the logbook has to be certified by a federal employee. And the way that they verify that you, in fact, flew from this point to this point is by presenting the flight plan and the closure form.

So if you're a Mexican pilot, you still use both forms when you depart and when you arrive at the next airport.

Very good. All right. We've just had a great time in Mexico. We've got a good tan. We've eaten a lot of good food. Now we're headed back to the U.S. What do we have to do? Okay. So flying back to the U.S., first thing, like I mentioned earlier, we need to file our EAPIS manifest one hour before departure. You can use FlashPass, of course, to make things a lot easier. But if you have a solid internet connection, you can also use the government website as well.

Mexico also requires a Mexican APIS to be transmitted as well in addition to the EAPIS.

Flash pass would do both the Mexican side and the U.S. side. But if you're doing it the manual way, you have to do extra work with the Mexican APIS as well. So let's say as an example, I'm flying from Ensenada back to San Diego. So I will file my flight plan. I will look at the weather. I will ensure that I can perform the flight based on the weather and any other personal minimums that I may have.

I will go to the airport with my passengers and I will bring the permit that I received when I first arrived in the country along with my passports and all my other documentation. And I just start the process with the airport comandante. The comandante is the equivalent of the FAA. It's like a mini FISTO at every airport.

They will initially authorize the flight if I meet all of the documentation requirements, which I always do.

And then I start everything in reverse. So I will do customs. I will do immigration. Once I get their blessing and once they also sign and stamp my flight plan, I will turn in my flight plan to dispatch and they will upload it to the computer. And then we can walk to the airplane pre-flight, get fuel if I didn't get fuel on arrival and

and pick up my IFR clearance and fly back to the U.S. And very, very important, we must not forget to call CBP.

and get verbal clearance over the phone before we return back to the U.S. So 20 years ago, we had to give an estimated arrival time, and I believe that requirement had to be accurate, minus zero plus 15 minutes, which means if I was going to be there at noon, I could not arrive at 1159, but I also couldn't arrive later than 1215 p.m. Is that still in place?

They give more tolerance now than what you were given, but every airport is slightly different when you come back to the U.S. I would say that the vast majority of airports in the U.S., they give you a tolerance window of plus or minus 30 minutes. Some of them still have plus or minus 15 minutes, but I've never seen one that is less

minus zero plus 15. Not that I've personally have seen it, but there could be one out there as well. So that is why I personally make that call to CBP right before engine start, because that way I have removed all the variables that could delay me outside of my control that will put me outside of that window.

So that way, when I call CVP, not only am I getting that verbal clearance, but it's also my final opportunity to give them an updated estimated time of arrival. In PERT discussions that we've had with management at CVP at headquarters, once you're in the air, if you're vectored because of ATC, if you're vectored due to weather, if you're delayed because unforeseen headwinds, the number one priority is always fly the airplane.

And if you fall outside of the time window that you were given, CBP will want an explanation. But at the end of the day, you will still be allowed into the country. There shouldn't be any penalties. Now, if you arrive three hours late because you decided to go eat some barbecue before departure and that delayed you, so there may be some penalties because of that.

But if it's something outside of your control, there typically won't be any penalties so long as there is a good justification for your delay. Got it.

Okay. And so we've landed at our airport of entry. Let's say we're now at Calexico. I guess the same thing applies as when we landed in Mexico, which is stay with the airplane until they come out to see you. So that's also a change from before. Again, every airport in the U.S. has its own process. Some airports do want you to stay inside the airplane. And I've been told personally by some CBP officers that you're not even allowed to –

open the door of the airplane to let some air in, not until they are physically next to you.

Other airports, such as McAllen, Texas, they're okay for you to deplane and to walk inside the building, and they will meet you inside the building. So every airport is slightly different, and you just have to do a little bit of research in advance to find out what the specific process is at the port of entry where you're going. FlashPass actually has a database of documents called airport fact sheets, and

And that fact sheet has the specific requirements and process for each airport, as well as telephone numbers for you to call and speak with the person. Just have a casual conversation of what they should be expecting from you and the other way around as well. You can also find those fact sheets on the CBP website if you wish.

have some time to kill and want to do some research. They're not super easy to find, but they're out there as well. So as we start to wrap up here, do you have any pro tips, things that you recommend that pilots might want to do to make this whole process a little more seamless? I would say the main takeaway would be two tips.

Number one is be prepared and have all of your documents ready to go. And this is true, not just for flying to Mexico, but just for everything in general. Like when you show up to a checkride,

You have all of your documents, all of your requirements with tabs, ready to go, ready to show the examiner. Same thing for Mexico. When you show up to Mexico, have your paperwork ready, have the airworthiness ready to go, your passports. You shouldn't have to be running back and forth from the airplane back to the building because you forgot your passport. So just having everything ready is probably the number one way to set up yourself for success.

The next big tip is you need to have a laid back attitude. Mexico works on a different timeline than we do here in the U.S. Things just happen slower. Everyone is more relaxed, more laid back. And if you expect things to happen immediately, you're going to have to be more relaxed.

They will not happen immediately. So just take your time. Don't be in a rush. Have a friendly smile. A friendly smile will take you a long ways. So tell us a little bit about your website. What do you have on it and where do people go to find it? So my website is flygamexico.com. That's flyfoxstratlimayanke.com.

GA like general aviation, mexico.com. And I have a lot of resources there on how to fly to Mexico. If you want to do it by yourself without paying for a handler, I have a complete guide that explains the entire process from start to finish from the day before the flight to the day of the flight, how to cross the border, what to do when you land in Mexico, every single step is out there.

My phone number, my personal cell phone number is also on my website. I have been known to bail out pilots from situations in Mexico many, many times. Just call me, explain to me what's going on, and I will help you out.

And I will always get you back on the right path. I will never get you back on the right path by going under the table. There's typically always a solution, a correct solution to everything. And we just must understand what we did wrong and how to correct it.

I try to do also annual fly outs, which I post on my website. So every year we take a group of airplanes, typically five to six airplanes, and we'll go to a new Mexican destination. Usually we go to smaller towns and visit places that the average person doesn't know about.

And those places are very rich in history and culture. So definitely check out my website for the next one. And I think we might be doing one in March of this year to Tequila Jalisco.

And I try to also update the website whenever new regulations come out that are pertinent to aviation as well. Ron Ferry, you've just got so much knowledge and we appreciate all your insights. Thanks so much for joining us here today. Max, thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure. And my thanks to Ron Ferry-Denova for joining us here today. You can find out more about him at his website at flygamexico.com.

And just a reminder that I love hearing from you and I read many of your emails on the show. If you'd like to send me a message, just go out to aviationnewstalk.com, click on contact at the top of the page. That's absolutely the best way to send me a message. And of course, I also want to thank everyone who supports the show in one of the following ways. We love it when you join the club and sign up at aviationnewstalk.com slash support to

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right coming down. Don't wait until your side is maybe sliding upside down. You can always