frcabot

I know what an STD is but what right does the FAA have to test for them?

Lol. STD??

So I'm not planning on staying the week, just dropping people off and turning around. Does it get coating just from landing and takeoff?

Anyone have experience flying to 88NV as a pilot? Some friends want me to fly them but I've heard the playa can be pretty hard on the plane. Any personal experiences?

I would kill for a $65/hr shop rate. Twice that, here.

Ugh. Which one?

I had a similar experience, I think mine was 8K and they made some issues worse (like the egt and cht temps weren't properly grounded).

Been to 17K in Mexico on a hot day -- was about 18K or 19K density altitude. Had 2 pax, myself plus luggage so we were pretty close to MTOW. The last 1000 feet or so were at about 50 fpm and the stall warning horn would go off if I climbed any faster than that. Only way I'd make it to the flight levels is an empty plane on a cold day. Don't really see the point. If the weather is so bad that I'd need to be in the flight levels to avoid it, I'd rather just ground myself.

Yeah, I wish they would come out with foreflight for Android & Windows tablets though. I hate being forced to buy an iPad just for Foreflight. And no, Garmin Pilot (especially on Android) does not compare to Foreflight.

I wouldn't be so sure. My local A&P is a place called Sundance -- they charged me OVER $1000 to replace a tire. I kid you not. Run, do not walk, from that place.

Looks like a nice plane to me.

Seriously, wth? LASAR charges $3K base price for an annual, Top Gun in Stockton charges $2300. This is assuming there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with the plane, i.e. inspection only, no repairs whatsoever. I have friends with Cessna 172s/182s who pay under $1K for an annual all-in. What gives? Is there somewhere within 500nm of the San Francisco Bay Area that charges a reasonable price for an annual?

I'm hooooome

Also if you guys want to follow the tracking, see http://bit.ly/1IFUN9p

Well the Cabo stop ended ok. Now in MMPR, which went MUCH more smoothly. We flew down the V1 airway. Lots of visible thunderstorms to our East, but smooth ride for us. Landed at MMPR shortly before 9 pm, right behind a WestJet 737 on the VOR DME 2 Rwy 04 approach. We were out of the airport and in a cab about 20 mins after landing.

Yep

So, I've had a chance to calm down a bit but I'm still really frustrated. Basically, I called MMSD on I think Thursday or Friday (whenever I posted) and confirmed that the fees should have be minimal and that no FBO handling was required. Well, something apparently changed in the last couple of days, because when I arrived today I was charged FBO fees of over $100 even though I used NO FBO services. That's right, the FBO provided absolutely no handling. Now, all of a sudden, there is no such thing as "aviacion general" and just like at MMSL the handling fees are mandatory, except unlike MMSL you will still have to do your own damn handling running around to 5 different offices. On top of that, the "commandante" at MMSD has apparently implemented a new and completely arbitrary rule whereby he refuses to issue multi-entry plane permits after 3 PM. So although we landed at 4:30, well within the operating hours of the airport, and although the single-entry and multi-entry permits are the same price (I think around 1100 pesos or so), I walked away with only a single-entry permit. What bullshit. Then, the airport insisted on charging TUI passenger taxes, which don't apply to private flights but only to commercial operations. Again, over 1000 pesos. Fortunately, Rick Gardner intervened and convinced the airport to at least waive the TUI taxes (he apparently knows the Mexican federal register pertaining to aviation front and back), but he had no luck with respect to the FBO fees or the multi-entry permit. I think it took us close to 2 hours from the time we landed to the time we made it out of the airport. Then we had to deal with the rental car mess. (Preview: was supposed to be for like $20, and the dude tried to run a 150,000 peso (yes, over $10,000 USD) charge on my Amex. No, not an authorization. An actual sale. So far, my experience on this trip has been that every single Mexican person involved in any way with MMSD (from the airport folks to the rental car folks to the FBO people to the street hucksters) are professional con artists and thieves and liars. A Thrifty car rental guy actually told me that he was actually a Budget employee. lol (hint: he wasn't). Very unfortunate that the Mexican government allows these folks to leave such a strong negative impression on visitors. On the plus side, as I said, the flight down itself was awesome and the controllers were great - very professional and friendly. I am going to take great pleasure in disputing the majority of these charges with my credit card company. Thank God for US banks. And ya, I probably won't be able to fly a private plane to Cabo again, but god, after this experience you'd have to put a gun to my head for me to be willing to deal with this mess. I hear I have more fun in store at MMPR, which is our next stop. Joy.

Flight was great. Controllers were awesome. Airport was horrendous. I'm so mad right now about the airport and rental car. I'll report back when I've had a chance to cool down. Let me emphasize that neither MMSD nor MMSL are GA friendly and I would avoid both like the plague.

This scares all of us, believe me. Nordo aircraft are terrifying. But it's even worse during the day, I think.

If true this would encourage everyone to do straight in approaches. This is not the rule. Of course, better to be safe than right but dead.

This. When I'm on an ifr approach to an untowered I'll call out "x miles from the airport, altitude, and straight in." But I'll only continue straight in if there's no vfr traffic in the pattern. But the courteous thing to do is to follow the approach down to tpa and then join the pattern with the vfr traffic. Ifr traffic, let alone fake ifr traffic, does not have priority over vfr traffic when it comes to landing priority.

I'll check it out. I already have a few TV shows in my schedule so it's hard to add another but it's on Amazon so it'll be good for binge watching during down time.

Obama's approved rating isn't horrendous but I haven't checked in a while. I think the ACA will actually be viewed very favorably and Republicans will have a very tough time killing it. At a minimum it has already increased the number of people covered by health insurance tremendously - and there would be more if many of the Republican States had not spitefully refused to expand Medicaid to their most needy residents. Truly a sad state of affairs. I kinda wish we had let the south secede, the rest of us would have been far better off in the long run.

Ha ha new fubar: apparently on January 20, 2015, Mexico changed its rules so that entrants must now have a remaining passport validity of 6 months. I have 5 months left, one of my friends coming with only has about a month remaining. WTF. Canada simply requires passport validity through date of departure, Mexico was the same until apparently a week and a half ago. I remember when no passport was required at all. Seriously, WTF is up, does Mexico not want our gringo tourist dolares or what??!

Actually 52% not 59%. How many Germans supported the Nuremberg laws against jews? A hell of a lot more than 52%. How many southerners supported slavery, then supported separate institutions for whites and blacks, then supported bans on interracial marriage? Again, a hell of a lot more than 52%. That's why we have something known as a constitution, or what you like to call an "activist judiciary." Yes the judiciary's job is to review the constitutionality of laws and strike down those that don't pass constitutional muster. It's been that way since the 18th century. You know what country DOESN'T have "activist" judges protecting the rights of the minority against the tyranny of the majority? Russia. Or the middle east. Perhaps you'd prefer living there? Yeesh, talk about being whiney. On another topic, is The Americans any good? I've heard that it is but not too much about it.