Posted for "Bill&Sue" <5zq@cox.net>:

 Sue and I are back in Virginia after a GREAT Lancair trip to Mexico.
 
 Our first stop in Mexico was Guadalajara where we spent 3 days. We flew IFR
from McAllen, TX. The lowest MEA was 15,000 ft. Our little 320 made it up
there but it was a pretty slow climb as we were quite heavy. We were glad to
have our little Mountain High oxygen bottle with us. We found a great little
B&B in a part of Guadalajara called Tlaquepaque (ta la kay pock ay). It's kind
of an artsy craftsy area, very interesting and beautiful.
 
 The main purpose of our trip was an EarthRounders meeting in Mexico City.
This is a group of extremely interesting people who have flown around the
world in a light plane. The meeting lasted 5 days and we learned a great deal,
made lots of new friends and had a blast. There were lots of activities,
museums, cultural events, etc as well as roundtable discussions on the joys
and problems of world travel in a light plane. We were especially interested
in speaking to the several people who have done it in an experimental plane.
 
 It's prohibited to land anything except a scheduled airliner in the main
Mexico City airport. We landed at Toluca which is the "corporate plane"
airport for Mexico City. Not too much light plane activity there, mostly
business jets. It was VERY expensive to park there. If we ever to to Mexico
City again, I think that we might try one of the other smaller uncontrolled
airports. What turned out most interesting about Toluca was the takeoff (good
thing it was Sue's leg!).  The field elevation is 8,500 ft and then you have
to climb over the mountains. We did a full power runup and leaned the mixture.
We were expecting pretty crummy performance and we weren't disapointed.
Probably rolled about 4,000 ft before liftoff. Then, you still had to climb
over the mountains. It's interesting crusing at 11,500 ft and reading the road
signs!
 
 We flew across Mexico to the Yucatan where we had a relaxing several days on
the beach at Playa del Carmen. In the Yucatan jungle we flew over several Myan
ruins, very unexpected to come across and absoutely fascinating. Playa is a
great Lancair destination. It's only 2 1/2 hours from Key west in a 320 and
much of the time you're within gliding distance of land (Cuba). They have a
nice, paved 2,000 ft strip right in the middle of town. You can easily walk to
the beach or to several hotels.  Playa has just about fully recovered from the
hurricane. One day we took the ferry across to Cozumel and found the damage
there to be substantial. It will probably be at least a year before Cozumel is
anywhere near "normal".  Besides, Playa was a much more laid back atmosphere,
much lower key than Cozumel.
 
 Returning to the US we cleared customs in Key West, spent the night with
relatives in Boca and then had a great visit with ES builder Gene Underland
and his wife Vangie in Winter Haven, Florida. We spent a few days at our house
in Live Oak Florida before heading back to Virginia. From Virginia to Texas to
all over Mexico to Florida to Virginia we burned about 180 gallons of fuel and
1 qt of oil. It just don't get any better than that. These little Lancairs are
the best traveling airplanes in the world. You just have to learn to pack
light!
 
 This was our second Lancair trip to Mexico (petting whales in Baja last March
was the first). We liked it so much that we're taking the 320 south again next
month to southern Mexico (Panenque) and all over Central America (Guatemala,
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and Honduras).  Our only problem
with all this Lancair traveling is that we're not getting much work done on
the IV. Oh well. We've promised ourselves that we'll put our noses to the
grindstone (or at least to the 80 grit) as soon as we return.
 
 Bill & Sue Harrelson
 5zq@cox.net
 N5ZQ 320 1,100+ hrs
 N6ZQ  IV   4.0039% and holding


http://www.lancair.net/pix/Mexico-05