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capt. mike
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8085
Registered: 11-26-2002
Location: Bat Cave
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sling time!
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ouch! fun strips slowly disappearing
The BBP pointed out that of the 117 small airports that had been licensed in Baja within
the past 10 years, 94 are now closed because if expired licenses with about a dozen more
set to close in the next 12 months as their licenses expire. In the full report that we
provided, it was indicated that almost all of the most popular small GA strips are now
closed. These include:
The Serenidad
Bay of LA
Alfonsina’s
Punta Bufeo
El Socorro
Punta San Francisquito
Santa Ines
Cielito Lindo
Lorenzos
Meling
Todos Santos
Bahia de las Ballenas
Cadeje
And more
These strips are closed because of lack of license thusly cutting off the contribution to the
economy of these small villages via aircraft as well as taking away access to these
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
www.facebook.com/michael.l.goering |
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Ateo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5900
Registered: 7-18-2011
Member Is Offline
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So what's your professional opinion on why they are letting the permits expire? I'm ignorant.
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capt. mike
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8085
Registered: 11-26-2002
Location: Bat Cave
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sling time!
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well it's not a function of the DGAC "letting" the strips expire - it is all about a bunch of bureaucrat nonsense from the feds making the strip
"owners/operators" go thru endless paper and financial hoops to renew licenses as their dates come up. Towns too poor to do it. Serenidad is closed
and Don is now having to fence it in to comply with new rules before he can get it re-licensed.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
www.facebook.com/michael.l.goering |
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Ateo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5900
Registered: 7-18-2011
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OK. Thanks. Yeah, I wanna fly into Cadaje someday.............or better yet, San Juanico.
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LancairDriver
Super Nomad
Posts: 1593
Registered: 2-22-2008
Location: On the Road
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Yes Mike, it's a different world we are living in today, and it affects everyone, not just pilots but all of the people who benefitted economically
from aviation in Baja. The medical and humanitarian help that has been provided over the years also will be very negatively impacted. For all who
enjoy and take for granted the other non aviation benefits of Baja, such as racing, driving ATV's freely around, or having free access to sensitive
desert or archeological sites, expect the future to hold similar restrictions similar to those presently in play in California.
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bufeo
Senior Nomad
Posts: 793
Registered: 11-16-2003
Location: Santa Fe New Mexico
Member Is Offline
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Mike, are you sure the Pta Bufeo strip is closed? I have fairly current info to the contrary.
Allen R
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bajacalifornian
Super Nomad
Posts: 1117
Registered: 9-4-2010
Location: Loreto/Lopez Mateos/Rosarito
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Dang. I'd sure miss Serenidad, Bay of Cross Wind, & Francisquito.
American by birth, Mexican by choice.
Signature addendum: Danish physicist — Niels Bohr — who said, “The opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.
Jeff Petersen
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churro
Nomad
Posts: 195
Registered: 5-6-2013
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So what about programs like Flying Samaritans? Will they still be able to use the air strips for medical purposes?
I know nothing about aviation... But maybe the MX government is trying to stop drug trafficking?
I have seen some curious activity at night around air strips
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DawnPatrol
Nomad
Posts: 357
Registered: 11-19-2013
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Used to fly into San Francisquito & El Socorro in a buddy's 205 in the old days.... too bad
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rts551
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6699
Registered: 9-5-2003
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There are many unlicensed air strips still operating. Some in the places you mentions. Correct?
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elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4332
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
Member Is Offline
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SOS
One of our funnest Baja trips was Baja 1000 in 2004 chasing down the peninsula on Screaming Airlines with requesite 'pit' stop at Serinidad for mid
day taco run then on to La Paz to watch the finishers bring it home. It was a real treat to see from the air all the places we have driven and
especially the places yet to go. Good times. Too bad things change.
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
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LancairDriver
Super Nomad
Posts: 1593
Registered: 2-22-2008
Location: On the Road
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| Quote: | Originally posted by churro
So what about programs like Flying Samaritans? Will they still be able to use the air strips for medical purposes?
I know nothing about aviation... But maybe the MX government is trying to stop drug trafficking?
I have seen some curious activity at night around air strips |
Unless the Mexican government blocks access by bulldozing the strip inoperable, which they have done to many of the old strips, some pilots file a
flight plan for a legal strip and land at one of the unlicensed ones. This of course has its risks if the unpredictable enforcement common in Mexico
happens to be applied. I don't believe there are any exceptions made for the Medical flights to officially go into any of the closed strips, at least
that I have heard of so far. Maybe someone has heard differently. Most of these new regulations are at the behest of the US government who supplies
Mexico with all of the high tech Military toys and weaponry you see at the checkpoints and elsewhere, provided they play by the rules. This is in lock
step with the tightening of the new bank regulations concerning American bank accounts in Mexico. All of this is to keep winning the war on drugs, and
possibly keeping terrorists out of the US. 
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elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4332
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
Member Is Offline
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9rida_Initiative
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
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chuckie
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6082
Registered: 2-20-2012
Location: Kansas Prairies
Member Is Offline
Mood: Weary
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Planes in and out of Serenidad yesterday and today.....
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Barry A.
Select Nomad
Posts: 10007
Registered: 11-30-2003
Location: Redding, Northern CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: optimistic
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It's been a long time since I have actually driven out to the BOLA airfield, but isn't that a well-paved airstrip of considerable length?
-----and you say it's "closed"???
Now THAT is a real shame.
Barry
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capt. mike
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8085
Registered: 11-26-2002
Location: Bat Cave
Member Is Offline
Mood: Sling time!
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dunno Allen
| Quote: | Originally posted by bufeo
Mike, are you sure the Pta Bufeo strip is closed? I have fairly current info to the contrary.
Allen R |
the list is very current off BPI website and last week the Prez of BBP AKA El Jefe Jack was in MX city talking with DGAC. Landing at any officially
closed trips has big risks if the Feds go In to full enforcement mode. Medical charities like Sams do not get any breaks. They can still get to Lopez
legally and use Guaymas for entry but likely will overnight in Loreto now until Don gets legal. I would NEVER now land at a closed strip even if
others are - the Feds are getting more serious - money rules. Fines and fees line pockets. Haven't been south in my bird since 2010 and no plans to do
so - too many changes have taken the fun away. and it ain't cost effective either. I may go to La Paz as a friend is moving a 52 ft motor sailor
there from San Diego and has a marina space rented so will make fun vaca.
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
www.facebook.com/michael.l.goering |
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64842
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Nomad member 'El Vergel' (Vern) reported the El Vergel runway was recently closed, too. This was the last strip open between San Felipe and
Puertecitos. Other runways were once located at Bahia Santa Maria, La Roca, and Coloradito.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64842
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Barry A.
It's been a long time since I have actually driven out to the BOLA airfield, but isn't that a well-paved airstrip of considerable length?
-----and you say it's "closed"???
Now THAT is a real shame.
Barry |
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Floatflyer
Nomad
Posts: 311
Registered: 2-15-2009
Location: Whidbey Island, WA
Member Is Offline
Mood: Wet & Cold
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This has been a relatively slow and gradual slide from the Golden Age of Flying. The GA flights into Mexico are a mere trickle of what was once a
constant stream of planes and pilots southward.
The decline is a factor of many things, age of pilots, cost of flying(especially fuel in Mexico), the USA's pressure on Mexico to fight the drug
war(easiest was to close strips), fear of violence in general, economy in the USA and so on and so forth.
Mike will agree that the times we had flying in Baja were awesome, from camping on Isla Carmen with the old dump truck taking you to a beach of your
choosing, to the spectacular strip between Palmas de Cortez and the highway, yowzaaa! The Baja Bush Pilots showed the "old guard" how things had
changed by choosing to by pass the Hotel Serenidad for the more modern and updated accomodations at Loreto for their Whales Trips a number of years
ago. The Serenidad was to flying to Baja as is Oshkosh is to experimental/vintage/ homebuilt airplanes! If you missed, sorry for you. My last
flight in Baja was May of 2012. Flying personal aircraft is a very costly hobby unless you just want to get off the ground and fly around by yourself
locally in a slow and simple plane. On the other hand, many of us are now slow and simple ourselves, hmmmm, maybe not so bad after all.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64842
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Great times for pilots in the 60's, 70's and 80's for Baja... even in the 90's somewhat... I only got to ride in a couple planes briefly over Baja:
Capt. Mike's Screaming Piper from Serenidad in 2001 and Doug Bowles Cessna from Alfonsina's in 1999.
Jimmy Smith has some fun flying stories...
As does Marvin Patchen...
The books that helped pilots first find the airports of Baja:
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