It finally made the local (Twin Falls) news tonight. Seems it was the Moroney family from Boise. They own a chain of sandwich shops in the Treasure valley. I knew the guy about 15 years ago for a while in skydiving. I believe their kids were with them, glad their alright.

As a Canadain resident I can give you a partial answer. How about over $6 gal for av gas? How about the minute you cross the border you are charged for "services" from Nav Canada. How about no handguns? How about $48 for a 1.75 litre of Black Velvet? And it is not uncommon for Americans to be told that "we are out of fuel" when trying to buy avgas in some remote areas.

Ford: That paragraph could have been written about Australia. I have a resident visa for Oz. The photo below shows my sticker shock at the pump about a month ago: $1.91 per liter, and that was for CAR gas. Their dollar was worth 95 US cents that day. Extrapolating for Avgas just gives me a headache. Flying: if you talk to a tower, you pay. You pay for everything from briefings to landings. If you shoot a few approaches, you're gonna feel it in the wallet. No handguns? Ditto in Oz. I would love a rum and coke, but refuse to lay down $45 for 750ml of Bacardi that costs $11 in the States. And when they tell you they are out of fuel in the remote areas, they usually aren't lying to you.

So what's here? The country is awesome, huge, and this year in particular, after the first meaningful rain in 11 years, is green in places that would have gone up in smoke a year ago. They get 10 out of 10 on their beaches and the people are a rare treat, especially as you point out, in the rural areas. They are very PC and when they hear my accent, they always ask if I'm Canadian! Now, how sweet is that? Pretty much, they accept us as folks first and not Yankees. And if anybody shows the first sign of being in trouble, especially in the water, there are 6 of them immediately at his side offering help.

Now, anybody want a nice, welcoming, safe place to visit? England might seem a good choice, but if you spend much time in London, you'd better be ready to count your change, just like you would in Cairo, Bangkok or Hong Kong. And they had 52 people killed by bombs on the trains not too long ago. Safe? Forget about it and just get on with it. In that big bad world out there, there are a lot of bad people. But there are also lots of angels, like the girl in a village in Ecuador who came running after me to give me the change I had left on the dresser for the maid in case I had just forgotten to pick it up when I left.

Whoa, 98 octane! My car would like that.

Mike, you should reconsider new orleans since katrina, most of the criminals left and didn't come back, i think it's safer than memphis.(not that either one is on my top 10 destinations)

mtv wrote:Yellow,

How many planes do you hear being plane jacked in THIS country? How about Canada? Jamaica? Etc.

Don't go there. Take your tourista money somewhere else till the corrupt government and the people of Mexico are willing to deal with their problems.

Just my philosophy. I have NO sympathy for anyone who loses their airplane in Mexico, frankly. It happens with sufficient frequency that it should be a clue.

MTV

MTV,

I whole heartedly agree. I hate Mexico, just WAY too much risk for the benefit. You couldn't pay me enough to go back, and I've spent way too much time there, GA, airlines, etc. And I didn't know you can't take a gun there.... give me a break....

Now, Cancun area "could" be an exception, comments?

larryo wrote:Now, Cancun area "could" be an exception, comments?

Last time I was in Cancun, the federales were trying to insulate the area from the mex. mafia (see previous post) and not just because they need the U.S. tourista, Cancun is also the vacation spot for the afluent mexican people.

I'm not sure how successful their efforts have been, because they don't allow news of drug / gang / mafia activity in order that they might preserve the image.

I don't think I will be going to Mexico anytime soon or anywhere else except maybe Alaska or Hawaii. Too much stuff to see here in the Good Ol' USA first. Why would I want to go anywhere else?

Most of you know I have my Maule at Brown field being repaired and once again flying. I take I 805 down to the border area and go east to brown field on 905.... Well just before you get to 905 there is a sign on the side of the freeway like a caution sign or curve sign. Yellow and it says "Guns Illegal In Mexico" I'll take a picture of it for you next time I'm on the way down there.

by the way this story just hit the San Diego Paper today....

iceman wrote:by the way this story just hit the San Diego Paper today....

Butch,

Did you forget something ? ,,,, Like the link ?

OOOOH you wanted to read it???? WWW.signonsandiego.com Click on Mexico after you scroll down the page and a couple stories will come up.... By the way there's also a story titled..US issues new Mexico travel alert.....Gee you think there might be a problem with Mexico?????????

iceman wrote:OOOOH you wanted to read it???? WWW.signonsandiego.com Click on Mexico after you scroll down the page and a couple stories will come up.... By the way there's also a story titled..US issues new Mexico travel alert.....Gee you think there might be a problem with Mexico?????????

Butch,

I don't know where to start or end.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20080417-2033-bn17agents.html

That one is pretty bad...

There is also several links about the theft of the 206 as well as the leftists blockading congress, all bad.
I guess the two for one Sunday brunch at Jose's Cantina got bumped off the front page...

Gee more than 2500 people have been killed in drug related violence in 2007 alone. That's more in a year than we lose in Iraq!!!!!!!! Great country!! We should all fly our planes down there...

This was posted at BajaBushPilots.com this am.

Aircraft taken at gunpoint at el Gallito
On the morning of April 14 at about 8:00 A.M., a BBP member along with this wife, two
children, and two in-laws were back taxing for departure on runway 32 at gll. As he was
on a dirt runway, he did his run-up in the back taxi procedure and when he got to the pad,
he was ready to spin around and depart.
When he started to make his turn, four Hispanic men ran up to the aircraft shouting for all
to get out. Upon looking down the runway, the pilot saw a small four-door car pulling up
in front and blocking the aircraft from moving with two more Hispanic men.
As the doors of the aircraft were locked, the man on the pilot’s side took a rock and broke
the window, pulled the door open, jerked the pilot out, and forced him at gunpoint to the
ground where he held him in place.
His wife got out the other side and opened up the back and got the passengers, including
their children, out and safely away from the aircraft all the time not knowing what was
really going on but did know that she had five Hispanic males screaming at her.
The car was pushed out of the way and was torched. It was felt that there was flammable
substance in the car as it became an immediate inferno.
The six men all got in the aircraft, N756RM, a Cessna 206 which was loaded with five
hours of fuel and all the luggage and personal effects of the pilot and family. They then
did their takeoff roll and took off. I understand that, because of the load, they only
cleared the end by some 50 feet and had to turn up-river to avoid the hill on the other
side.
There was a lot of really bad things about this however, the good thing was that there was
no physical injuries to the six Americans other than a tremendous amount of mental
anguish and stress. In follow-up, I have been told that things have settled down and there
is now some semblance of order.
Fortunately, under this situation, all did the right thing. By not being a hero, the pilot was
a real hero. With his concern that he did not care about his aircraft but only about his
family, he followed the instructions of the thieves thusly stopping any serious injury or
possible loss of life to himself or his family. All the people on board the aircraft were
heroes.
It is my hope that if others find themselves in similar situations; they do just what this
family did. Get the family out of the aircraft, do what they are told to do, and don’t try to
be a hero. No matter how traumatic an incident is, life is just too precious and insurance
companies are there to take care of monetary loss.
Yes, there is crime in Mexico and yes, it creates a lot of media attention, right down to
the media finding a file photo of a man wearing a ski-mask holding a gun.
That being said, during the same week in the Phoenix area, there have been seven
murders along with its ratio of Rape, Robbery, Assault, Burglary, and Car Thefts. Very
little made front-page headlines all over the nation. I am not making light of the
situation in Mexico however, things have changed. You have risk no matter where you
live and what you do. We all have to be more aware of things around us and no longer
bask in the luxury of feeling that no one will bother you. And yes, we now lock our
doors at the Serenidad when leaving even for just a short period of time.
I have been informed that because of the increased amount of crime in Mexico and in
particular, the loss at Mulege, the Governor of Baja Sur traveled to Mulege bringing a
contingent of high level persons from the Army, Navy, and Marines. In a series of high
level meetings with many persons, a decision was made that effective today, there will be
a military base at the el Galito airstrip with the required manpower to help stop the crime
that has grown over the past period of years in the Mulege area.
This is a positive step however; crime is a worldwide problem and will always be there.
It is up to everyone to do their best to be aware of their surroundings and when pressured
into an uncomfortable situation, know what to do and do the right thing.
The pilot and his family wish to thank the people of Mulege, the Government of Baja
Sur, and all others who have helped them in this unfortunate situation.

I apologize if this was already posted and I missed it.

http://www.acpi.org/

Go down and read some of the other theft reports.

Just chatted with my airpark neighbor. He WAS THERE when it happened, with his wife in their RV-6A. Said it was a very busy place, maybe 40 airplanes there prior to Sunday. There were six bad guys, all armed, and the main goon spoke clear English. He bashed the pilot side window in to open the door and yanked the folks out. Owner said later he had, actually, thought about placing the fuel selector to OFF but it all happened too fast to put the plan into action.

Takeoff was mushy...plane probably way over gross with full fuel and bags. It had an engine upgrade...TIO something probably. Without it, those goons might have augered in.

Too bad.

Akro

I was talking to a guy yesterday that i took instrument ground school with and he said he is good friends with the owner of the plane. Said the owner doesn't expect to get the plane back cause they burn everything they steal just like the rig the drove up in. Guess he's just going to let the insurance take care of it now. Too bad though.

Im just a few klicks south in Loreto, now. Hadn´t heard about that incident in El galito. Sorry to hear of that pilot and families misfortune. However, the fishing has been very good.

Screw Mexico,,,, I'd rather get robbed in the USA. At least the money will stay in this country

iceman wrote:Screw Mexico,,,, I'd rather get robbed in the USA. At least the money will stay in this country

No it won't..... They'll Western Union it down to their cousins.

Gump