After a wonderful Christmas Holiday with family in northern Utah, and after shoveling a lot of snow, my two sons, my son in law, and I decided to head down the Baja. We've flown down there many times over the years, but this time we took a different approach. Our goal was to fly low and slow, taking in the views along the way, landing and enjoying some of the places we normally fly over on our way down.
Our first stop was San Felipe. A good friend has a nice place there, along with some awesome buggies! After landing and completing the standard paperwork shuffle, we went into town for some famous fish tacos!
Parking at San Felipe: we were informed beforehand there there was no Avgas available. No problem! They have plenty of Jet A! My two sons flew the RV9, and my son in law and I flew the Sportsman, both diesels. The fuel nozzles in Mexico are too big for our fuel inlets, so we carry funnels. The fuel guys didn't like the funnel, so out came the pipe wrenches and they took the whole fuel valve and nozzle off the Avgas hose and put it on the Jet fuel hose! Gotta love their "can-do" attitude!
Temps in the mid-60's, beautiful sunrise!
The buggies were fast! We blasted around the desert and along the beach. There are some cool dunes between the beach and the homes.
After spending the night in San Felipe and the next morning on the buggies, we headed south to Punta San Francisquito. We recently put some 8.00x6's on the RV9, along with a larger tail wheel. We were anxious to try them out!
Puertecitos. There's a hot spring that's supposed to be pretty nice when the tide's out, but we heard that the airstrip is in pretty bad shape, so we decided against landing. You can see about half of the strip in the lower left...
Alfonsinas: Scott Schmidt and others from VAF have landed here many times. In the interest of time, we didn't land. Next time...
Punta San Francisquito. We've always wanted to land there. Apparently someone built a fishing camp there in the '60s, hoping to draw pilots and off-roaders. It's a long way from the nearest pueblo, all dirt roads.
There are two airstrips here; one that used to be "paved", but has deteriorated back to gravel, and one in a dry lake bed next to the old paved one. No need for big tires here. It was super smooth.
Sportsman on short final for the dry lake strip:
Plenty of room for parking
Our first stop was San Felipe. A good friend has a nice place there, along with some awesome buggies! After landing and completing the standard paperwork shuffle, we went into town for some famous fish tacos!
Parking at San Felipe: we were informed beforehand there there was no Avgas available. No problem! They have plenty of Jet A! My two sons flew the RV9, and my son in law and I flew the Sportsman, both diesels. The fuel nozzles in Mexico are too big for our fuel inlets, so we carry funnels. The fuel guys didn't like the funnel, so out came the pipe wrenches and they took the whole fuel valve and nozzle off the Avgas hose and put it on the Jet fuel hose! Gotta love their "can-do" attitude!
Temps in the mid-60's, beautiful sunrise!
The buggies were fast! We blasted around the desert and along the beach. There are some cool dunes between the beach and the homes.
After spending the night in San Felipe and the next morning on the buggies, we headed south to Punta San Francisquito. We recently put some 8.00x6's on the RV9, along with a larger tail wheel. We were anxious to try them out!
Puertecitos. There's a hot spring that's supposed to be pretty nice when the tide's out, but we heard that the airstrip is in pretty bad shape, so we decided against landing. You can see about half of the strip in the lower left...
Alfonsinas: Scott Schmidt and others from VAF have landed here many times. In the interest of time, we didn't land. Next time...
Punta San Francisquito. We've always wanted to land there. Apparently someone built a fishing camp there in the '60s, hoping to draw pilots and off-roaders. It's a long way from the nearest pueblo, all dirt roads.
There are two airstrips here; one that used to be "paved", but has deteriorated back to gravel, and one in a dry lake bed next to the old paved one. No need for big tires here. It was super smooth.
Sportsman on short final for the dry lake strip:
Plenty of room for parking