Photographing the Playas 2009

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Weather and Flight Plan

It is a beautiful sunny day as usual in Puerto Escondido. We arrive at the airport at 7:00 am, which is when it opens. My plan is to fly VFR to the state line with Guerrero and return at low altitude over the ocean and photograph the playas through the pilot's window. I will be photographing 100 nautical miles of the coastline. I have two passengers, my friend, Allan, and Gina, the Information Goddess. It's always a good idea to have a Goddess on the flight when there is one available. The Comandante is a few minutes late and when he arrives he is busy with a commercial flight. While waiting in the lobby we see a familiar face, Sra. Mendoza, owner of the Hotel San Juan. We had met her on two previous trips and it is good to see her again. She was waiting to board a flight to Oaxaca.

I meet with the Comandante and we fill out a local flight plan. Then I go to Operaciones and pay the airport use fee. While there, I mention that we would like to refuel upon our return. We proceed to the airplane and prepare for flight.

The Flight

Takeoff: 7:53 am   Landing: 9:53 am   Duration: 2 hours 00 minutes

Puerto Escondido Tower cleared us for takeoff on runway 9 and we depart with a right turnout over Puerto Escondido. The air is perfectly smooth in the early morning and we cruise over the lagoons of Manialtepec, Corralerro and reach the Guerrero border at 8:41. On the return we see two whales but do not get a good photo. I realize that 500' is too low to photograph some of the lagoons and we climb to 1000' for some of the photos. Upon reaching Santa Elena, we return to the airport.

Back at the Puerto Escondido Airport (MMPS)

As we turn off the runway, I see that the fuel truck is already rolling and he meets us on the ramp and the plane is quickly topped off. We tie the plane down (bring your own ropes) and visit Operaciones to pay for the fuel and then the Comandante to close the flight plan and we're done.

The beaches and lagoons were beautiful and I have a few hundred photos to prove it. Gina says that she is not the same after the flight. I've heard that before but I think she meant that she enjoyed it.

Want to see the photos? Here they are.

Now the return to Tampico.

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The Pacific Coast of Mexico www.tomzap.com Tom Penick:   tom@tomzap.com