Misty Mountain Hop

When we got to the Veracruz airport to file our flight plan, we got good news and bad news. The military zones we wanted to fly through were “deactivated” – meaning we were clear to cross those areas. Great.

But the bad news was that the airport where we wanted to land on the Pacific coast is apparently a military airport. The next closest airport would add another one and a half hours to our route from Minatitlan. I was not looking forward to a 4-hour leg from Minatitlan to the coast after having flown 2 hours from Veracruz to Minatitlan.

We set out to Minatitlan from Veracruz before noon and flew along the gorgeous coast. It would have been nice if the coast had been clear. But no, we were in the soup again. The weather forecast had been “clear, 10 miles of visibility.” Mmmmkay right.

In fact, we had about 3-5 miles of visibility. Considering that we fly at 135 mph, no es bueno. We had some serious banking turns a time or two to avoid birds. The tower at Minatitlan reported 10 miles of visibility. Wrong again. We only saw the runway when we were about 5 miles out (practically on top of it). Exciting stuff – looking for the runway and not finding it until you are on top of it.

We had planned to just stop here for fuel and then head to the coast. But, in talking with the officials at the airport, we learned that the “haze” is in fact smoke from burning fields that rural farmers are preparing to plant. The route we want to take (south over the isthmus, along the river that cuts through the canyon where the two Sierras meet) is the perfect place for the smoke to accumulate in the afternoons when the temperature has risen & the winds from the North and the winds from the South meet in the middle of the canyon between the Gulf and the Pacific.

Result: turbulence, standing haze and smoke, headwinds of 40 knots.

Alrighty then. We are stuck here.

At least for tonight because apparently the wind is calm in the mornings before 10am when the temperatures are lower. So we will try to leave in the morning.

For now, we are off to find a nice vuelve a la vida in Coatzacoalcos, the next town over that sits directly on the Gulf.