Member's Home Forums General Discussion Mexico Ramp Checks & Medical Certif in Mexico - Update by

RAMP CHECKS:
Mexico is once again instituting ramp checks for the holiday season. The procedure is buried in their "Manual de Inspecciones" (Inspection Manual) a 3,000 plus page document written in Spanish. To save you some translating and reading, I will point out a few worrisome points that should be considered.

Amongst the aircraft documents listed in the manual that need to be presented, there are a few that many US operators do not possess or may not know where to get their hands on:
- Noise Certificate
- Radio Station License
- Journey Log
- MEL

This list is not all-inclusive but all the other documents are common knowledge. What is worrisome is that there is only one checklist in the manual that applies to commercial airlines, Part 135 and Part 91 operators. A number of the checklist items do not apply to all type of operations, and we hope that the inspectors have the training and discretion to differentiate......

MEDICAL CERTIFICATES:
Over the last few days, we have had to deal with some troubling problems at major tourism destination airports in Mexico. The issue has to do with Medical Certificates. Without getting into the boring details, a 3'rd Class Medical Certificate is unique to the USA and is not contemplated in ICAO Annex 1 nor in Mexico's Civil Aviation regulations. Nonetheless, 3'rd Class Medical Certificates are accepted at most countries who apply reciprocity, Mexico having historically been one of those countries.

However, we ran into an issue today where a Comandante is demanding that a pilot flying under Part 91, exercising Private Pilot privileges and holding a 3'rd Class Medical must provide a new 3'rd Class Medical Certificate that is less than 1-year old. This requirement was made with no legal basis, it was just "required".

Separately, we have a case of a pilot operating under Part 91 who holds an ATP but is exercising private pilot privileges and because he is over 65 is being denied the right to fly as PIC because the Comandante claims that he cannot function as PIC over the age of 65, even though the flight is private. We are now seeing this at another Mexican airport as well. The Mexican Civil Aviation Comandantes at a number of the MAJOR airports in Mexico seem to be mixing up private and commercial operations along with Mexican and US Civil Aviation laws.

Another case is where the Comandante was requiring strict adherence to ICAO Annex 1 whereby if you hold an ATP or Commercial, you MUST have a 1'st Class Medical Certificate, regardless of what privileges you are exercising or even if you are flying your own airplane. Not to be outdone, we had the AFAC at another airport requiring a pilot who was flying a Pilatus PC12 to have a Type Rating.

Unfortunately, this is a dynamic situation and only 2 weeks ago these were NOT issues at those very same airports. However, for whatever reason the comandantes are doing "about-faces" and contradicting years of precedence and regulatory clarifications. Therefore, to avoid any unpleasant surprises and ruined vacations, we urge you to review your documentation, in advance, with the AFAC at your planned airport of entry in Mexico BEFORE you arrive in Mexico. Once you are here, your options become very limited.

For those of you who regularly fly to the same airports in Mexico and are thinking "Nah, it won't happen to me", be well advised because we had a pilot today who thought exactly that. Fortunately, as standard procedure, we always review our customer's documents with the authorities no matter how many times, or how recently, they have used our services. Fortunately, we were able to detect that the Comandante has suddenly developed an altered view of the civil aviation regulations and even though the airport operator tried to intervene, the Comandante would not budge.