New member from Monterrey, Mexico...

[hgcLobo]

Hello, I just wanted to introduce myself, my name is Horacio Garcia Corral Lobo, I know, long name, thats how we roll here in Mexico, 34 years old, born and raised in Monterrey.
So, I´ve been following several forums for a while CC, Kitfox, Bearhawk and at different moments I've been exited over different kits, I want to soak up as much as possible so when the moment comes to pull the trigger, im thinking by the end of the year, I am confortable with the decision over what kit to buy and of course which options. I'm trying to convince my dad on getting on board this project, when he was about my age he got he's pilot license but he hasn't flow since.

So after almost 6 months of selecting components, sourcing and assembling I just finished my ebike kit, picture attached, and I'm now setting my sights to building a plane.

And just to stir the pot a bit, yesterday I had an awesome experience, something that probably very few get to have, I got to visit 2 of the several Textron factories in Chihuahua, Mexico, picture attached. I develop smart lighting systems for industrial applications and we just finished the 1st phase and we are super close to start the 2nd phase. Its awesome what they do, I'm super impressed, for obvious reasons I couldn't take pics inside. I know Mark produces the kits in Mexico and thats why I thought it might be a good idea to share this.

I'm not 100% sure if there are Mexican Bearhawk owners, I'm thinking there must at least one out there, one thing is that apparently is super hard to get the experimental rating so i'm thinking there's a bumpy road ahead in that area, I definitely have to clear that up before going ahead.

Also, most probably Friday im going to go see a Maule M7 thats owned by one of my dad's friend, can't wait.

Cheers!

[Mark Goldberg]

Welcome to the forum Horacio. It so stupid that we can manufacture the kits in Mexico but the DGAC makes it hard to register any experimental. Ours and all the rest.

Muchos saludos. Mark

[hgcLobo]

Thanks!! And I know, it’s stupid! Not sure how am I gonna go about this but I won’t be discouraged easily, hopefully I can make it happen.

[hgcLobo]

Like I mentioned in our email, it might be due to the ridiculous specification for the stall speed, the publication that I found (from 2012) says for the plane to be registered as experimental it needs to achieve a no more than 24knot stall speed WITHOUT the use of flaps (superficies hipersustentadoras) and for it to be registered as LSA it must have a MTOW equal or less than 1320Lb. Hopefully there is a more recent publication that I haven't found yet that has more achievable specs.

[Chris In Milwaukee]

Does that M7 happen to belong to Rich Wellner? He lives near me part of the year and is building a new place down there. He has a nice plane.

[hgcLobo]

Does that M7 happen to belong to Rich Wellner?

Nope, we don’t know Rich, but certainly I’d like to meet him if he’s around.
The plane in the pic is the one that we are gonna go see. Hopefully he can introduce us to the right people to get the experimental rating.

[hgcLobo]

So, the last couple of weeks I´ve been asking around how do people register experimentals here in Mexico, there aren't many but almost everyone says the best way to go about it is to do a work around, the idea is to register it in the USA as an experimental and then just get a permit to operate the aircraft in Mexico, which apparently is easy to get, does't sound bad at all, there's also other minor stuff I need to do because I'm not a US citizen but its all very doable.

Since I live in Monterrey I can only build it here, I'm thinking I could purchase the kit in the USA, do a temporary import to MEX, which is not hard or expensive, work on it here, export it back to the USA again once finished, but the problem that I now face is that I'm not sure if there needs to be checkups at specific points during the build by an FAA designated examiner before its finished and before the airworthiness certification, if so, it could be too much of a hassle to export it for the partial checkup then do another temporary import to Mex to finish up to then do the final export to get the airworthiness certification. Also, not sure if the examiners don't usually like to do their examination somewhere other than where it was built which in my case would be imposible to get him to come down to Mty.

Any thought?

[Mark Goldberg]

There are no inspections required in the USA other than the final inspection for the final sign off for flight. Your plan seems doable. It might be easier if you originally register your BH with an N number but have it owned by someone here. Then have that person sell it to you when you want to use it in Mexico. It seems that what you propose is possible. It might be required to operate your N number plane in Mexico for you to have a USA pilot's licence. Saludos. Mark

[hgcLobo]

Cool beans!
Well, what I’ve been told is that there are some USA companies out there that do all that for a fee, I “partner” up with one of those companies on owning the plane so
I, a non USA citizen, can have a N number plane, then, as you mentioned I need to get my license in the US.

So stupid that the DGAC doesn’t modernize

Thanks Mark!

[Mark Goldberg]

Viva Mexico!