"Grumman-581" wrote in message
...
"Chris" wrote in message
...
No a flight plan must be filed when crossing an international border.

Not always... Was flying back to Houston from SoCal a few years ago and
landing in El Paso for the night and and to refuel... I was routed well
across the border by ATC and asked them about it... They said that they
controlled the Mexican airspace, so it wouldn't be a problem... I have to
think that if I had needed to make an emergency landing while south of the
border, it defintely would have been a problem since Mexico tends to take
a
dim view of us bringing firearms into their country... And, of course,
since
I'm a Texan, I *always* have a gun or two in my plane...


I've flown from the Phoenix area to KELP a few times, each time with vectors
into "Mexican" airspace... however that airspace was still under control of
American FAA controlers. Now if i had proceeded INTO mexico then i would
get handed off to a Mex controler, and would probably need the DVFR flight
plan and all that good stuff. The big kicker is not in CROSSING a border
but LANDING across a border. Course everytime i went down I filed IFR, tho
the wx was severe clear (aside from the big brown cloud over Juarez, MX, i
thought PHX was bad!).