Mexico 2023
After a few years of absence, FAMEX at Santa Lucia was back on the agenda in 2023. A group of aviation photographers travelled to Mexico to check it out.
“You can’t always get what you want” was once sang by Mick Jagger, true words but we have no proof he actually came up with these lyrics after a trip to Mexico. We encountered a bit similar during our tour to Mexico, with some expectations and reality not always matching. Not that we look back to a failed adventure, on the contrary: good times, good company, good food and lots airplanes.
Early in the evening of Saturday 22 April 2023, our company gathered in the arrivals hall at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez airport, joined by our Mexican guide Leoncio. We only needed to collect our two rental cars before we could take the short drive to our hotel, but actually getting our cars took quite some time, for no apparent reason at all because basically everything seemed to be in order. Maybe we just still needed to get used to the general pace in this part of the world? The second car was lacking a bit in the luggage space area, which would getting all the luggage transported a bit of a challenge the forthcoming days. But we got on the move eventually and arrived at our hotel for the coming two nights in no time, right in the old centre of this massive city. As a final challenge the elevator in the hotel broke down before everyone in our group got to their respective rooms, so some of us had to climb a couple of stairs. Which was more exhausting than at first thought, not only because of the long day behind us, but also not forgetting Mexico City lies at an altitude of 2000 meters!
The schedule of Sunday 23 April was mainly touristic. Most of us don´t find ourselves in a country like Mexico very often and it would be a shame to miss out on some of the big touristic highlights it has to offer. Also, being able to show a couple of photos of archaeological wonders and street life in general, certainly helps to explain what you have been up to back home. The main attraction of today would be Teotihuacan, a well-preserved ancient city famous for its awesome pyramids, dating back to the years 200 BC to 650 and pre-dating the more famous Aztec culture. As it was a Sunday and the locals have free access on that day, we found ourselves in a slow-moving traffic jam on the road to “the pyramids” as the site is commonly referred to. Luckily our guide Leoncio knew of a dirt road which handily bypassed all the traffic and brought us to our first stop in no time. Here we could admire a lot of cacti, learn about obsidian glass (and being tempted to buy some in the gift shop), but most importantly participate in the 10AM tequila tasting! Fortunately, this fell well on most stomachs and we could then proceed to the pyramids themselves. Which were, it must be said, quite impressive. Unfortunately for those amongst us who had planned to climb all the steps to the tops of the two largest pyramids (the Pyramid of the Sun and the Pyramid of the Moon): that is no longer allowed. Access was banned during the Covid period and not lifted since because reckless tourists had done too much damage in the past.
In the afternoon we wanted to head out to the Eco Parque in Tizayuca, a mix of a zoo and amusement park for small kids, which according to our knowledge would only be open during the weekend. We were however less interested in snakes and water bikes, and more in the collection of airplanes and helicopters in the park. Taking the direct route from Teotihuacan over secondary roads, we learned a valuable lesson for the rest of the week: don’t do that! Not only are the roads bad and full of slow-moving traffic, but the country is also littered with a ridiculous amount of traffic bumps on each and every road. One could set up cameras next to the road to prevent cars from speeding, or just put a policeman there (of which there seem to be enough in Mexico), but you can also lay down speed bumps everywhere, literally every 100 meters. For the unwary this is fun for the first 2 minutes or so, then it becomes annoying, and finally agonizing. It was then that we realized why Leoncio had been uttering “toll road, toll road!”… Finally, we did arrive at the park, Leoncio got us in with a discount (we think…) and we were free to do our business. Which was just scaling a hill with three planes on it (not allowed, it turned out afterwards, but hey: too late) and another one and two helicopters near the entrance. On our way back to Mexico City, still on a non-toll road but at least it was a main road, we happened to drive past another park we knew had a Puma and a PC-7 in it, so we turned off the road at the first glimpse of the Puma. It was on our “to-do” list for later in the week but now was of course equally fine.
Despite all the traffic we managed to be back at our hotel in the city centre in time for a shower and a nap before heading out (on foot) again to see the old city centre and find us a nice restaurant. This concluded “touristic Mexico” for us, and it would be “airplanes airplanes” from here on only.
Monday 24 April started with checkout from our hotel and cramming all the luggage in to the two cars again. We would be spending the day at the “old” Mexico City airport (“Benito Juarez”) before checking in to our new hotel for remainder of our stay in Mexico, closer to the City’s new airport and air base (“Santa Lucia”) where FAMEX would be held. Before we could do some spotting we first had to pick up our FAMEX press passes. Oddly enough, despite the event being held at the new airport, the FAMEX office is at the military side of the old airport. Once in the FAMEX office the reception was very welcoming and it turned out our press passes were already prepared and waiting for us….all but two. But that wasn’t a problem, we just had to collect those two later today. The officer responsible indeed held true to his words and phoned Leoncio later that day that the two missing passes were ready to be collected. With that sorted out we gave it a go at the nearby police helicopter unit. Previous time the 4Aviation group had been very welcome here, and this time too Leoncio proved his worth and talked us in. We were welcomed by very enthusiastic staff who were more than willing to show us all helicopters and answer any questions we had about their operations. One officer, undoubtedly in his enthusiasm, remembered the previous 4Aviation visits and even said he recognized some of our faces from then. Which was amazing since none of us had ever been there before. It turned out to be a very pleasant stay with the police, we had a good look around and could take all photos we wanted. One officer explained that their enthusiasm came from the fact that normally the people they meet see them as “the enemy” and want to kill them, and not as supporters on “their side”. Which is, given the level of gang violence in Mexico in the news almost daily, understandable. Despite all the nice helicopters, the real star of our visit was of course Turbina, the unit’s dog which apparently had some modelling aspirations and had a knack for positioning herself flat out on the concrete right in front of one of the helicopters. We all think she secretly liked a bit of attention from all those strange men with cameras!
Having said goodbye to the police we then had to find a decent spot to stay at, in the approach of the airfield. It is a civilian airport really, but there are military units based there as well (mainly Navy and Guardia Nacional) so it would be beneficial to all kinds of us airplane spotters and photographers to see what would be coming into land. In the afternoon we would move to a nice viewing terrace and the northern side of the airfield, but until then we had to find a spot near the southern approaches, given the current wind direction and position of the sun. We eventually found a street in a residential area where we could park our cars, had a place in the shade to sit, and had some view of the approaching airplanes. It was far from ideal, mainly because of the build up area all around us, and the mess of power and telephone cables everywhere, but it had to do for now. Leoncio again did his best to wander about on foot scouting for better spots, and at one time he had found a small school where he convinced the head teacher (a woman, Leoncio is at his best chatting up to the ladies!) to allow some photographers to stand there. One or two of our guys gave it a go but quickly returned as it was much too far under the actual approach and thus unsuitable for photography. The arrival of a navy Dash-8 made our stay here worthwhile.
After Leoncio got a phone call from “La casa de la Aviación” that they were ready to receive us (they are actually closed on Mondays but Leoncio had arranged they would open up specially for us) we vacated to the northern side of the airfield to “La Casa”. It is a very nice terrace with a small bar, high enough to look over the airfield’s concrete wall and barbed wire, very close to one of the taxiways. If you are looking for a perfect combination of shade, drinks, food and a constant moving of airplanes (civilian mainly but a good number of military too), then look no further. The position of the sun is not good before noon or one o’clock but gets better and better after that. It’s maybe not 100% perfect as the bar does not sell beer or any other alcoholic beverages, but on the other hand maybe that is just as well…
Definite highlight of the afternoon was the landing of a Guardia Nacional Boeing 727, an aircraft type you don´t see that often anymore, and if it is (semi) military then it is even more special.. We had plans to return here on our last day in Mexico, but in the end circumstances decided otherwise but we really should have.
After arriving at our new hotel, nice and roomy, we found a nice place to eat in town. Leoncio knows all the places in the area, so that helped.
It’s FAMEX time! Until now it had been a warming up, today, 25 April 2023, we would try to make it our first full day at the FAMEX show. The event wouldn’t start until the next day, but we were hopeful that we could gain access today. We had learned our lesson from yesterday well and avoided the busy and slow secondary roads as much as possible, instead taking the long but much faster route over the toll roads. This meant that our advantage of staying in a hotel relatively close to FAMEX was somewhat stifled, but as said it was by far the better option.
On time at the main military entrance to Santa Lucia, the two parking permits we also had collected at the FAMEX office proved invaluable, in fact with these we could get on and off the military side of the airfield without any problems in the coming days. The airbase side of the all-new airfield is huge en set up very spacious. The main road from the south gate to the north gate is a wide 2 x 3 lanes road with roundabouts, and on every roundabout is at least one preserved aircraft. In fact the airbase is littered with W&R. With preparations for final rehearsals in full swing we parked our car near a hangar and started looking for where we could get access to the ramps and aircraft. Luck was on our side as Leoncio walked up to the first nice lady he saw (of course) and she turned out to be from Public Affairs. With her in the lead we found ourselves in no time in the military terminal and then on the platform, but for the time being we had to stay put where we entered because preparations for the rehearsals were still going on. But at least we already had some helicopters flying close by, so it looked like things were heading in the right way. After half an hour or so we were allowed onto s small tribune on the platform where troops were forming a parade and the official opening of FAMEX 2023 was being rehearsed. This was a good spot, especially when the flying started! It was also hot in the sun, but nobody was complaining. What we didn’t realize at the time was that the air force was both rehearsing tomorrow’s opening ceremony as well as the flying program for Saturday’s public show day. For now, it looked like a substantial flying program for us to look forward to for the coming days. We were treated to a lot of helicopters, trainers, transports, large formations, and finally to top everything off the taxiing by, take off and flying show of two F-5’s. The latter had been the main goal of everyone in our group, so it was very satisfying to have achieved it on the first day at FAMEX already.
With the rehearsals completed we were escorted back to the military terminal, but we were of course not finished yet. It never hurts to ask and soon we would be allowed to walk a platform where part of the static line that was being set up, up to a certain point where a guard would tell us “no further” (but in Spanish, naturally) and that would be it. We indeed encountered this fellow who had a hard time explaining why we were not allowed further, but we all guessed it had something to do with the Mi-17 helicopter running up its engines and swirling rotor blades a bit further back on the static line. Not wanting to push our luck too much we duly retreated, but when the Mi-17 had finished whatever, it had been doing and the guard had suddenly vanished, part of the group tried again and succeeded in reaching the very end of the platform, with a couple of views and photo opportunities in the hangars. Other simply went for a coffee or relaxed in the much cooler military terminal building.
Happy with FAMEX so far, the rest of the afternoon was spend trying to see and photograph the many W&R spread across the big air base, now that we had free access to roam the air base. That went without any issues, it just took quite some time simply because of the sheer number of aircraft. Leoncio again did his magic by talking to the guards of a training area on base, to let us on to have a close look at their C-130 and PC-7. Our escorts here were, again, very friendly, and more than willing to show us around and answer questions. Somewhat later, with the sun at a low angle by now it was finally time to call it a day, the C-130 just outside of the southern air base entrance being the last subject of our overworked cameras. It was back to the hotel and back to the same restaurant as yesterday, only with a smaller group this time because, as said before, some of us had developed a slightly upset stomach (to put it mildly, but everyone survived!).
Wednesday 26 April would be the official start of FAMEX, including the opening ceremony attended by a government minister and a lot of military with shining medals. We had no problems getting on base again, but today finding a parking spot proved to be more problematic, or really would have been if we had been just a couple of minutes later, as we did manage to find two spots to park not too far from the military terminal building. However, some confusion as where to enter ensued and we were finally brought by bus to the public entrance to the show grounds. We might be foreign press, but no special arrangements or early access at all, which was a bit odd for an event like this. There was also no press centre to be found anywhere. So, we just had to wait in line until 9 o’clock together with the business visitors and people who had managed to get hold of a guest access pass. While waiting we surprised by two F-5’s which came in for landing, apparently they had been out very early that morning on a training mission. This got our hopes up for the coming hours, more F-5’s flying, but as we will see in a moment: this was not to be.
Come nine o’clock and we were allowed on base as one of the first to do so. We now could leisurely walk the static line all the way down to the back. There was some hope we would be able to walk on (or talk ourselves onto) the last part of the ramp, which was closed off to the public, but this was not possible. Besides a handful of helicopters, a FAM Gulfstream had parked here to drop off some dignitaries. If there would be more visiting aircraft today, this was obviously the spot to be at, so most of our group ended up here to sit in the shade and wait for things to come. Before the opening ceremony started there was as expected some activity with helicopters, but in no way as much as during the rehearsals the day before. Indeed, the whole ceremony was, aircraft-wise, a bit of a bummer and also not better photography-wise. This was the moment when we came to realize that yesterday’s rehearsals were mainly for the Saturday show, and that there would not be much flying going on in the coming days. Apart from a couple of helicopters and one US F-16. But no F-5’s.
Two Cougars brought in more dignitaries, but that was it, not the additional VIP jets we had secretly been hoping for (against knowing better). When the Gulfstream finally departed at 1 o’clock we gathered our stuff and headed for the coolness of the military terminal building to wait for the complete group to assemble. This took a while, but we were in no hurry, really. The only thing left to do today was the aircraft museum on base, which just as the rest of the air base is in and around a brand-new building and beautifully laid out. Late in the afternoon, just as some of us were trying to photograph the museum’s outside exhibits, more and more clouds rolled in, and it started to look like it was soon becoming quite nasty outside. Which it eventually did, just as we had returned to our cars. Not so much rain, but a mighty wind picked up resulting in a sandstorm and, apparently, a couple of blown away tents and other damage on the show grounds. Final stop for today were another two W&R aircraft we hadn´t seen yet, for which we believed we had to get off base and talk ourselves onto a separate area where the Cessna and Huey were just inside the gate. The next day we would see this was not really necessary, but it didn’t matter because Leoncio gave his smooth talk at the gate, and we were escorted on. Here we noticed a couple of Mi-8 helicopters on poles, far in the distance, something we needed to investigate tomorrow.
Back at the hotel, for dinner Leoncio had picked another restaurant. Unfortunately, a political rally was being held in town and traffic was therefore a (even bigger) mess. In the end we just parked somewhere and walked the last couple of hundred meters. The restaurant was quiet, but the food was good, in fact they served the best Guacamole so far. At one point a couple of bottles with tequila appeared on the table, not for drinking unfortunately but for sale, with the one spiced with cocaine earning the most interest!
With the sun out again, our first stop on Thursday 27 April was again at the museum for the last couple of shots outside in glorious sunshine. We even managed to discover a new artefact, the nose section of a Huey helicopter, which had been hidden away under a tarpaulin the day before. Finishing off here it was now time for the big thing: getting to the operational stuff on base. With hopes up high we started at the back of the F-5 hangar. Our small delegation walked in and were surprised to find that only a large glass wall now separated us from the aircraft, we at least could see them all (which was of course fine for the two guys interested in tail number spotting). Leoncio did his magic again, referring to the talks we had on Monday when we picked up our press passes, we were told to book ourselves in and for a while it looked very promising indeed. Until someone came up to us and told us that access wouldn’t be allowed after all, with the usual vague story that we would be able to see the aircraft at the show, next time arrange in advance, etc etc. This was a big disappointment. With the previous FAMEX editions in the back of our minds the expectations had been high. Not to be completely out done we then tried the other two hangars not accessible from the show grounds, both full with helicopters. Here we were greeted with the same story. In the second hangar we were left to wait a bit still, but in the third hangar it was more like a “you know by now you can’t get in, why are you still here?”. Okay, apparently this was coordinated from somewhere high up.
To get our minds off this big disappointment we did a little investigation into the Mi-8 helicopters we noticed the day before, it turned out we could just drive there on base, and even up to the Cessna and Huey at the side gate. The Mi-8’s and two Hueys are in use to practice abseiling and are on high poles to simulate hovering helicopters. Unfortunately, only one was sporting a tail number.
Not expecting much this time, the only military platform, and hangars we hadn’t tried to get access to yet was just outside of the main base entrance, in a separate area know as “the heliport”. Most helicopters in the FAMEX flying displays flew from here, but obviously there would be more to see and photograph. Trying to talk to the two guards on duty, for the first time we were met with someone who wasn’t friendly and willing to be helpful, not at all in fact. Was he forewarned or just not having a good day? But “at least” we were allowed to have a look and take photographs from the outside, which we found a bit strange and wasn’t really helpful because of a double fence.
We managed to get the last couple of W&R aircraft just outside of the base and on the entrance to the civil terminal well enough, before saying a half-bitter goodbye to Santa Lucia for the day and try our luck elsewhere. The Polytechnic University near Tolcayuca has a nice collection of former military aircraft and we really wanted to see those, if only to give this day at least a little shine. Fortunately for us this time Leoncio’s chatting with the guard paid off and after a little wait we were picked up by a couple of staff members who showed us around in their big tent-like hangar, where we spend the next hour or so talking to people and photographing the aircraft from every angle. Gracias Amigos, that’s how it’s done proper!
Thanks to the effort of one of our group we had an appointment (on Friday 28 April) with Hector, a fellow in Mexico City with a collection of complete aircraft and aircraft nose sections in his warehouse. Despite the heavy morning traffic, we got there nicely on time and Hector turned out to be a very kind and enthusiastic guy with an unfathomable command of stories and anecdotes. He also spoke English very well which made conversation much easier. It’s not to every ones liking, but a couple of us literally crawled under and in each and every aircraft and part in the jam packed warehouse. There were some real gems in there, although Hector had to confess that some were in fact made out of parts of several donor aircraft. I think everyone would have liked to spend more time with Hector that morning, but of course we had other plans too and eventually we had to thank Hector for his time and say goodbye.
Whilst in the area why not try to get into another technical school with a couple of aircraft? That shouldn’t be too difficult. Unfortunately, the attempt already turned sour when we turned into the parking lot, off the busy street, with the intention of asking the guard at the entrance for permission. This man however was by the time we let Leoncio out of the car already most upset about our intrusion onto HIS parking lot, and whatever he had for cooperation at all had completely left.
Not happy with yesterday’s proceedings, we went back to Santa Lucia to at least give the heliport another try, surely something could be arranged when there was (hopefully) a more cooperative guard on duty? Yes he was, he actually talked to us in a friendly manner, but no he really couldn’t let us on because it was part of an active airfield and the security office of the airport needed to give permission first. This sounded a bit weird to say the least: the security office at the civil terminal needed to give permission to enter a military part of the base? Oh yes, and we were again allowed to have a look and take photographs from the outside. Not that we really needed to, but at least we could quickly check if there were some additional helicopters outside compared to yesterday. This time our two cars hadn’t even half stopped before a couple of security cars came racing towards us, and a chaotic three minutes followed. Trying to explain that we had just given permission to be there, pointing to the guard we spoke to just 200 meters back, made the confusion even bigger. Then it was “okay”, 10 seconds later “no!”, in fact nobody knew. Not wanting to let it escalate even further we just got into our cars and left, there was nothing to gain there anyway. So, what to do? Let’s play their game and at least show our group that we did everything within our power, so we went to the civil terminal trying to find the security office. After some waiting in the terminal we were picked up by two very friendly guys from the security office who took us a couple of floors up where we had to book in, explain who we were and what we wanted to do, and then wait for an answer. Sometimes events can surprise you and take a turn for the better, but not this time and the answer we got was totally expected: no they had no jurisdiction there and anyway you will first need written permission from high up, and so on. After we got back to our cars and on the road again it was another hour or so well spent…not. By now Mick had done an Elvis impression and had left the building.
“The poisoned chalice must first be completely emptied” is an expression not liked by many, but it sure held true. Tired of getting “no” for an answer we headed to Zumpango where a shopping mall has a Boeing 727 in its original splendid air force colours as an eye catcher. Surely that one should be easy to see, it is in a shopping mall for Christ’s sake! Well…no. When trying to get to the 727 from inside the mall we were immediately stopped by two security men who bluntly told us we couldn’t be allowed to see the aircraft. We went back to our cars, drove to the far end of the parking lot, checked if we weren’t being watched, got out and just walked past the building to the 727. Which worked splendidly, and there was not even any trespassing involved! Okay there still was a fence between us and the 727 but for photos that was not a problem.
Penultimate stop for the day was a small park in Santa Ana where a Cessna and Marchetti reside. By now the fact that the park was open and freely accessible without any fuss had almost become an unexpected and pleasant surprise. Finally, we were to give the exhibition at Buenavista a go, a park wedged in between several motorways in a (busy) suburb of Mexico City set up by the armed forces as a permanent exhibition. By the time we had conquered the Friday afternoon traffic the park was closed, of course. But at least a cleaning lady could confirm the park would open up again tomorrow at 9. Ah well, another disappointment but at least we could try tomorrow again. The only thing left was trying to get out of the city and back to the hotel. This proved to be easier said than done, the roads were just…full. We needed to get onto a toll road as soon as possible, any toll road!. Once everyone was freshened up again we decided to go back to the restaurant with the best Guacamole in town, but this time the cocaine infused tequila bottle did not make a reappearance.
There always had been several options on how to spend our last day, Saturday 29 April 2023, in Mexico, one was to spend it for as long as possible (we had to be back at the other airport in Mexico City in the late afternoon for our flights back home) at FAMEX for the public show day. Yes we were pretty sure that there would be a flying display on Saturday, with F-5’s, but we also knew we already had seen that during the rehearsal and photographed it well enough, and with the huge crowds expected it was very doubtful if we could better that. Also, the weather wasn’t potentially as good as it had been on the Tuesday, and the prospect of heavy traffic both driving to the show and getting back out again later wasn’t very appealing. Therefore, it was decided not to go to FAMEX today, but do a couple of new W&R and end our stay in Mexico in a relaxed manner with some final spotting at Juarez airport.
First stop was back to the park where we had found ourselves in front of a closed gate yesterday. This time we were allowed in, and from the reactions of the military personnel at the entrance where everyone had to book in to enter, our being there as a group of foreigners was both unexpected and apparently quite hilarious. This time we could get close to the T-33, Mi-8 and Stearman. After that we had to get to the other side of this huge city anyway so we decided to do a couple more W&R locations on our way and do it leisurely…as far as anything goes leisurely in Mexico City’s traffic… We managed to photograph the two aircraft outside of the Air Force Headquarters, which turned out to be much easier to do than expected, made a detour thanks to an unexpected road closure, got to the preserved C-130 in (yet another) park to the north east of Juarez airport, and with some time to spare even managed to get to Nezahualcóyotl where (also yet another) technical school had at least two aircraft at the entrance. Unfortunately there was no more time to try to get on and see a hidden away helicopter, but with our track record these last couple of days it was even doubtful if we would have managed to see it, and without too much delay.
Anyway we also had a good reason to be suddenly in some kind of hurry, because it became clear on flight radar that a Guardia Nacional 727 was returning to Juarez within an hour. No problem, one would think, but of course the heavy traffic near Juarez airport thought otherwise. Our target was again La Casa de la Aviacion where we had spent such a good time on Monday, and on our way there we passed the storage area adjacent to the airfield which was also still on our bucket list. Unfortunately for La Casa the wind was blowing from the wrong direction and for the 727 we´d better head for the southern approaches. Of course, we should have known better, but that was the plan. At least there is a comparable place here, Skyline Coffee, which is somewhat bigger, more crowded, and more expensive. Also, it is right between the two runway approaches and thus not really good for photography on either runway. But we didn’t need to worry about that, because at the moment we were in the Skyline Coffee the wind turned and so did the approaches and departures. So we saw a nice 727 land from the other end and taxi to its hangar. Time to pack our gear, turn in the cars, and go home. Which went surprisingly trouble free, it must be said!
So…was this a failed tour? Certainly not! Yes, not everything we had hoped for and were positive about at the start didn´t work out as planned, not because of our efforts (including Leoncio’s) but simply because of stricter rules. The new air base at Santa Lucia is certainly an improvement, but security has now become more “formal”. Gone are the days of just finding an escort and walk in, or were we just very unlucky? Still, we saw a lot of planes, photographed a lot too, had a great time in good company, in good weather, made new friends and have a lot of new stories to tell. This has not been the last time in Mexico.
