T minus 4 days

In 4 days I'll be on my way to San Diego.

Almost everything is set. Passport with visa, I-20, etc. The only problem is that the mexican civil aviation authorities haven't answered the FAA verfication mail for my PPL conversion. I sent an e-mail to the FAA asking them if they already got an answer from Mexico City for the verification of my private pilot license. The answer:

Daniel,

We contacted Mexico on February 6, 2012 and then again on March 14, 2012. We are waiting for their response.

Thank you,
Foreign Verification Department, AFS760

As soon as I read the reply, I called the licensing personnel in Mexico City. The secretary told me that supposedly the FAA won't recognize any license with a revalidation annex. I revalidated my PPL on the 16th of February 2011 and they gave me an annex. They are only recognizing plastic licenses.

That's odd, because a friend of mine sent the documents to the FAA for the PPL conversion with his revalidation annex two times and on both requests, he got the letter from the FAA with the verification!
It's also very strange that "the FAA isn't recognizing the annexes" and in fact, many airline or independant crewmembers fly to and from the US with the revalidation annexes.
What I also find quite difficult to understand is: Why is the FAA still waiting for their response, if supposedly they don't recognize the annexes? They would have told me something like: "Your license can not be verified because of this and this..." instead of saying they are still waiting for the response.

Anyway, I have to fly to San Diego because of the entry date written on my I-20 form. I can't enter the US after that date. I hope I can solve this problem there. Maybe a Designated Pilot Examiner can tell me what I can do. What about passing the written and practical test for the PPL?

Once more, this is a testament of the inefficiency and stupidity of the mexican civil aviation authorities. Why give them a responsability and too much work when they can't do anything right and everything can be more efficient and decentralized? They only make aviation more complicated and bureaucratic. They kill the dreams of every persons desire to become a good pilot and stop the further learning and training of someone who has tons of potential.

With that rubbish covered, I also have something good to tell you: About two months ago, I developed a logbook for my future career. I went to a printing office downtown to get it binded. It's basically a professional pilot's logbook in english and spanish. It contains pages for personal information, a record of certificates and ratings, flight proficiency and medical certificate hisotry, pilot record, aircraft record by make and model, flight records and a groundschool record. This will allow me to have everything well organized. It also facilitates checking the amount of time flown in different airplanes and if it was as PIC or SIC, in actual or simulated instrument flight, number of approaches flown and checking if you're current to fly as Pilot in Command in IMC, at night, with passengers, etc.

Let's see what happens in the near future. The flight to San Diego will be in a made-with-pride-in-Hamburg Airbus A319. It'll be 3 hours long.

I'll write again when I'm there. Bye!