I am thinking of flying my small plane to Belize. Is there any thing to worry about if you left a plane in CC fora week while staying there. How at the other airports in Belize

Tim

a friend of ours and a poster here as well, left their plane at the placencia airstrip for a few days and someone stole all the fuel from it leaving just barely enough to get to back to BZ city.

The airstrip at CC doesn't really have any place where you could park a plane. They have a short runway and a small turn around area next to the terminal. San Pedro has a bigger area where a plane can park. The other place you could park the plane would be Caye Chapel where it would be very safe. Probably costly as well.

I have seen a private plane stored at Caye Caulker airstrip for a week or two before.

I stand corrected. I just don't recall seeing any space devoted to parking a plane.

I don't think there's any hanger space, so it'll have to be tied down in the open and checked at least daily. Trouble is I've never come across a light aircraft with lockable fuel caps, or lockable anything very much. You might need to pay for an overnight guard - should be OK in daytime so long as the terminals are open.

Hi Tim,
I am the poster that Barnacle mentioned. We flew our plane, a Piper 180, to Belize from NE Texas. What happened with the fuel is true--it was almost all stolen, a little each day. Flying thru Mexico was a pain in the butt too, but if you have a twin engine so you dont have to stop as much it may be better for you.
It was an adventure, but I wouldnt do it again.

Surely a twin would use MORE fuel? Something like your Piper with long range tanks might be best. Though you wouldn't have much of an available payload. I remember a trip from central England to SW France in a 172. On the way out I deliberately overloaded it with a lot of fuel as I had a monster runway. I got all the way there without refuelling. But coming back was a very different matter. The airstrip I'd flown into was short with lots of hazards just off the end of the runway - principally a church steeple - and having four pob plus luggage I couldn't take on much fuel. There were two refuelling options en route, one with a nice long runway but very high landing fees, the other much shorter but with zero landing fees so long as you bought fuel. A common arrangement in those days. So we ended up doing the whole journey back with rather less fuel than I would have liked, and nearly ran out before we finally landed.

We were also weathered in for three days in France, a problem you could still get in Belize though it's unlikely. But for your return trip you could leave the International VERY heavy as the runway's so long.

If you have the fuel to traverse Mexico without needing to land, would you be allowed to or would you be required to land for formalities anyway?

I dont know which direction you are coming from, but if you are coming from Texas or Louisiana and dont need to land for fuel, straight across the Gulf will be faster. You'll go across part of the Yucatan Peninsula too. Just fuel up in Brownsville and off you go. You dont have to land and register just to be in their airspace.

Ive had several small singles, none of them had the range to cross the gulf