Rusty Pelican

Rusty Pelican is a coastal soaring site on Mexico's Campeche coast, at low altitude around 60 m on launch, built for laminar sea-breeze flying rather than thermals. The ridge here runs for roughly 4 km, giving soaring pilots a decent stretch of coastline to work along once conditions are right. Northwest wind is what makes the site fly — anything else and it likely won't work. Detailed information beyond that is thin: the launch and landing are both marked precisely by coordinates rather than described in much local detail, which is typical for a smaller site that mostly sees local soaring pilots rather than visiting traffic. Anyone flying here for the first time should try to connect with pilots who already fly the ridge regularly, since the practical details of getting to launch and choosing a landing spot aren't well documented publicly.

Check conditions before you fly

A forecast for the valley is not a forecast for the launch. Before heading to Rusty Pelican, read the wind and thermals for the site itself, confirm the day's rules with the local club, and remember the standing rule — when in doubt, don't launch. In the free OutDare app you can open Rusty Pelican with a 7-day forecast built from high-resolution weather models, see who else has been flying, and get there with offline maps.