Argentina at last
Trees! Trees planted in avenues and alongside fields for no other purpose than their aesthetic appeal. Paved roads. Steak. Roadside picnic tables (albeit made out of crumbling concrete). A noticable lack of garbage. Bus stations with bathrooms instead of going behind the nearest building. Loads of Renault and Peugot cars. Supermarkets!! Toilets with toilet paper (you still can't flush it though).
Ahh, the pleasures of civilization. I am in Salta, Argentina, and very happy to have the edginess of Bolivia behind me.
I have about a week to kill while I wait for a new bank card to arrive and I noticed that they are offering glider rides at the local airport for about US$30.
I took the bus down to the aeroclub where I was immediately handed the keys to the instructor's car and told to drive down to the other end of the runway to wait while he went up for his first flight with another passenger. I had a good chat waiting for my turn with the tow-plane pilot after he came back down.
Taking off behind a tow-plane seems like a very dangerous activity and the instructor had the controls the whole way up. After we released the tow cable (at about 500m) we searched around for some lift without much luck and we were back at the airfield in about 5 minutes at 200m (I was very disappointed). But then right over the runway we caught a thermal that we circled tightly up in and made it back to about 700m.
At this point the instructor gave me the controls and I got to wobble around on my own (I wasnt used to the inertia in those long wings). We slid on over to the hills over Salta and then caught another good thermal and got way up again.
Finally we headed back to the airport, and with a little help from the instructor on the speed brakes, I landed (tail first, a bit hard and fast). It was great fun.
Ahh, the pleasures of civilization. I am in Salta, Argentina, and very happy to have the edginess of Bolivia behind me.
I have about a week to kill while I wait for a new bank card to arrive and I noticed that they are offering glider rides at the local airport for about US$30.
I took the bus down to the aeroclub where I was immediately handed the keys to the instructor's car and told to drive down to the other end of the runway to wait while he went up for his first flight with another passenger. I had a good chat waiting for my turn with the tow-plane pilot after he came back down.
Taking off behind a tow-plane seems like a very dangerous activity and the instructor had the controls the whole way up. After we released the tow cable (at about 500m) we searched around for some lift without much luck and we were back at the airfield in about 5 minutes at 200m (I was very disappointed). But then right over the runway we caught a thermal that we circled tightly up in and made it back to about 700m.
At this point the instructor gave me the controls and I got to wobble around on my own (I wasnt used to the inertia in those long wings). We slid on over to the hills over Salta and then caught another good thermal and got way up again.
Finally we headed back to the airport, and with a little help from the instructor on the speed brakes, I landed (tail first, a bit hard and fast). It was great fun.
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