“Pegarse un Piano (Bomb out) in Chile”

I did not expect that my business visit to Chile this Novembre would allow me to get three flights in.  I went with a full work diary and no equipment and only had the telephone number of a Chilean pilot called Germán who I had contacted via the the web page www.alasdeltachile.cl.  The second Sunday I had arranged to go and have a look at the flying, a friend of German picking me up at the hotel to go to Butaco, a school site with a big landing field, a metal hut as a club base and a 300m ridge.
First we tried a hang glider of an old pilot, thinking about returning to flying with a short training flight.  In little time I was harnessed up and running down the slope, lifting a few metres on this 1982 hang glider.   Making a ¨big flight¨ like this in Chile is called Pegarse un Piano. A short bomb out, but at least I flew!
Later we went up to help Christian take off with a tandem client, taking of from 300m above the landing.  The wind was perfect and they were able to stay up. After taking the vehicle down I also got to fly and managed 30 minutes with great views of the sunset. What a luxury to be able to relax this was after an intense week of work.

After this short introduction to flying in Chile I arranged to meet up with Christian the following Friday for a special Trike lesson.  The challenge was to see if a second hand trike would take off with an inflatable raft.  After the first try alone, the instructor asked for a lighter passenger (me).  What a great sensation, skimming along in the inflatable boat and lifting off into the air..  I leave you with some photos.  Now is the best time to fly there, with temperatures between 30 and 35ºC.  The next time I will go more prepared and hope I have time to fly properly and visit all those fantastic places they have told me of.

Merry Christmas.  Gabi

Contacto: Christian Cid (Instructor de ala delta y Trike, Biplazas)
Correo: tallerprocid@hotmail.com, móvil: +56 9 986 28028