South For The Winter - Flight 19

[Willy]

Nice flight to Cuzco in the dusk. Well at least until I totally lost the bubble on short final at Cuzco and landed in the middle of the highway. I'm thinking that as I didn't use the runway, they shouldn't charge me landing fees.

 

[Willy]

Come to Copacabana and get away from it all...

 

[Moses03]

Onward into Chile. Another fine day on the Altiplano.

The stop 'n swap was busy dealing turboprops...

 

[Willy]

Well that Swap n Shop did have one ol' Twin Beech that I picked up for a nice price. I think it's gonna be a keeper.

Made it on into NW Argentina tonight.

 

[Willy]

I've done a bit more swapping around. I was in a DC-2, but the engines in it kept blowing so I went to this somewhat sporty little thing. We made it to Santiago Chile.

 

[Willy]

Climbing out......

 

[Taco]

Been enjoying these flights keep forgetting to take pictures, hehe, remember at near the end of flight so I got one.

 

[Moses03]

Rgr on the forgetting to take pictures. We are about halfway through Argentina now.

 

[Willy]

Nice flight although the engine on the Gee Bee was sounding a bit dodgy though. Like it was wanting to cut out. If it does decide to pack it in, there is another...

 

[Willy]

Still heading south although we're getting close to the southern tip. Not much more and we'll have to head back up north.

Made a "slight" change in the Gee Bees. Went to the Alabeo one and did up the same black/red paint for it. Still got some tweaking to do to the paint though.

 

[Moses03]

Now into the southern tip of Chile. Quickly running out of South America to tour.

 

[Willy]

Great flight along the Argentina-Chile border last night. I was a bit concerned as at 13,000ft, I was still below the mountaintops and the performance data on the Alabeo Gee Bee says it has a 11,000ft service ceiling. But it seemed to fly okay up there.

We landed in Chile at SCOH, if you want to call mine a landing. The airfield is down in a hole and I was skimming the tree tops going downhill on the approach and ended up having to try to land at about 120kts. Landed long, thought I was going to have to try to take off again before it got slowed down enough to use the brakes. About the time I passed the end of the runway I could use 'em so I started breaking. I soon realized that if I didn't start trying to turn, I would end up in the woods so I hit the left brake and started turning at about 40kts. Almost pulled it off but when I got almost 90* into the 180 turn at 25ish kts, the wing dug into the ground and it flipped onto it's nose. But I think it'll buff right out....

Maybe I should rename it "Crashfest"

 

[Taco]

Hey there!

Hehe, remembered to take some pictures of last nights flight. A good fun flight! LoL, the best part was Willy shooting down the runway like a drag racer, that little bugger hits the ground and goes like heck! This junket is getting close to the end, and now thinking about heading back North. If I remember, be talking to you later.

Taco

 

[Moses03]

Flight 19 mugshot - 01/15/2016.

 

[Moses03]

South for the Winter indeed. I think it followed us to Tierra del Fuego.

 

[Willy]

A couple of pics from last night's flight

That minor accident buffed out ok.

Tonight's flight ended for me with an electrical failure about 50nm out from our destination. I eventually decided that the generator had packed it in, which ran the battery down so nothing electric would work. But it was still flyable, so I just followed the coast north until I got to the airfield. Fortunately the spoilers, flaps and landing gear are hydraulic and still worked.

Now to go steal... er borrow a generator from somewheres..... Hmm... there's a Case tractor over there....

 

[Taco]

Howdy All,


Here we are in Argentina heading back up to the North. This was a good flight and fun, even with Mr. Willy's problems. Looking forward to our trip down the Anazon, now you shouldn't miss any write ups we post knowing Flight 19 the darnest things could happened, and more than likely will. This also includs the flights up to the headwaters of the Anazon. So, yall stay tuned. lol.

 

[Moses03]

Somewhere in the breadbasket of Argentina...

 

[Taco]

Hey everyone! Flight 19 had a very nice flight last night, and no problems recorded for a change. Moses noted we are somewhere in Argentina, but for awhile I thought we were in Kansas, the land was flat as an American Pancake! A few snaps of the P-80 that I am flying.

 

[Willy]

After we landed at Mercedes, Argentina, I went to "corrosion corner" at the airport and found this bit of German engineering. Apparently it used to belong a German immigrant who couldn't afford the parking fees so I got it dirt cheap. Needed a bit of work to make it airworthy, but it's done well with the flight tests so far.