Tall Tales at the Alvear

[Willy]

Decided to go over to St Maartin to catch up with a "bidness" associate while I was in the neighborhood. Just a short flight but I do like coming in low over the beach to land. Just have to be careful and pay attention to what I'm doing instead of the bikinis though.....

[salt_air]

The crew of Eastern Air Lines flight 541 Montreal to Buenos Aires would like to take a minute to wish all the Dad's out here a very Happy Father's Day and continued good fortune on your endeavours.


Cheers,



:ernae:

[Bry Rosier]

Great time in Rio , on arrival we were greeted by the Govenor of Rio , who was kind enough to allow me to take his newly acquired Bell 47 for a spin round the city Then we had a heavy night in Copacabana , much beer ,much showgirls , not much sleep Then a nice afternoon short flight to Sao Paulo , lovely scenery enroute

[buzzbee]

Takeoff footage from inside to cockpit of Western Airlines DC-6B Departing Kingston Jamaica.

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[arrvoo]

A long 830nm flight over Morocco,Western Sahara and Mauritania proved to be a little worrying. With few navigational aids and not a lot of visual landmarks it was all about accurate flying and good stopwatch timing.
Fortunately only one small drift after a 330 mile leg between 2 NDB's was the only problem. A nervous wait for the airport NDB to become active but fortunately we were bang on course.
Time for a rest up and try to find something to eat and somewhere to sleep

[MM]

Great trip down to Rio. The final approach, here over Guanabara Bay, just fills the eyes with stunning beauty. Terrific stuff.

Built on a landfill, Santos Dumont adjoins the central business district of the city. From there you get excellent views of the commercial buildings nearby and Sugar Loaf Mountain (Pão de Açúcar) in the distance. To the south you can see the Corcovado on which stands the dramatic Christ the Redeemer (Cristo Redentor)—completed just eighteen years ago in 1931. On the other side of the Carioca range, to the south and west, stand the world famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema.

Now, in 1949, Rio is the capital of the republic as well as the most important port and harbor. It serves as the conduit for a large inland area for exports, most particularly of coffee. This is a commercial and governmental center rather than a manufacturing city.

More important for us is the city's magic. With the inauguration of the grand hotels (the Glória in 1922 and the Copacabana Palace in 1924), Rio has become a romantic, exotic destination for Hollywood celebrities and international high society who come to play and gamble at the casinos and dance or perform in the nightclubs. As important, the Cariocas (Rio's natives) themselves embody the very spirit of "joie de vivre" making it easy for visitors to fall in love. We'll stay just a short while ... this time.


It is difficult to follow Bry down the coast. All the locals now expect big tips!

[Willy]

Nice short hop from St Maartin (TNCM) to Ft de France on Martinique (TFFF). The passengers are liking these short daylight hops. Gives 'em more "tourist time".

[Willy]

Had to do a real careful preflight inspection. Seems a couple of characters wearing Air France uniforms were skulking about the 307. No telling what the ne'er do wells from that outfit would be up to...

Decent flight to TTPP. Next stop South America!

[buzzbee]

Here at Western Airlines, we don't have very good strategists. The debate now taking place before we can file for our next departure is whether or not there is a payload advantage to be gained by breaking up the next leg into 2 shorter hops.

I wish they would decide. I just want to go flying and not worry about it.

[PRB]

Great flight to Rarotonga (NCRG.) Had to deal with a 14 knot 90 degree cross wind howling down from the hills to the south across the single 7000 foot runway, but it was all good. Some kodaks: A): Dawn over the South Pacific. B) and C): My semi-awesome cross wind landing!

[PRB]

Made it to Tahiti! Woooo! (runs off the plane with beach unbrella and coconut with straw sticking out.) See ya in a week. Maybe... :d

[Willy]

Just landed in Dutch Guyana from British Guyana.....

[Great Ozzie]

Saturday nite... was very gratifying to see Señor Mike MacKuen meet us at the airport. We hand him the Flight, Maintenance and Nav Logs... After quickly looking over our aircraft, we hear from him, "So... you had trouble with No. 4 on the way here." "Yes sir, just as we got over land btw... we had to hang an engine with absolutely zero test-bench hours." "Hmmm... yes... oil consumption is high on 4... sounds like improperly seated rings." (besides being a Chief Test Pilot, Mike holds an IA back in the States) "Yes sir, I think so too. We really pushed those engines hard." "I would say so Capt... running MTO power to TOC?" "Well, yes sir... but we were working directly with Pratt on this... we have a couple of their Tech Reps onboard.... and the engines are going back to them to be reman'd." "Yes seems only fitting; ok fine... now let's go get that drink."

So we left the airport and our Reserve Crew was able to get a few nice shots of our craft just at sunset.

When Mike made the bar invite, I had envisioned shots of tequila at some small hole in the wall. Boy was I further off than our Navigator a couple nites ago. I had never heard of the Alvear... Alvear Palace Hotel that is. And what a Palace it is!

The place is absolutely spectacular... And tonight’s hosts even more so. An array of wealthy Argentine, European and North American businessmen & government officials, including the Intendente of Buenos Aires and the American Ambassador. Then I see President Perón (along with his wife Eva) raise his glass and say, "To The Magnificent Seven!" (referring to the first seven crews that have arrived). What a night that was!

Yes, this was magnificent, the Challenge, The Routes, The Participants... all magnificent indeed!

[srgalahad]

Ahhhh.. Tahiti. Pearl of the Blue Pacific!

We took a bunch of the locals, the Governor, The Mayor and a few tribal chiefs on a bit of a junket around the Island to show off the North Star. I'm not sure why I'd leave for a long ocean crossing...

The good news is that McHale has leased an office and agreed to set up a Crew Base On Tahiti... and I found a nice little shack over on Moorea for $500 ( purchase) so this may be a good route after all.

[MM]

Took over after Moses' mid-morning landing at Kingston and drove "784" to San Juan. The pax and crew arrived at the "Rum Capital of the World" from the "Home of" ...er... "Tobacco-Free Smoking".

(a) Out of Kingston, (b) Fluffy clouds over sparkling Caribbean, (c) Massive Herrera International Airport lies below, (d) Approaching San Juan's Isla Grande, (e) Finals over harbor, (f) San Juan Touchdown, and (g) Mural from the Bacardi Factory.

[Great Ozzie]

A few pics on the way to Panama...

[Great Ozzie]

Viva la Liberté! & Happy 4th of July (to all who celebrate this!)

[MM]

Austin came up with the excellent idea of Transocean's providing special service to Bogota and the central Andes. The return route to the coast, via Cali and Quito, made for quite a day of sightseeing. A couple of the passengers seemed to complain of the altitude so we limited the DC-4 to 12,000 ft (with a minor exception scraping through a pass). This restriction called for some maneuvering—even over the highland plateaus—to avoid hitting the edges of the air. Not exactly hands-off flying.

Some tourist photographs: (a) The Nevada del Tolima (17,060ft), (b) Dodging low hills on the plateau, (c) Two of Ecuador's many volcanoes, (d) Squeezing through a pass ... (e) barely, (f) Waggling wings to salute Quito, (g) Below Pichincha volcano (15,696), (h) threading through another pass below Pichincha, and (i) Down the Andes Western Slope (that's Cotopaxi in the distance, 19,347ft) to the Pacific and Guayaquil (j).

[srgalahad]

After the long oceanic leg it's nice to relax in Santiago and set up the last leg to BA

A few images: 1) after landing at SCIP some freak weather hit -snow - and we huddled inside the terminal while it melted... Big Bird and Little Friends. 2) Cold enough along the jetstream to make contrails at FL250. 3) Six hours of endless ocean before the coast came into sight. 4) Passing thru 8000' on descent to SCTI. 5) Happily preparing to land, even with the perennial "building on final".

We're happy with the progress. Before departure the boys in Dispatch gave us a set of numbers:
Forecast wind ETE----- 28.32 Fuel 59479
Nil wind component--- 31.95 Fuel 67105
Headwinds forever---- 34.62 Fuel 72697
They just cabled us a final estimate of 31.2 hrs and 63600# so now it's up to the flight crews to make it so.

McHale's Airline Flight 2(Proving) and the support ships have scheduled a departure from Santiago at 1630hrs EST Tuesday for the 2:10 hop to SAEZ. Spectators are welcome to witness the arrival. Updated info will be provided at time of departure.

[srgalahad]

Bartender, bring me a...

MARTINI!

[srgalahad]

A few of the boys were sitting over a lemonade t'other night and got to wondering... there are a few who haven't checked on on the HF or via telegraph and the discussion went something like this:

"hmmm should we go looking?"
"naw, they're big boys and if there was trouble they'd get word out"
"But maybe they are having fun wherever they are 'stuck' and we SHOULD go help..."
"but who's going to pay for the fuel? this is more than a bush operation, ya know..."
"well, we could ponder salvage rights on a couple of the newer types, but I don't know who'd want a Boeing Baby Whale..."

so we had a few more pops and the discussion faded away behind the sounds of a samba...


Note: Someone just dropped off a note - I guess there was a brief, static-filled message to say that Willy is still working on it

[Willy]

After a slightly extended stay in Belem, it was time to start off further south. I would like to thank the Brazilian Air Force for parking that B-17 Flying Fortress at SBBE long enough to swap out a few parts with the "Baby Whale".

Only a 260ish nm flight to SBSL, but the next leg is the longest one I've got plotted for the trip......

[RedGreen]

Red sits in the Bar next to his co-pilot Winston.

Winston: I don't get it, why haven't we gone back to Miami, yet?

Red: We're waiting to hear who won this cockamamie race.

Winston: So why don't they declare a winner?

Red: I hear there's some slowpokes we're waiting on to arrive.

Winston: I wish they'd hurry up. There's nothing to do around here now except sit around and drink beer.

Red: I know, we could just as easily be drinking beer in Miami where its 80 degrees and all the beauties are in their swimsuits, instead of Buenos Aires where its 60 degrees and everyone's got their winter coats on.

Winston: That's the other thing. People think 60 degrees is cold down here.

Red: Back in Michigan, we would be breaking out the spring jackets when it got above 40 degrees....

[Willy]

Still plugging away at it. Just posted the results of my flight last night to Natal. Hopefully I can pick up the pace here in the next few days.

[Willy]

Recife! :ernae: