AOPA Pilot Magazine - March 1958 - (Page 71) share their excellent food for less than $1. I crossed the Andes from Puerto Montt, In dead calm air I went easily across a 7,000feet, passing the snowt covered cone of Osorno Volcano on one aide and the 11,660'foot peak of El Tronador (The T h u n d e r ) on the other. Beyond the mountains, I let down over a deep blue lake with resort hotels dotting its shore. It could have been war own Lake Tahoe without the hot dog stands and billboards. The wind began to haunt me South of Bariloche, Argentina, where the country became dry and barren, broken only by an occasional sheep ranch or isolated village. It was a strong, southeast wind, and signs on the ground indicated that it blew continually and violently. There were no trees, but the shrubs and bushes were permanently inclined. Aeolian sands extended downwind from each small, dry lake bed. Landing at the tiny sheep ranching town of Lago was the same lbht brown as the surrounding terrain. To complete the diamat picture. I learned on landing that the only gasoline available was 130 octane which I could not use. Strangely enough, this was the only place on the whole trip where 80 or 91 octane was not available, although at Pbrt-of-Spain, Paramaribo and Pointea-Pitre, the proper octane was obtained by blending 78 with higher CAA k p a i t Station 3863 I 11, Ud. Ill , RADIO PROBLEMS? SÃ Aselected fiat of bartercoats paid by C h p b i grades. Almost everywhere the old "bucket and funnel" method of refueling i s still in use, perhaps not as fast as our gas pumps, but you don't have to worry about it. Attendants are careful, and every drop i put through a strainer as s it goes into your tanks. The only thing I had to watch was an occasional tendency to use heavy airline equipment that might damage my light metel wings. At Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil, I even had to forego refueling because there wasn't a gasoline truck on the field w t a hose nozzle ih small enough to fit my tanks. Of course, we could have hunted up a funnel, but I didn't need the gas that badly. Local prices ranged from 17 cents at Buenos A i m Aeroparque to 7B cents at Asuncion, averaging 42 cents a gallon. 1 ran into an odd situation at three airports in Brazil. Shell dealers at Betem, Bahia and Rio flatly refused to accept cash for gasoline and would not sell it except through use of a credit u f ~ l f c only dlopIn * NORTHERN CAUFORNtA offering AUTHORIZED SERVICE SALES IHSTAUATION for oil major makes of ADF AUTOPILOT COMMUNICATIONS a VOR RADAR ARC BENDM COLUNS DARE 8 FUTE-TRONiCS LEAP MITCHELL NARC0 WRIGHT WIICOX and others H M M NO. 3 AQ OAKLAND AIRPORT, OAKLAND, CAUF. Lockhaven 9-8385 Buenos A i m , I needed the help of all three radio operators to wrestle the plane to the leeward side of the building and tie it down. The wind howled all night. Next morning, I was again crabbing at 46" over terrain that p e w even more barren. The high wind the night before had dissuaded me from refueling, and, without a ~inglelandmark that could be identified, I began to worry. I knew that my destination, Canadon Leon, would be only a small spot on the desert, and that if I missed it I was in trow Me. The chart did not show another airpart for 120 miles. Canadon Leon appeared 19 minutes too soon, and without the painted runway markers, I would never have seen it. A river shown prominently on the map was nothing but a dry stream bed no different from others I bad passed, and everythinghouses, town,airport, even the streetsMARCH, 1,958 eat 80 octane was at San Julian 125 miles away. Maybe I had enough fuel left to fly there, but without any reserve, I didn't dare try. I was stranded. Fortunately, while I wondered what to do, an Argentine CAA inspector landed his Piper SupercmWer carrying an emergency medical case from an outlying ranch. The pilot seemed unconcerned about the wind and remarked that it was usually much worse. Upon learning of my situation, he immediately drained five gallons of gas from his tanks and put it in mine, refusing card. At the time of purchase they quoted me the local price of about 45 centa a gallon, but later I found myself billed for this gasoline at $1.34, $I.= and 16 cents a gallon. At Canadon Leon, however, the near- 20 Minutes to Downtown San Francisco any payment. The wind finally beat me down. A11 the local people agreed that it would continue to increase in force as I went south, so I abandoned the idea of flying to the tip of the continent, grinding along at 60 or 60 miles an hour at the risk of having my plane destroyed by the gale. I flew on to San Julian and then started north for home, The coastal area north to Bahia Blanca is pretty uniform. Cattle begin to replace the sheep, and vegetation like our western mesquite appears. I passed a large oil field at Conunodoro Rivadavia where the country looked like West Texas. But the 360 miles across the pampas into Buenos Airea was I THE SUNNY SOOTHWEST N TWO GOOD gas stops at the FLYING COWBOY SOUTHWEST AIR RANGERS InfnMtio-l Airport AIR TERMINAL El Paw, Texom MidIond-OdHui, Ttxoi something to remember one solid checkerboard of wheat fields and pastures full of fat, black cattle. None of -
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