Friday, December 28, 2012

Standard Class Team - Successful Arrival in Buenos Aires

Race Fans,

A quick update on progress - Pilots Phil and Peter and Sean arrived yesterday, with Rick Sheppe (manager) , despite bad flight delays from the US and pretty horrendous lines in custom- this involved 6 hrs of waiting for the first arrivals (Peter and crew Agustin Cirino) ) before we could all leave for the port of Zarate where we were staying prior to picking up our gliders.

Rick's arranged car blew a head gasket on the way to the airport but Sergio Reinaudo (Argentinian team manager) was able to find him another ride from Zarate gliding club to Chavez the same day - a very long day for Rick but by all accounts he is in Chavez right now on schedule.

Today we had our appointment to pick up the  gliders at the port at 10am - the broker showed up by 11am and we were able to get into our container which was in the loading bay waiting for us.

The customs official arrived with a large pair of bolt cutters and broke the seal. With some trepidation we peered inside - the excellent work by Ian Clark and helpers had done the job perfectly and the gliders were just exactly as we expected to see them. This was a huge relief. Not only that but in only 4 hours, thanks to some careful planning and design of the tooling, we had both gliders out with their axle remounted, fenders on, and trailers packed and ready to roll. We had a lot of help from Argentinian team pilot Santiago Berca (who flew John Godfreys QT at Uvalde and is flying club class at Chavez - 2 WGC's in one year is pretty good going!) He left us this evening to take a bus to pick up his glider and drive to Chavez tomorrow as well.

John Goods flight was cancelled yesterday from the US so my crew Agustin went back into Buenos Aires again today to pick him up this morning - Johns customs experience took 3 hours today and he and Agustin arrived at the port just as we were putting the finishing touches to the trailers. We  parked the gliders at the nearby Zarate gliding club (a very nice facility - it would be the envy of many US clubs) and fixed a lot of tow vehicle wiring problems (3 hrs of John Good and I patiently debugging some very wierd light behavior) but now we're good to go. Nothing to eat all day but we made up for it tonight with an excellent meal in a restaurant a few yards from our hotel in downtown Zarate - a very lively little town. 

Tomorrow we leave early for Chavez and have a 500km drive followed by setting up crew  and supporters in the campsite , getting into our estancia and getting the gliders ready - I have some work to do on YG to get it ready for flying and scrutineering- nothing major - just normal  systems checking and installation.

So far so good - some major delays and events but everything has worked out well for us so far - talk to you soon...

Peter Deane (USA Std Class)


2 comments:

  1. Thank you for the update Peter. We are delighted to hear that pilots, crew and aircraft all arrived safely in Argentina. Hope today's long drive goes well and the sun shines to greet your arrival!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Peter,

    Can you dig up an address where I can DHL a package to you?

    Matt JR

    ReplyDelete

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