"FIRST 1000km in Brazil"
Thomas Milkó with his DG-800B
This is a story of my 1000km flight, the first made in Brazil. The flight had 1059,6km of straight distance (or aproximately 1070km with 1 Turnpoint).
The flight was done an a remote area of Brazil, where the closest gliding activity is more than 1500km away. The semidesertic area of Brazil was overflown in most part of the flight, only the last 200-300km were already in a very green and lush area, with the Balsas river in the Cerrado area.
Preparing the flight:
The day before I took at 8:30 from Juazeiro do Norte, where I had stayed for a week, with a small hope for the 1000km. However weather was not so good to the west at Maranhão and Tocantins. After 1 hour, I saw that my heading was too much to the south and the constant easterly winds were not helping me which according to my calculations made the 1000km impossible. I was sad as I was already thermalling with 1m/s before 9:00am with a heavy glider, full of water and almost 40 liters of fuel plus my toothbrush and clothes.
I decided to go back to my Plan A. I wanted to go as east as possible, to be able to use the steady winds that come from the Atlantic Ocean (110°). This way most of the flight would be over the semi-desertic area and only the last few hundred kilometers would be over the humid area of Maranhão, avoiding the Tocantins province (already amazonic area).
I was not sure where would be the best place to take off. Too chose a suitable place, I flew over a number of small airfields. The small city of Currais Novos appeared with a dirt strip in the Rotaer (the Brazilian airport’s directory), a negative as most of the unpaved airfields in this area of Brazil are either abandoned or in the middle of a town serving as playground for the local population. I liked however the location, as the surroundings have small elevations that could help to trigger the first thermals next day early morning. For my surprise, overflying the small airfield I noticed that it was paved. As it was only 2 pm, I decided to climb again together with hundreds of plastic bags and paper scrap from a nearby landfill.
So I wanted to pay a visit to the Atlantic Ocean, I headed to the coast, only 150km away. Only 80km from the sea, cloudbase started to drop systematically, from 1800m AGL to 1200m 60 km from the shoreline. As there was no place to land and less cumulus to help, I decided to turn back to Currais Novos.
The runway surface was very old, asphalt was new in 1987, but it was good enough for my landing. The 22m wide tarmac was a bit tight for my 18m sailplane, as some vegetation (dry bush) was practically on the edge. There was 1 caretaker for the day, nobody at night as there are less than 4 flights a month at this strip. So he asked for a night caretaker, to make sure my plane would be safe. The Tungsten Hotel gave me a much needed rest, as I had flown already 8:30 hours, and next day would be “The day”.
THE FLIGHT:
After a frightening motorcycle-taxi ride (no helmet !), I arrived at the airport before 8:00am. Blue sky, with a very clear day, I already saw a few very small cumulus puffs. I cleaned quickly the sailplane and at 8:15 I took off. Climbed to 830m agl and at 8:25am I put the propeller back to the engine bay. The start of the motorless flight was difficult, thermals of less than 1m/s, I flew low, between 450m and 900m agl. Always trying to fly over the rocks and small hills, searching for the best possible thermal triggers, as the sky was totally blue.
Before 9:00am I dumped 30 liters of water, as I was at 450m circling 0,5m/s, not climbing much and very tense. During the first hour the average speed was 70km/h, including a tail wind of 18km/h… I was flying low, at unlandable terrain and blue sky. Part of the decision of using Currais Novos as a starting point was the not so flat terrain and the nearby airfields. I tried always to be at glide range to one of this doubtful airfields, which was not possible all the time due to my low altitude. These were the most stressful moments of the whole flight. I flew towards low mountain ranges (200/300m), with the hope of finding some lift. I always found them as the insolation was strong, I did not have however the clouds to help me.
The second hour was similar, but I had stronger thermals, around 2m/s. I was uttering to myself “yes it will be a blue day”, and with this, I was not sure I would be able to achieve the 1000km. I spent too much time circling the weak thermal, specially near Caicó and Souzas. Interesting that in the previous day at the same time, I had better thermals near Juazeiro do Norte.
After 2hs of flight, I had still 874km to go. I flew 175km in the 2 worst hours, I still had 7h30min, the average speed needed to reach my objective would be 120km/h before 17:59, sunset time at destiny. One must not forget that I was flying only 6° south from the Equator, the duration of the days are very similar in summer / winter.
At third hour everything improved, but it was not a strong day. I checked the average flight speed, which turned to be a habit every hour. This way I was able to check if I would arrive or not at Balsas. At 11:25 I was abeam North of Juazeiro, exactly over the Iguatu valley where Karl always told me to be extra careful as the thermals were weaker. First small clouds worked well, and I could see the horizon (near Picos) full of nice Cu’s, which gave me a boost. Still had 744km to fly, not easy.
From the fourth hour on, the weather turned to be very good, cloudbase climbed to 2700agl. After arriving under the clouds, the flight turned to be very nice. Near Picos I measured an average of 175km/h during the previous 45minutes. I was making an hourly speed average of 150/140km, I realized that there was a possibility of success to arrive.
I knew the path to Picos, during the closed circuit flights made from Juazeiro do Norte, including my first 752km FAI triangle. After Picos however it was a whole near World. The runways were getting scarcer and always of very doubtful usability. Floriano is the last reasonable landing possibility, further inland only dirt airstrips. At 16:15 I was at final glide but I wanted to make sure the arrival was safe. Below me only the “cerrado” with thick vegetation and the Balsas river with it’s many turns. The thermal day was ending, I deviated 30-40° from the heading to remain high. The cumulus were big and fat so this was a guarantee for a good arrival, but they were getting more and more distant from each other.
At Balsas I arrived with plenty of height, a jet heard my arrival and asked if I need a landing priority. Proudly I told him that I would fly further 10km, he did not understand this information, what a crazy person was doing flying a glider in the middle of Maranhão and not wanting to land… I saw him on final whilst crossing the airport. Returning, I heard a Mitsubishi arriving, I found very strange all this air traffic in such a remote area.
After landing at 17:27 at the very wide Balsas airport (50meters wide), I found out that Mr Sarney (ex-President and Senator) and other politicians had arrived. It was only a few weeks before polls. Worse, that my DG-800B had far more attention from the people than the very modern Citation that has landed before me. TV station came to interview me, a lot of people around the sailplane, the normal stress with all these people trying to feel the white bird with their hands, and I was very tired.
The first 1000km in Brazil was done in less than 9 hours, as I cut the engine at 8:25 and landed at 17:27. Yesssss !!!!!!!
Local pilots were very nice to me, they cut the padlock of a hangar (after checking with the owner) and put the DG-800B inside it, even an electrical extension was supplied so that I could refill my batteries. Fernando gave me a ride to a nearby hotel.
At night, while I was having thoughts about the flight, under a nice shower, there was a total electricity blackout at the city for almost 2 hours. I went for dinner with my small torch, always with me, arriving at an ultramodern hypermarket nearby.
Meteorology
Weather was very even, with blue sky and Constant Wind blowing from the sea, I had an average wind of 17km/h from 110°, onboard indications during most of the flight. There wasn’t overdevelopment in the Balsas region, which often happens this time of the year (it’s a very humid area). It took time for the cloudbase to rise, therefore I flew low for a long time. I believe that the distance from the ocean was enough, as there was no humidity from the ocean to be seen. This could be checked in the future, as I believe longer flight are possible.
Some after flight thoughts:
To make this flight, it’s crucial to be in good physical shape, as 9 hours inside a small cockpit with a strong sun makes it a bit tiring. I had already flown 9 consecutive days, with and average of 6hours/day, most of the days I went to bed at 9pm. During some of these flights I was very sleepy, sometimes dozing a bit.
Finding a good food balance is also important, my own “formula” consisted of a heavy breakfast with fruits and cereals (no coffee or tea as they make me want to pee later on). In the glider I always had biscuits and 2 Powerbars. Always took 3 liters of water, but drank carefully as getting rid of “excess water” is not very easy in a modern glider (I had the plumbing system but …).
The takeoff field is vital for flights in this region, as the first 2 hours of flight are the most difficult, always very tenses, specially with unfriendly terrain with few landing options.
Few times in my 12 years of soaring career I saw such a weatherwise homogenous area. Even though there were small micro-regions with big weather changes like blue holes, small areas that work much better, and so on. I explored other ideas such as taking off from Quixadá (CE) where a recently asphalted runway exists (and many hang gliding records were made in Brazil) however from this point I would need to cross the Teresina area (main city of Piauí), that looked more humid from the charts.
This region offers many possibilities, I believe that with the flights from Juazeiro do Norte, the first step was done. There are other regions to be explored with fantastic sceneries and weather for even longer thermal flights. Karl Voetsch and Heinrich Heinz started in 1997 their annual “trek” with their DG500m to the Northeast of Brazil, and happily convinced me that this is a great place to soar. Even comparable to Namibia and other soaring Meccas in the world. In fact they stayed in this region for 40 days, and were able to soar 39 days !!!!!!
I hope that this serves as inspiration for my soaring friends to fly more and longer. And this first 1000km done in Brazil is dedicated to the people who love to glide !
Thomas Milko