Chile - flying in Santiago

Nice to be here in the Santiago area. I got the good spring feeling and its always nice to do some flying. Here in chile there are about 20 hanglider pilots and 300 paragliderpilots I been told. Most of them have base here in the Santiago area. There are also some few hangglider pilots further up north in the La Serena area. Augusto Olivares http://www.parapenteonline.cl was nice to rent me his glider (Wills Wing Ram Air 154) and drive me to their flying sites outside Santiago. Augusto has been flying hanglider for 20 years, but is now only flying paraglider and works as a instructor as well. At the flying site I met several other pilots, and had a good time flying with them. This flying site is owned by the pilots them selfs and they have their own clubhouse here. There are a "higth limitation" in the area since the airport is very close (see some of the pictures. Ps, I dident zoom to get the airplane that close!). There are several flying sites next to Santiago and in spring / summer time good possiblilties for XC flights.
More pictures from flying in Santiago: http://foto.vg.no/show_album.php?aid=918705










On the pictures you see 1) Me and Augusto and one of his kids, 2) One of the Local pilots launching, 3) Me and a paraglider (Notice the mountainrange in the background, its passes rigth behind Santiago and is flyable all the way), 4) Launch and one of the local pilots.

Chile - finaly am here and flight info of course!

After 4 days of drive true the salt/sand desert and the altiplano of Bolivia in a 4x4 car I reached Chile and San Pedro de Atacama. This areas is just amazing, and would be fun to fly here some time. The only problem is that the area is high, around 3600 meter of average but then again you can land almost all over the place. There where dustdevils all over and it is the first time I ever seen a "saltdevil". At the picture you see my own way of getting some airtime in Bolivia without a glider :-)

The Atacama desert in Chile is a exelent place to fly and reaches from the Andean range to the pacific coast. Here you can see some pictures Max Spiess have taken from the coast area of the Atacama desert:
http://www.ozreportradio.com/misc/chile/100_0494.JPG
http://www.ozreportradio.com/misc/chile/IQQ2004%20Gone.jpg
http://www.ozreportradio.com/misc/chile/100_0474.JPG

The coast town Iquique offers some of the best flying for paragliders and hanggliders in Chile. You can take a look at the web page of the local paraglider club:
http://www.parapenteiquique.cl/

Tommorow i go flying here in the Santiago area, Max Speiss have arranged whit some other pilot to lend me a Wills Wing Ram air. more info later....

Bolivia - Fligth info and guess what, I got robbed, Arrrg!

Bolivia is a very nice contry and there are lots of places to fly. There is possible to fly rigth next to the Lake Titicaca (altitude 3810 mosl) in the city of Cobacabana. for more info take a look at this webpage: http://www.geocities.com/jallallaparapente. Close to Suckre they hold this year in september the first paraglider competition in Bolivia ever. Sukre Is also the place I got robbed. A ashole stole my bag and a lot of my stuff is now missing. I still have my harness, but I am low on flying clothes, and I dont have a videocamera anymore. I have spendt some time in La Pas to get my new passport, and the Norwegian General consulad was extremly quick to give me a new one, only 2 days! Well I am not out of La Paz yet since there is some strike on the railway I am supposed to take to the salt dessert and then to Chile. Mayby I am lucky on friday and get out of here :-) I havent found much info about Hanggliding here, the only info I got was old and not very relevant, but the country have some good places to fly.