If you book 16 flights, it might be smart to check their always differing take off hours. I thought. Of course, if you lose track of what you are doing it can happen that in the end you throw away essential documents. And when you arrive at the airport you will have to be a good talker to arrive where you want to. Hence everything went fine. Arriving at Fortaleza in North Brazil we spot a group of Swiss pilots. Everything what happened afterwards was only thanks to them. They noticed we are totally lost and don’t have a clue what comes next. They took care of us and so after 3 flights and 3 hours of wild bus derby we arrived at Quixada.
The hospitality of the people (both Swiss and Brazilian) is overwhelming. If it were not, you couldn’t fly a single kilometer here. The flying here is unbelievably demanding. The take off welcomes you with 40km/h wind, you need at least 2 people to hold down your glider and another one to look for startable conditions. And the flats? Many people told us that flying flatlands is just like flying in the mountains. “Thermals are thermals!” They lied. It seems to me that you have to start all over again. Here we are un-organized beginners. But the good side is – everybody cares about you and tries to help out. Really nice!
Yesterday Stefanie and I could organize one radio and one working telephone. But still – without spot and retreat our direction was crosswind – follow the road. We had an incredible flight with our first low safes (they really exist!), and after 30km we made our touchdown at a good asphalt road. We were very pleased, even though 3 Swiss guys flew 200+.