Halloween, South America, Caravans, Bullethead antics

I’m finally getting around to posting the antics from all hallow’s eve with the OG Bullethead @OrigBullethead. In this adventure, we decided to fly Xcubs from . . well carp. I forgot. Somewhere in SA on the west of the continent (where that star airport is) to somewhere 50ish NM away to the SSE to drop off some “cargo.” I had live weather working, and there was a lot of thunderstorms in the area, so it should make from some really sketch flying. It started out lovely though.

Even the townships looked nice. Or “pueblos” or something.

All was fine and dandy until our magenta line took us. . .um. . .pretty close to the ground that came up to meet us. . .

And then some gnarly weather. . .



Sure, there were a few trees up where we were, but it’s all good. The clouds prevented us from seeing them.

Every now and again, there was some purdy blue skies up top. . .

But below was still “marginal.”

We were dedicated to dropping off the “supplies” or some BLT’s with extra toe-MAH-toes (ubereatspilots) or whatever it was in that mystery brown bag in the cargo, so we fought through the clouds, no matter how gray.

For a time I lost BH, but he managed to stay in formation. . .

We managed to drop off the “stuff” at the airport at Curayaca or whatever that place is that’s named after something that Bullethead’s anesthesiologist used when he had knee surgery back in the day, but I couldn’t get pictures because of all the thunder. So we bolted to head north to another strip where we might be able to drop these birds off, set them ablaze, and look for a barge to take down river. . .It was WELL hidden in the trees. . .and in a death star trench!


LANDING CHALLENGE!
Luckily there was a runway plane ramp at the far end of the field. . .

Even @OrigBullethead made it safely. Although he noticed the planes were all staged to make it look like an active field, so we decided to try the last of the three airports in that 2 mile triangle. . .but departing would take some effort: through that canyon of trees at the far end of this tiny strip.

BH had the great idea of using the runway runaway plane ramp as an acceleration ramp. . .

He clipped a few trees with the tundra tires, but made it. So I took hot pursuit.


. . .and also barely made it!

We both landed at the giant strip to the south to find some houses on blocks. . .

And one with stairs leading to the garage. . .

Here we eagerly ditched the planes and lit them ablaze and made a b-line for the border. :hot_face: Did we make it? We’ll have to see in the next “sketchy adventures of Bullethead and CuzDawg.”

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@CuzDawg3 that was sure an interesting evening.

The trip was over 100 miles, across the north end of the Andes at nosebleed altitudes in X-Cubs in very M-ish VFR. Don’t forget, our copilots had to bail out on the upslope before we got much over 10000’ :D.

The field we landed at first, in the SE corner of the triangle, was named Curaray, which no doubt has the same root as curare, the poison used by natives of this part of the Amazon. Which yes indeed, I got shot up with for my 1st knee surgery back in '89, before they decided this was a bad thing to do. But it does do wonders if you’re hunting large animals with a small blowgun. And I had some ayahuasca-like dreams while under, which wasn’t a bad thing, either. And the 1st thing I did when I woke up was puke.

That 2nd airfield (north part of the triangle) definitely was “Shipwreck Cove”. I mean, look at the place, all sorts of decoys out, and it in a canyon lower than the local water table.

Anyway, I think we gave them the slip. I changed ferries several times, caught a few motorcycle taxi rides (not for the faint of heart), and eventually slipped over into Argentina after a few days. I hope to be back with you next weekend :slight_smile:

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