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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2431.PDF
FLIGHT, 28 October 1960 675 The Piper Pawnee is overcoming the bias in favour of high-wing aircraft that exists among Colombian pilots accustomed to the Super Cub seat Series 3 Rapides have been extensively modified by the com-pany, the most obvious point being the absence of the under- carriage cowlings. This modification, combined with a metalfuselage bottom, minimizes possible damage from stones on primi- tive airstrips. The replacement of the standard 40 ampere-hourbattery by one of 180 ampere-hours' capacity facilitates continued operations from strips without any ground equipment. The ven-turi has been located on the undercarriage strut, in the propeller slipstream, VHF radio has been fitted and v.p. propellers aremanually operated. Chile is a 2,800-mile ribbon of land lying between the Andes andthe Pacific, and for this reason efficient transportation has always been important. The air-mindednes of Chile, whose total popula-tion is only seven millions, is reflected by the existence of 55 clubs using 260 aircraft and of 132 privately owned aircraft. A substan-tial government subsidy is distributed to the clubs each year by the Federacion Aerea de Chile and is based, as in Uruguay, onthe number of PPLs obtained in the previous twelve months. A total of 90 aircraft are engaged in all types of commercialactivities in Chile. With the bankruptcy of CINTA/ALA and Transa de Chile, only LADECO and the government airline LANoperate scheduled services. Several companies do non-scheduled and air-taxi work whilst agricultural operations are carried out byfour or five units using some twelve Piper Super Cubs. LADECO, Linea Aerea del Cobre, have a scheduled servicebetween Santiago, Potrerillos, Antofagasta and Calama using two DC-3 "Super 94s." The Pratt and Whitney 1830-94 engines enablethe aircraft to maintain height at 12,000ft on one engine when fully loaded, and the gross take-off weight is increased to 26,9001b.Nevertheless, substantial payload restrictions still have to be im- posed at Potrerillos; located at 8,300ft this is the highest airfieldin Chile and the 5,250ft runway has a 3J per cent slope combined with difficult approaches. Bolivia, where the vast Altiplano at 12,000ft contrasts withthe eastern semi-tropical lowland is relatively backward in its aviation. A total of only 86 civil aircraft are currently registered.However, the Directorate of Civil Aviation formed a flying train- ing school in 1956, and at Cochabamba 15 students are now under-going instruction on six single-engined aircraft. La Paz airfield, at 13,358ft, is unsuitable for training purposes since it is in factthe highest commercial airfield in the world. A lot of charter work emanates from the oil companies prospect-ing in the eastern lowlands; here Bristow Helicopters, Bermuda, have eight rotating-wing aircraft on permanent charter. Most commercially operated machines are obsolete ex-USAFaircraft, B-17s and B-24s being common sights in Bolivia as well as the inevitable C-46s and C-47s. In such aircraft, beef has formany years been air-freighted from the Beni Province up to the Altiplano. The Institute of Linguistics, based at Riberalta, on the RiverBeni, use a Piper Cruiser, an Aeronca floatplane and a Helio Courier. The Institute is a large international organization equip-ping and maintaining several hundred linguistic missionaries in isolated jungle areas. With headquarters at Glendale in Cali-fornia, this institution has South American operations in Peru and Ecuador as well as in Bolivia. Peru has relatively little light aviation. A total of 60 aircraftare either privately owned or affiliated with one of the five aero clubs. However, the importance of cotton to Peru has acceleratedthe development of agricultural flying and cotton is now sprayed in the northern coastal regions and in the middle junglebelt. As many as 90 machines do this work during the season. Only 22 aircraft are licensed to do taxi or non-scheduled charterwork in Peru. One of the oldest-established firms is Aero Taxi SA, which was formed in 1953 by two Americans (the same twopartners manage Jamison and Reich SA, the Cessna distributors for Peru since 1959). Seven war-surplus Cessna UC-78s werepurchased for Aero Taxi in the United States and flown to Peru; now only two are flying, but a Cessna 180 was recently added tothe fleet. Lima is used as a maintenance centre and the aircraft are based in the jungle at San Ramon, north-east of Lima. A net- James Leaver, manager of the Colombian Piper distributors, with an Apache owned by the Department of Civil Aviation work of seven HF radio stations is operated by the company, mostof whose work has been the transportation of freight to isolated settlements in the central jungle region. The Faucett company, rioted for its reliability and operationaleconomy, has the distinction of being one of the few airlines to operate aircraft of its own manufacture. Thirty Faucett-Stinsonswere produced around 1945, and four of these robust aircraft still remain in service. Each of the seven-passenger Stinson mono-planes is powered by a 600 h.p. Pratt and Whitney radial engine. The Talara - Tumbes and the Arequipa - Mollendo - Ilo routesare now flown by these four extraordinary machines. Ecuador is the second smallest South American republic and,like Peru, has distinctive coastal, Andean and forested regions. Light aircraft activity is concentrated along the coastal strip, wheremost of Ecuador's resources are located. In this area nine agri- cultural companies use some 50 aircraft, mainly to spray thebanana plantations. Eight Hiller UH-12s are now being used, in addition to a large number of the more common Piper Super Cubs.The one aero club in Ecuador is based on Guayaquil, on the coast, which is also the headquarters of the four air-taxi companies. Regular services in the east are maintained by TransportesAereos Orientates, who started operations in 1958; Quito is the maintenance depot and Shell-Mera, east of the Andes, is the junglebase. Twenty-two centres in the Oriente are served by TAO, eleven by a Junkers Ju52/3m; the remainder, whose airstrips areonly about 400 metres long, are fed by a Cessna 180 and a Norseman.Also based at Shell-Mera are the activities of the Missionary Aviation Fellowship, whose function is to serve protestant mis-sions in otherwise inaccessible areas. MAF have programmes in Brazil, British Guiana, New Guinea and Africa as well as in Ex-USAF wartime aircraft are still in use in Bolivia. Here is oB-U operated by the national airline, Lloyd Aereo Boliviano
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