That useless wooden thing! By: Horacio Rivara Posted: September 19 2003
(This is mostly a real story, but some events and names have been changed for obvious reasons.)
“It’s really not very good on a Sunday to stay working at home on the business balance the boss wants or to go shopping with my wife and cousin”, Aldo thought while parking his Dodge on the four floor city garage. “I am so bored”. Then he saw a strange thing in a dark corner half covered by a dirty woollen blanket. He remembered it was there since the first day he parked (he ritually put his car in the same place).
He carefully pulled back the blanket to find the fuselage of a small glider with the wings lying on a floor. Inside the glass covered cockpit, between the altimeter and variometer, there was a metal plate fixed to the wooden panel which read: Grunau Baby 3.
Twenty years ago, Aldo took a lot of lessons at Miramar flying gliders, but failed the medical examination so he couldn’t progress. The old obsession returned. Forgetting his wife was waiting for him he went to find the garage administrator. “The glider (that stuff) was left there by its owner eight years ago”, said the man. “I never saw him again. If you want it, the total garage debt is 24.000 pesos. I am so tired of it, if you don’t pay the bill I will put it on the wasteland truck.
“Dear sir, that’s too much money” protested Also. “It might be a beautiful vintage glider, but you aren’t the owner legally speaking”.
“I’m busy, sorry man, no deal; the money or I will burn it” the reply.
Two months later, and after thinking about it a lot, Aldo and his pilot friend Luis parked a rented Scania truck near the glider, where no one could see them, loaded the fuselage and wings and slowly returned home, too excited to felt guilty about being thieves.
They worked hard on the plane and three weeks later the Grunau was ready to fly - and so was Aldo. A few hours flying a two-seated Schweizer 2-22 and he was confident. On a empty road near Sierra de los Padres hills, Luis gave Aldo a car tow using his Ford Falcon with a 1500ft rope. At 37mph the glider left the ground and Aldo eased the nose back and climbed into the blue sky. At 900ft he released and was immediately aware of the magical silence.
He flew on, searching for hill lift and could see the shadow of Mar del Plata city buildings and the silver coloured South Atlantic ocean that gave its name to the city. He experienced a surprisingly strong thermal and gained altitude for a minute or two, but those years without flying began to show.
At 300ft he abandoned all hope of finding lift, moved the control column forward as the glider accelerated to the astonishing speed of 49mph, made a sharp turn and prepare to land beside the road. The flight was too short, Aldo thought, but without thinking of the laws and regulations, never mind any state order or lack of a medical, he was determined he would soon be up in the sky again where he belonged.
