Melanie Bazgan Melanie is a graduate of the University of Nevada Reno, with a degree in Computer Science and Engineering. She has worked for the Argentine Air force and has been associated with the Perlan Project for many years before joining as a full team member in...
Walt RogersWalter Rogers retired from NOAA National Weather Service in 2010 managing a Center Weather Service Unit at the FAA’s ARTCC. There he provided professional aviation weather briefings for air traffic management over almost 30 years. His real passion is with...
Dan GudgelDan Gudgel has been around aviation his entire life in varying capacities in aerial application, flight instruction, air charter, and a glider tow-pilot. He has been a Certificated Glider Pilot since 1984 and holds a Glider Flight Instructor Certificate...
Loading Day and Last Team Dinner With Monday morning’s sunrise the Perlan was in the trailer, the container was ready for inspection, the Egrett was ready to start the long ferry home, the Tribal truck was at the airport and the crane was booked for the afternoon. For...
Finally in late July '23 the Airbus Perlan Mission II is gathering in El Calafate! It's winter in Patagonia and the Andes mountain roads have been closed many, many days. But the Perlan container arrived in early June to Mendoza to beat the worst of the winter...
Perlan Project's all-volunteer team has made incredible preparations to get ready for Argentina. Each week additional team members have journeyed to Minden to join the core team. In the past few weeks we have hosted CEO Ed and Linda Warnock, Miguel Iturmendi, Alan...
Family, friends, and colleagues remember Einar’s life. On a recent afternoon, a group gathered at the Julia Morgan Hall, University of California Botanical Garden to celebrate the life of Einar Enevoldson, whose vision inspired The Perlan Project. Old friends to...
Loading Day and Last Team Dinner With Monday morning’s sunrise the Perlan was in the trailer, the container was ready for inspection, the Egrett was ready to start the long ferry home, the Tribal truck was at the airport and the crane was booked for the afternoon. For...
Farewell Argentina Multiple weather studies for the next week did not show stratospheric waves of sufficient strength to soar to high altitude. So we made the tough, bittersweet decision to pack up and return to Minden. In El Calafate in 2023 Airbus Perlan Mission II:...
For the third and final blog on Support Teams for Airbus Perlan Mission II we look at several team members who wear many hats. Of special note are the words from our 3 Perlan Interns and their observations about their past two months in El Calafate. Argentine Liason –...
Perlan Support Teams – Part Two As I said in Part One we are so fortunate to have such diverse talent on our team to support Airbus Perlan Mission II. This blog is to highlight each team member’s supporting role in their own words. Most have been on multiple Argentina...
Perlan Project Support Teams - Part One Airbus Perlan Mission II is incredibly fortunate to have a team of dedicated volunteer specialists. It takes a huge amount of work to put Perlan 2 into the air to safely hunt for stratospheric wave. These support teams are the...
Flight #74 – Weak Wave On August 30, 2023 the forecast wave conditions had improved marginally from dismal to merely difficult. But the support teams had worked hard on various squawks from the previous flight. Perlan 2’s wings were removed to check the full travel...