When we think there’s wave we will always try to fly Perlan 2. However it is winter, and we are not that far from Antartica. Jim spotted an iceberg in the lake near the airport when we first arrived. On July 25, 2017 Airbus Perlan Mission II had lots of surface wind in El Calafate, but from the north. That made poorly organized wave and a strong crosswind. There were actually strong wind warnings for most of Patagonia. The team stayed in the hangar working, while hoping that the winds would swing more westerly. Didn’t happen.
Ed, Stewart, Tim, Alec and Jackie replaced the foam seals on the hatches and the entire team caught up on other delayed chores. Interns Loris and Alec got their chance to work in the front cockpit. Morgan kept his laptop hooked to the telemetry systems. This was Martin and Jackie’s first day out of self quarantine for past week. At the end of the day Cholo and Morgan went up in the tow plane up to compare actual weather to forecast. The satellite photo looked dismal with “corduroy” downwind but no foehn gaps, and no organized wave clouds near our lake. LV is the aviation designation for Argentina. Tim made sure Morgan had a control stick in the rear seat. They couldn’t climb above 7,000 feet due to clouds. Lennies were visible in Chile, but surrounded by low clouds. Morgan got some great aerial photos to share on the blog. I particularly like the first photo of the west end of Lago Argentino. So we will wait to wave soar another day.
Perlan Soars! Jackie
