Day 32/33 – Sao Jose dos Campos and Cacapava, Brasil
After breakfast we headed to Cacapava. A small town 30 minutes north where Donovan and Cecilia recently bought a house in a fly-in community. Donovan just received his instructors rating for gliders and today was his first day instructor. He had just trailered one of the gliders from a competition so he unloaded it from the 15 foot trailer and put it together. Pretty wild stuff. Couple of snaps and bolts and you are ready for the wold blue yonder. Soaring is an amzing sport, there is a wee bit of yarn taped to the canopy which is basically your most important instrument. You hope the airplane towing you lifts off without difficulty and really hope you never need the parachute strapped to your back just in case. Anyway, I watched them take off from the grass strip and go hunt down thermals.
Cecilia and I headed to the house. Wow. The den has one big glass panel window looking out on the rolling green countryside. They have done a lot of renovations and made it a beautiful home with an airy feel, wood staircases, marble baths, a granite kitchena nd of course a runway conventiently located in the front yard. There was constant glider and sport aircraft traffic, an amazing sunset and a sky full of stars. This is pretty close to some sort of paradise.
The next morning Donovan and I went flying in his little red taildragger. It was great, noone to talk to on the radio, no adiz, no traffic. This is what flying is all about. We were having a barbeque or churrasco in the afternoon so the house started filling with friends. Another of my best friends from college arrived, Marcelo with his wife Carolina and daughter Maria Luiza and his sister Daniela who I had not seen in 10 years. We had a great time and even had an EMB190 flyby which I missed! Good times were had by all and we headed back to SJ after the festivities.
Tags: Travel
dunlewey
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