In the morning I visit the office of the air control at the Iquique airport to let them copy my documents and to ask them how about fly-by-permits for the airspace around the airport. They tell me, that they do not do this unnecessary paperwork any more and they hand me over a piece of paper with a telephone number, which I should call, if I would like to fly by. But they would strictly not permit it monday trough friday, but on weekends they usually would allow, but not always - thats why I would have to call before attempting to fly by. Sounds good, but in the following weeks it looks like a personal statement of the guy, that I randomly met in the office. I proceed to the Altazor Flight Parl of Philip and Marlene. Also here a lot has changed : new skyscrapers are omnipresent - more than 100 of them are now in the town of Iquique, at least 20 under construction. Years ago, when serious earthquakes had hit the town and only a handful of skyscrapers were there, we were sure, their time was over - what a misjudgment. The Alto Hospicio launch gets also pimped up, so in the meantime the highest point in front of Alto Hospicio gets used as alternative launch. Just behind the take off there is a children's play ground and it looks a bit less dusty, so I sort me glider there and stuff my harness on a bench and start into very smooth afternoon air to my first flight with the M6 and the Ozium to "groove in" into Atacama flying of 2014.
