In the morning I end my walk up to the launch along a mountain-bike-trail. The hill of Cerro Cruz, just above Tocopilla promises to be working early and I start as soon as I feel, that I could keep the altitude in front of the take off to town / seaside. I cannot get much higher there, but nicely fly away. But from Tocopilla to Cabo Paquica I am very concentrated in a fight for every single meter of altitude and it is not so easy not to bomb out. Finally I reach Cabo Paquica and from here on I feel save about my height above sea level. From that point to the border of El Loa it is nice thermal soaring, but soon enough the conditions change again - this time to very low cloud base. Although upwinds seem now reliable, all the corners have to be passed pretty low, also the following lee sides. After Chipana for a not to long distance even upwinds get very calm and I am again in fear of having to end the flight somewhere on my way. As it is during the week I am not allowed to fly by Iquique airport, I calculated yesterday, that I would have to fly back from Punta Patache as far as possible to achieve a 200km+ flight via 3 turn points. But as I cross Rio Seco backwards I get as low as about 180-170 meters above sea and have to turn urgently into an air collision hillside to receive a very low save and luckily I do. My brain calculates and calculates and I am almost sure, that 200 km could be in the card with this turnpoint , closer than planed and fly on towards the airport as far as possible. Where the prohibited zone begins I fly out to the beach and land there. Finally I have 200km+ flight - now one from Iquique, one from Cabo Paquica and the today one from Tocopilla on my records, yuhuuh ….
http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:fritzdornat/6.11.2014/13:05
http://www.findmespot.com/spotadventures/index.php/view_adventure?tripid=334644
