Good evening from a beautiful Santiago. Let me just say that it was 80 degrees today and simply beautiful. Everyone here is super nice and very friendly. That and my Spanish is not so bueno.

Today was a low key day and so I had a chance to catch up on my sleep. That an we gained an hour last night. Apperently, yesterday was the day that we “Fall Back” with daylight saving time down here. Huh. Who knew? But I still woke up around 9am and found my self well rested. So I got ready and decided to go for a short walk around my neighborhood of Providencia, or the business district of Santiago. My Best Western hotel is located next to the river that runs through the city, so I decided to walk along it for a bit and explore. But quickly I realized that it was Sunday and everything was closed.

Not too big of a deal since the driver was to come pick me up at 11am to head to FIDAE. As I mentioned it was a quiet day and we were just getting the lay of the land. So we introduced ourselfs to the Chilean Public Affairs folks and go to meet Comandante de Grupo Sr. René Jorquera Escobar, Gerente de Prensa (The Commander who is in charge of the Press). A very nice guy and extremely hospitable.

After that it was time for lunch and with a little issue trying to order, we got our food and sat down to eat. And for those who try to order food w/o knowing the language, pointing to a picture helps a lot. So of course, there we were behind the hangars munching away at our food and we hear this rumble. We look up and see the Airbus A380 double decker flying it’s routine! Perfect timing. And we quickly prioritize and enjoy eating our food. The Double Decker plane is big and cool, but food is more important.

After lunch we walk the flight line a bit and run into Capt Phil “Ritz” Smith, the F-15E Strike Eagle Demo pilot. He graciously offers us a personalized tour of the Strike Eagle, and gives me a one on one interview in front of the Mountain Home F-15E which he’s flying the demo in. Ritz then lets me jump in the cockpit of the mighty fighter. Man it’s one cozy cockpit. And I thought I had it bad being stuck in the KC-135 the day before for 10 hours. These fighter guys are in that tiny cockpit for the entire time. At least I was able to walk around the plane. Ritz, you’re a superman!

And then it was time to head back. Toss in a quiet dinner at Ruby Tuesdays (was going to go to Hooters, but they shut down. ) and back to the hotel I went. Luckily I’ve acclimated to the time change easily, so waking up at 7am tomorrow shouldn’t be too bad. And then the fun really begins. Opening day of FIDAE 2008!

Ciao!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 8:09 pm and is filed under Aviation, Air Shows, Photography, Adventures, Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.