Margen
09:41:07 — AMARANTA GIL, 41, flight information officer at Bardaza airfield: Seven, Bardaza information here. Confirm you are still climbing.
09:41:14 — GLIDER SEVEN: Confirmed. Still climbing.
09:41:19 — AMARANTA: There is no tower here, Seven: this is a flight information office. Pull the boards out of the wings all the way. The airbrakes. The blue lever on your left.
09:41:31 — GLIDER SEVEN: Blue. Pulled. All the way.
09:41:36 — AMARANTA: What is the vario showing you?
09:41:41 — GLIDER SEVEN: I still can't read it properly. The needle is right at the top.
09:41:46 — AMARANTA: Right at the top means you are going up. You are in warm air, Seven. A column that rises on its own and takes you with it. It is not your fault and you will not fix it by pulling on the stick.
09:41:58 — GLIDER SEVEN: Roger. The airbrakes are out and I am still climbing. The airbrakes are out and I am still climbing.
09:42:06 — BRUNO CIFUENTES, 34, tow plane pilot: Tower. Starting up.
09:42:10 — AMARANTA: Bruno, runway information: crosswind of twenty knots, gusting thirty at the threshold. That is the information I have.
09:42:17 — BRUNO: Received.
09:42:19 — AMARANTA: I inform. You decide. Note the time. And note that I came on shift twenty minutes ago and I still have not seen today's flight sheet.
09:42:24 — BRUNO: Noted.
09:42:31 — AMARANTA: Seven, do not turn. Fly straight towards the white chapel on your right and touch nothing else.
09:42:40 — GLIDER SEVEN: They told me that inside a thermal you are supposed to turn.
09:42:45 — BRUNO: To stay in it. You want out of it.
09:42:49 — GLIDER SEVEN: Ah. All right. Straight to the chapel.
09:42:58 — BRUNO: Tower, engine running. If she leaves the field to the north, behind the ridge you lose her by sight and by radio. Up there I can see her.
09:43:07 — AMARANTA: And if a thirty-knot gust catches you on take-off, I have two aircraft in trouble and one of them is yours.
09:43:11 — AMARANTA: Seven, information. Are you keeping the chapel ahead of you?
09:43:19 — AMARANTA: Seven, information.
09:43:27 — AMARANTA: Seven, information. Answer.
09:43:34 — GLIDER SEVEN: Yes. Yes. Sorry. I was looking at the ground.
09:43:38 — AMARANTA: Do not look at the ground. Look at the chapel.
09:43:42 — GLIDER SEVEN: It's just that from here you can see the whole reservoir and the Ansó road. You can see so much. You can see too much.
09:43:50 — AMARANTA: You can see a lot because you are high. Being high is time, Seven. Time is on your side as long as you fly straight.
09:43:57 — GLIDER SEVEN: How wide is a thermal?
09:44:01 — AMARANTA: Two or three hundred metres. You are going to cross it, not live in it.
09:44:06 — BRUNO: Tower, still at the threshold with the engine running.
09:44:09 — AMARANTA: Received.
09:44:16 — GLIDER SEVEN: Can I ask something?
09:44:19 — AMARANTA: Ask.
09:44:22 — GLIDER SEVEN: If this thing doesn't stop climbing, how far up does it go?
09:44:27 — AMARANTA: To the base of the cloud, and today the base is high. But you will come out before that, because you are flying straight and thermals are narrow. Seven, is your right wing up?
09:44:38 — GLIDER SEVEN: A little.
09:44:40 — AMARANTA: Bring it down with the stick. Gently.
09:44:49 — GLIDER SEVEN: Oh, that one I understand.
09:45:02 — GLIDER SEVEN: Tower, the needle has come down a bit.
09:45:06 — AMARANTA: Good. You are reaching the edge. Keep going straight.
09:45:15 — GLIDER SEVEN: It has gone up again.
09:45:18 — AMARANTA: Keep going straight anyway.
09:45:33 — GLIDER SEVEN: Going straight. Going straight. Tower, does everybody do this on their first day?
09:45:42 — BRUNO: Yes.
09:45:44 — GLIDER SEVEN: You lie very well.
09:45:49 — BRUNO: I practise.
09:45:56 — GLIDER SEVEN: Tower, the altimeter has gone past one thousand eight hundred metres. One thousand eight hundred and something. I took off at six hundred.
09:46:04 — AMARANTA: Received. One thousand eight hundred is a comfortable height, Seven. From there you glide back to the field even if nothing else happens all day.
09:46:12 — GLIDER SEVEN: Are you sure?
09:46:14 — AMARANTA: I'm sure. I would make it, and I fly terribly.
09:46:19 — GLIDER SEVEN: Tower, I am gripping the stick very hard.
09:46:23 — AMARANTA: Let go with two fingers. Not all five: two. Count to three and let go with two fingers.
09:46:31 — GLIDER SEVEN: One. Two. Three. Two fingers.
09:46:35 — AMARANTA: Perfect. What you can feel now is the glider flying on its own.
09:46:42 — AMARANTA: Seven, hold it there.
09:46:47 — BRUNO: Tower, requesting departure. Last time I ask on the frequency.
09:46:54 — AMARANTA: Bruno, the information is the same as it was four minutes ago. Crosswind of twenty, gusts of thirty, and a student who is flying straight and is going to get out of it on her own. If you take off, I go out looking for the pair of you in the four-by-four.
09:47:05 — BRUNO: Received. Engine running.
09:47:10 — AMARANTA: I know it's running.
09:47:24 — GLIDER SEVEN: Tower, my hands are cold and I can't remember what the blue lever is called.
09:47:31 — AMARANTA: You don't need to remember. It is already out. Don't touch it.
09:47:36 — GLIDER SEVEN: All right. All right.
09:47:40 — GLIDER SEVEN: Amaranta, sweetheart, just tell me where to put the wing and stop talking to me about the chapel.
09:47:52 — [Seven's transmission stays open for four seconds.]
09:47:58 — AMARANTA: Seven, repeat full identification.
09:48:05 — GLIDER SEVEN: Pilar Ortuño.
09:48:09 — AMARANTA: Seven, repeat.
09:48:13 — PILAR ORTUÑO, 63, retired librarian, club student: Mum.
09:48:22 — AMARANTA: Bruno.
09:48:25 — BRUNO: Tower.
09:48:27 — AMARANTA: You towed her.
09:48:30 — BRUNO: Yes.
09:48:32 — AMARANTA: How many times?
09:48:35 — BRUNO: Eleven.
09:48:39 — AMARANTA: Eleven.
09:48:42 — BRUNO: Since March. She asked me not to tell anyone in the tower. The sheet says P. Ortuño and I didn't ask any further.
09:48:55 — AMARANTA: Seven, hold your heading to the chapel. Right wing down. Airbrakes out. Don't touch the stick.
09:49:04 — PILAR: Received.
09:49:10 — PILAR: I've been trying since March to work out how to tell you. It occurred to me on the fourth flight, and then on the sixth, and then it didn't any more.
09:49:17 — AMARANTA: Seven, hold your heading to the chapel.
09:49:22 — PILAR: Received.
09:49:28 — PILAR: You have spent twenty years up here. I have spent thirty-four putting books back where they belong.
09:49:35 — AMARANTA: Seven, hold your heading to the chapel.
09:49:38 — PILAR: Received, tower.
09:49:45 — BRUNO: Tower, engine running. For what it's worth: in eleven tows she has not done one silly thing. Not one.
09:49:53 — AMARANTA: This is not the moment, Bruno.
09:49:56 — BRUNO: I know. But afterwards I won't say it.
09:50:01 — PILAR: Tower, the needle is coming down. It really is coming down.
09:50:06 — AMARANTA: Received. Take in half the airbrakes. Half, not all of them.
09:50:13 — PILAR: Half.
09:50:17 — BRUNO: She's out.
09:50:20 — PILAR: Am I out? Out of that column?
09:50:24 — AMARANTA: You got out on your own, Seven. I talked and you flew. They are not the same thing.
09:50:31 — PILAR: My legs are shaking.
09:50:34 — AMARANTA: Everybody's do. It is called a first solo and even someone with forty years behind them shakes.
09:50:41 — PILAR: Did you shake?
09:50:44 — AMARANTA: I threw up. Seven, do you have the runway in sight?
09:50:49 — PILAR: I have it on my left, slightly behind.
09:50:54 — AMARANTA: Come in on the long side, turn when I tell you to, and look at the far end of the runway. The far end, not the near one. I'll call it out for you.
09:51:04 — PILAR: All right.
09:51:12 — PILAR: Amaranta, are you there?
09:51:15 — AMARANTA: Information here. I have you in sight from the window and the runway is clear.
09:51:36 — AMARANTA: Turn.
09:51:45 — AMARANTA: Again. Now line up with the runway.
09:51:56 — AMARANTA: The wind is pushing you from the right. Right wing in, left foot.
09:52:03 — PILAR: Right wing. Left foot.
09:52:09 — AMARANTA: Don't let the airbrakes all the way out. Let it come down.
09:52:24 — PILAR: Rolling.
09:52:29 — AMARANTA: Hold your direction. Brake when you have it.
09:52:37 — PILAR: Braking.
09:52:53 — PILAR: Tower, from Seven. I am off the runway. Runway clear.
09:52:58 — AMARANTA: Received, Seven. Runway clear.
09:53:06 — BRUNO: Tower, shall I shut down?
09:53:09 — AMARANTA: Shut down.
09:53:14 — BRUNO: Shutting down.
09:53:31 — PILAR: Amaranta.
09:53:34 — AMARANTA: Yes?
09:53:39 — PILAR: That's it. That's me down.