Everything started 4 years ago. By then, I was a private pilot, and I was gaining experience and flight hours, so I decided to go for a cross country flight in the Cessna 150 that I flew.
For me and many pilots, the “flight” starts the day before, by planning the route, taking times and distances, checking the weather forecast and all related with planning.
My day started with some classes at the university. It was a beautiful winter day with clear skies and unlimited visibility. After my classes, I headed to the aerodrome where I always fly. I went to check the airplane and do the preflight and exterior inspection. After that, I filed my flight plan at the office.
As soon as everything was ready, I jumped on the airplane and took off. I climbed to 4000 feet flying visual routes for departing aircrafts that go to the west. I was very happy because my planning was pretty accurate and everything was looking great.
After 25 minutes of flight, I was flying over Santo Domingo, a small town on the coast where there was also a runway with a lot of IFR traffic. Then I made a 90 degree turn to the right (facing north), and continued to my next checkpoint flying over the coast. Around 7 minutes later, I was flying over San Alfonso del Mar. This place is awesome. It is a condominium located on the beach that has a massive swimming pool which is one of the biggest in the world, so you can see it from very high altitudes.
Continuing the flight, I kept heading north until I reached Valparaiso. This city is one of the biggest in Chile. It is located in the central zone and is the principal seaport of the country.
I had to land in Valparaiso Aerodrome, as my planning said, to get fuel and continue my navigation. I took off from Valparaiso, flew over the city and then headed north to go through my checkpoint, which was the Viña del Mar airport.
Then I made a turn east to return to Santiago. I flew the eastern visual entrance for the Tobalaba Aerodrome, which consisted of flying over the International Airport, watching the large airline aircrafts and seeing how they took off and landed just below me.
Everything was going perfect, I was already flying over the city and the sunset with the mountain range in front was making my flight even more rewarding.
It was a unique experience that I will never forget.
Many times, such "common" moments can become memories forever.
This flight was the demonstration of all the effort and everything that I had studied had paid off.
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