This month Alejandro has invited us to commemorate some Latin American Aviation History. To start my historical lesson today I take you back to my January 2012 PIREP. Paragraph two: "In December I had the opportunity to test and tweak and fly and repaint some EMB-190s. I have really fallen in love with the little plane and wanted to use that as my commuter in 2012."
As humans became more adept at building and flying machines, they took their technology around the globe and by the early 1920's, most Latin American Countries had at least been exposed to "AVIATION." Almost right away, at least by the 1930's, the Brazilian government made several investments in aviation and began formally looking into building their own aircraft during the 1940s and '50s. It was not until 1969 that Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica (Embraer) was created as a government-owned corporation. Not even 50 years ago, but an interesting piece of aviation history none-the-less
The first, "best-known" Embrear was the EMB-110 which received it's airworthiness certificate at the end of 1972. Production on the 110 was halted in 1990 as it's popularity had been superseded by the EMB-120. "Probably the closest to a modern replacement for the DC-3" (with double the speed), the Brasilia (launched in 1979) and attracted immediate interest from many regional airlines, particularly in the USA. After introduction into the "Commuter Jet" or "Regional Jet" genre' in the mid 1980's (EMB-135/145) the EMB-170 was introducted in 2001. After a positive response from the airline community, Embraer delivered the first E170 aircraft to LOT Polish Airlines in March 2004. The E190 model is a larger stretch of the E170 fitted with a new, larger wing, larger horizontal stabilizer and a new engine, (the GE CF34-10E, rated at 18,500 lb). These aircraft compete with the Bombardier CRJ series but have made Embrear the third-largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in the world! Not simply a "commuter", since the E190 is of mainline aircraft size, many airlines could operate them as front-line aircraft. For example, Air Canada operates 45 E190 aircraft fitted with 9 business-class and 88 economy-class seats as part of its primary fleet.
I ended last month in Davao, Philippines having flown a Philippine Airline E190 in from Indonesia. At dawn on June 3rd, I loaded an E190 and headed east, back across the vast Pacific Ocean at 33,000 feet and MACH 0.75:
Leg One:Davao to Buka, PNG = 1900 miles
Leg Two:Buka to Faleolo, Samoa = 2000+ miles
(June 3rd again)Leg Three:Faleolo to Hao, Polynesia = 1800+ miles
Leg Four:Hao to Isla Pascua, Chile = 1800+ miles
(June 4th)Leg Five:Isla Pascua to Galapagos, Ecuador = 1900+ miles
Leg Six:Galapagos to Valencia = 1500+ miles
For the actual FOTM part I loaded the smaller EMB-170 (June 6th) and departed from Valencia flying at low altitude over some airports "famous" in Venezuelan aviation history :
SVBS
SVEP
At this point I loaded up the 1909 Blériot (from the April 2011 FOTM by Hans) and took a few laps over the city.
Then, back into the EMB-170 I continued to SVCS
SVMP
The Cabo Codera VOR
SVMI
And returned to SVVA
On June 19th I loaded up an AEROVIAS DC-4 and flew just under 2,000 miles up to Mexico City where it was smoggy, warm, humid and just plane miserable. Alejandro talked about the 100th anniversary of aviation in Venezuela and I was thinking that World War I only started two years later in 1914; I loaded up a Sopwith Camel and took a couple laps over (and through) Mexico City as well. Who knew these things could fly from over 7,000 feet ASL?
The open cockpit did provide me some breeze but the humidity and smog were still stifling, I had to get out of here, but to where?
In the EXTRA Flights tab at http://www.toomuchfs.com there is a flight called "My Mexico" by Javier Hernandez who lives in Oaxaca. The last leg of his flight is from Mexico City to Oaxaca and he has invited us to visit his home, "only 15 miles from the airport." I loaded up an "Aztec" E190 and headed south!
