Salim Flight 22 Nov 2006

There are several indigenous communities located in the bottom right-hand corner of the image (below). These include Salim, La Esperanza, Carboncito and Misión Chaqueña. These communities were once surrounded by forest, but as the image shows, much of this has now been cleared, particularly towards the west.

The river running down the centre of the image is the Rio Seco (Dry River). This river only flows during periods of heavy rain, historically emptying into the wetlands, which show up as the light green area in the centre of the image. Historically, floodwaters would move across the landscape, draining into the Bermejo River (visible in the bottom left-hand corner). When this happened, the water had to flow through the forest, which effectively spread the water across a broad area and slowed its progress.

Farmers who have cleared the forests have now channeled the water towards where the Indians live. The Rio Seco’s flood waters now flow a lot easier along these channels, and this now causes flooding in and around some of the Indian’s lands and villages.

The situation is not readily visible or understood when one views it at ground level. The flight was helpful in allowing Indian leaders to see the situation from above. The previous photo is of Facundo Vasquez, a leader from Salim. This was his first ever flight, and like the others in the group, he was quite staggered by the sheer scale of deforestation he saw.

The following pictures show drainage channels cutting across a farmers fields, heading towards the area where the Indian communities are located.

Picture on left by Ana Alvarez


























After the flight, Andrew interviewed the Indians and recorded their reactions to what they had experienced. The idea now is to edit a brief video of the flights so that the information can be shared with other members of the communities, and that they may also use the material to lobby the local government to to take appropriate action to limit the impact of deforestation.

Sandy landings

The community of Kilometro 6, close to Tartagal. We used the grass strip to the right of the community as our base for the air photo project. This picture was taken as we circled the field, prior to landing from the far end.

My instructor told me to set the plane down on tracks that ran down the middle of the strip, imagining them to be those left by other planes using the filed. Only when we were actually touching down did we realize they were a track made by tractors pulling heavily laden trailers of soybeans. The ruts were quite deep and very sandy. This made for a very rough landing, but fortunately without any problems. We were later informed the "active runway" was few meters to one side of the tracks, under a thick covering of weeds.

The second picture shows the Cessna 182, safely parked on the ground, prior to heading into Tartagal for lunch.
















Detail of the rather improvised camera pod being bolted to the side of the Cessna, in preparation for taking vertical shots of forest due to be cleared for soybean cultivation.

















The strip we landed on belongs to the Tartagal Aeroclub, which is unfortunately defunct. The field is used by a crop duster pilot, who owns this amazing looking Grumman Biplane. Note the discarded pesticide tins in the background....

Andrew gets his Visual Flight Rules (VFR) Rating

Andrew managed to pass his VFR exam this past week-end. This now means he can fly in and out of proper airports (at least in Argentina), and not just grass runways, like the one shown above.

The picture below was taken after departing from a grass strip in Tartagal, which had not been mowed for months! The photo shows weeds wrapped around the main landing gear as plane flies at 3000 feet above forest canopy.

Aerial Photo Project Completed

During the first week of September we completed a proposed project to take air photographs of deforestation near Tartagal. The plane used was a Cessna 182, seen here at a small air strip used by a crop duster.

We used a Nikon Digital camera strapped onto the side of the fuselage, and encased on a protective box with a glass bottom.

We also took oblique pictures with small digital cameras and vide tape. A selection of pictures is included on the ASOCIANA news link on the main page of the blog site.

Aerial Photography Project

The following picture is one of several dozen that resulted from a a pilot study of using a normal digital camera strapped to the side of a 4-seater Cessna 182, which Andrew is now learning to fly. The picture is actually made up from two overlapping shots (highlighted), and forms part of a broader mosaic (see second picture).

The photo mosaic covers an area of 2 x 5 kilometres, and was recorded during a 40 minute flight. The photos have been overlaid on a satellite image (of an area just north of the city of Salta). The red line shows the flight path, whilst the darker square are the photos. The flight path is somewhat erratic, as we were experimenting in flying a previously programmed route, plotted on a GPS.



With the support of SAMS, ASOCIANA will now use the experience gained from this pilot study to conduct an aerial survey of forests around indigenous communities near Tartagal. The idea is that the photos will give communities better access to up-to-date and detailed information on what is happening to their natural environment (in terms of advancing deforestion, lumber extraction etc...). This information in turn will enable communities to document any threats that they then will denounce to local and provincial authorities.

Take-off

This is what take-off looks like for the herd of cows and horses that we share the airstrip with (note the dung on the strip!).

I actually had to abort the first of several take-offs during my exam when 2 horses ran onto the strip.

Cessna 150 Aerobat

This is Lima Victor Lima Foxtrot Foxtrot (LV-LFF), the Cessna 150, I used to learn to fly and take my test for my Private Pilot's Licence, back in October 2005.

The plane was built under license in Argentina, back in 1974. Though very basic, it has proved to be a reliable and very forgiving aircraft. Shortly after my exam, the plane was literally taken to pieces and rebuilt and given a new paint job. This is what it looks like today!

Flight track

GPS-recorded track of a flying lesson taken by Andrew (18-7-06) over the northern sector of the city of Salta. The upper loop is over the town of Vaqueros, where were are building our house. The western loop is over San Lorenzo, one of the posh suburbs of the city.

The GPS data is shown on a satellite image from the Google Earth programme (free off the internet).

The image is derived from a GPS tracking excercise which is part of the prteparations we are making for conducting aerial photography of deforestation near indigenous communities.