Flying above the Andes

Let me hasten to explain that the regular passenger on the South American air lines hasn't the remotest chance of getting mixed up in such a hair-raising business. When you get on a large air-liner at any of the modern airports between here and Buenos Aires, whether on the east coast or west coast, you have a feeling of security.

But don't try to get permission to ride the plane that is used exclusively for mail and company employees across the Andes, for no guarantee whatever will be given you. The mail must go, and it gets through usually on the first attempt; but on those occasions when the pilot is forced back for more fuel after hours of battling for an opening between crags and clouds, you may be sure that you would never have enjoyed being with him.

When the assertion is made that flying the "hump," as the Cumbre is called, is the hardest run in aviation, one has in mind the fog-enshrouded ridges of the Alleghenies, the blizzard-swept passes of the Cascades, the Sierra Nevadas, and the Rockies. Uspallata Pass, with the Cumbre as the divide, has, on occasion, on a single flight, everything that is known elsewhere in the weather line-fog, clouds, rain, hail, snow, thin air, cold air, and terrific wind currents.

A hundred miles to the south is a somewhat easier pass, the Paso de Maipu, located on the southern side of the huge extinct volcano of the same name. This pass is more than a thousand feet lower than the Cumbre, and its approaches are more gradual on each side of the divide; yet this pass has claimed its first mail plane, for last July the French aviator Guillemet was caught in descending air currents in a snowstorm and forced into the basin of the Laguna del Diamante, where he cruised vainly round and round until forced to land near the ice- and snow-covered shore of the lake.

The plane turned over, but Guillemet was unhurt. For more than four days and nights he plodded doggedly through the lonely, wind-swept canyons, finally reaching shelter and food at the hut of a sheep-herder. He had a very narrow escape from death by exposure.

Four times a week the Americans fly the Andes, largely by the northern route of the Cumbre, or Uspallata Pass, except when weather conditions permit them to make a high-altitude, direct-line flight between Santiago and Mendoza. Twice a week the French cross with mail, using the southern route. It would be idle to try to compare the ability of the various pilots; all of them must be unusually capable, and they more than earn the high wages that prevail.

Uspallata Pass, though higher, is a shorter route between the capital of Chile and the wine center of western Argentina. It was through this pass, over a century ago, that San Martin descended into Chile with four thousand soldiers to deal the Spanish forces a blow from which they never recovered..."