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by Tomás González Naveyra. |
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GAUCHAS DOVES The pioneer was Carola Lorenzini. In 1933 she obtained her Civil Aviator pilot license, in 1935 she beat the height record and in 1940 she united the fourteen Argentine provinces in an aeronautical tour and was on the cover of El Gráfico. She was famous for her skill in looping inverted in extreme acrobatics to which only one other aviator only animated itself to him, her teacher Santiago Germanó, Lorenzini opened the way to the sky for all the women who aspired to the giddiness and the height. Two of her successors, Maria Angelica Medina (10 thousand flight hours) and Luisa Quiroga (45 years of romance with the air), active members of the Feminine Organization of Aeronavegantes (Orfea), count the pleasures, the risks and the privacies of flying, a kingdom in which the girls never were very welcome. BY LAURA ISOLA If the person who gives name to a street, recommended a historian, it is not known, it is necessary to look among the members of the army of the Andes of San Martín. This generalization lost vaildity when the avenues and streets of the urbanization of Port South Madero and Costanera were given feminine names. That which follows in every case, and in equal measure, is public ignorance as to who are these women. As a test, it is enough to cross The Women's Bridge, that bleached pen with which the Catalan architect Calatrava united both banks of the yellowed water course which flows into the Río de la Plata . There the Carola Lorenzini street begins a poster with white letters on a black base invite the question, who is this girl? TO LEARN TO FLY Carolina Elena Lorenzini, born the 15th of August, 1899, was an aviatrix. To say to that of a woman in the decade of the Thirties is a lot, and would require that she be considerred a singular person, but her biography mandates emphasizing the exceptional nature of her character. In the case of Lorenzini, aviation was not an eccentric pastime, but a conquest in a field inhabited by men. But she was the best one, and the only one next to Santiago Germanó, her teacher, who had the ability to execute in the air a test of acrobatics of high risk: inverted looping, a routine that defies the rules of gravity, leaving to the pilot literally upside down and with the possibility of picking flowers by mouth or gathering handkerchiefs and hats properly located on runways. Or as was her case, at the end of her career, to kill herself. But her history begins long before that. In 1933, the Argentine Aero Club gave Carola Lorenzini her Civil Flying Pilot license. In order to obtain it, the girl of San Vicente had to divide her time between working in the Telephone Union Company and submitting incessant requests to her superiors to attend the pilots course. She had sufficeint money to take the classes in an airplane Fleet Nº 51. Nevertheless, it was her position at the telephone company which prevented her from escorting the arrival of the Graf Zeppelin. An answer to a reader which appeared in the letters to the editor section of El Mundo newspaper on July 2, 1934, summarized the event in a superb manner. The answer in the newspaper, directed to an unsatisfied employee who protested, recommends to him that ³no complains the impositions that its use carries and thinks to him that everything pasa². And soon it brings to collation the example of Lorenzini: ³El day of the arrival of the Graf Zeppelin, an Argentine aviatrix, the Lorenzini young lady, was designated by the Argentine Aero Club to make a tribute flight to the airship. Nevertheless, her direct superior did not authorize leave for her that she asked for because of the requirements of the office, that is to say, Saturday 30 from 9 to 12. Thus, the likeable aviatrix had to remain in her position of bureaucrat and abandon her wings for the day. Any woman is allowed at least one tantrum, but she just smiled and worked in her usual manner. If you have sufficient patience, you will be able to conquer all humane and inhumane miseries. Signed: Graciela². RECORDWOMAN It is clear that Lorenzini was not just any woman, while her exceptional nature had less has to do with her observance the head than with her notable achievments. In 1935 she set an altitude record of 5700 meters, notably without a mask and in an airplane with an open cockpit, as they all were at that time. In 1938 she was already it planning a project of an aeronautical tour to unite the 14 provinces. The annotations and layouts that she made for that trip were very useful for the maps of the mail: the airplanes did not have instruments, and the pilot had to make a permanent visual record to follow the airway. They did not have altimeters either, and the quantity of fuel was estimated in flight by striking the tank and interpreting the sound of the blow as to how much it held. Under these conditions, Carola flew and awakened the passions of the people. She visited each and every one of the towns of the interior with her Focke Wulf, and her arrival at the fields summoned thousands of people. Most of the time she landed at some distance from the scheduled place for the landing, so that the propeller of the airplane would not hurt anybody who had been sent to greet her. The trip to the crowd was made on horseback; because como corresponds to personaje Lorenzini, in addition, she was an excellent amazon, master of horses and athlete in varied disciplines. In 1939 they threw it of the telephone one by its reiterated lack. Surely it stopped being an example for the use-readers of the newspaper to the World, although the magazine You emphasized it like one of the eight women of the year. And in 1940, when it completed the raid of the fourteen provinces, nothing gained less than the cover of the magazine the Graph. BERYL MARKHAM OF PAMPAS the similarity of Carola Lorenzini with Beryl Markham la English aviatrix who in 1936 crossed the Atlantic in solitaire and wrote an autobiography titled To the west with the night, or of everything what I made to escape of aburrimiento is surprising. Not only it united that passion of the airplane like a planet in ³el that the pilot is only habitante², according to words of Markham. All the projects that an accidental death prevented him to make the Argentinean were carried out by the English. Two histories of life emphasize the physical conditioning and the risk. The scene of Markham was Africa; Lorenzini trajinó the Pampan plain. A single element shines by its absence in the life of the English aviatrix and the national cult on the sanctification is verified in the one of Carola Lorenzini, feeding: when Lorenzini arrived at a town, between the crowd that left to receive were it numerous patients and dolientes, that thought that the trip of the aviatrix would be enough to cure them. And they tell that sanadores² accepted to make these ³viajes, but nothing says of the miracle. UNDER EARTH Carola Lorenzini one killed the 23 of November of 1941, making an exhibition in the base of Morón. The visit of a group of Uruguayan aviatrices to the country was the pretext so that they invited it to make his famous looping inverted. But the relation of Lorenzini with the authorities that sponsored the event was terrible: a year ago it was suspended, and the reasons seem to be a fight that it had with the Air Force by the lack of gasoline provision for his flights. In the middle of that tension, very angered, Lorenzini it was sent to the acrobatics with an airplane that were not his and without taking the necessary safety measures. A computational error and its body went to become engraved in the ground, digging the grave in which would lie their rest. Its burial was multitudinal. Between the thousands that accompanied the body was a girl of few years called Maria Angelica Medina. Perhaps it was then when Medina saw its designed future and wanted to respond to an atavic question: why we want to fly? THINGS OF WOMEN Today, Maria Angelica Medina has more than seventy years, comprises of the Feminine Organization of Aeronavegantes (Orfea), credits 10 thousand flight hours and remembers this way the figure of Lorenzini: ³Ella was the best figure than I found in aviation. It had, yes, other women who were received from aviatrices at their time, but did not do anything: their lives married and followed. However, Carola wanted to be commercial pilot and to make acrobatics, and that was very important for which we followed its steps. It had learned with Santiago Germanó, were only the two that made that type of looping. Germanó got to finish off the acrobatics raising a hat or a handkerchief of the ground. Imagínese: this man went from to the 80 the 18 years doing every day that. He is like the women who cook all the life: they feel it commonest of mundo². The death of Carola was very impressive, and still they are left dark points on the events of that day. Angelica Medina Says To Maria: Ella was suspended by a year, but they went to him to request please that it participated in the exhibition because was the best one. She was very brave. And very it was angered by something, because they had left it outside of the lunch or by some perrada that would have done to him. Perhaps it was not its airplane either, it could not prove it, very it was loaded of gasoline. This is very important in the acrobatics, since the weight of the airplane must be very controlled. Lorenzini entered looping inverted and esto it is what I think yo as rabid and were apostatized, wanted it to make low much more. He was fatal. If it had had more meters, it had not been killed. It made a grave with its body; half was destroyed completely. Pieces scattered by all sides. A chiquero in which they walked the dogs, that were to frighten them. In addition it was in a complicated, critical age. Why it says it? A the 40 years begins the menopause and the period begins to retire. Although many women do not feel it, either walk legs for above, with that pressure that put the eyes that seem that they leave. This is important for the women who fly: when you are going to make a course, they have it to ask, because the irrigation is different. It is a disadvantage with respect to the men. Los men also have their menopause, but he is pronounced to them different. You had these symptoms? A me did not bother to me. I never was of those women who throw themselves in the bed or take tablets because they are in those days. But one considers: if the instructor is conscious, must ask. They had some contact with feministas groups that were interested in the activity that you develop? A me personally I do not like. They go to the other side. They already want to make things of men. To me I liked to fly like woman, yet what she could do and what no. Because flight I am going to be with a pipe and to cross the leg and to say words like the men? No. I let live alongside to the men and alive, but I do not enter those stupid war that the women wage. BERYL MARKHAM OF the PAMPAS The similarity of Carola Lorenzini with Beryl Markham la English aviatrix who in 1936 crossed the Atlantic in solitaire and wrote an autobiography titled To the west with the night, or of everything what I made to escape of aburrimiento is surprising. Not only it united that passion of the airplane like a planet in ³el that the pilot is only habitante², according to words of Markham. All the projects that an accidental death prevented him to make the Argentinean were carried out by the English. Two histories of life emphasize the physical conditioning and the risk. The scene of Markham was Africa; Lorenzini trajinó the Pampan plain. A single element shines by its absence in the life of the English aviatrix and the national cult on the sanctification is verified in the one of Carola Lorenzini, feeding: when Lorenzini arrived at a town, between the crowd that left to receive were it numerous patients and dolientes, that thought that the trip of the aviatrix would be enough to cure them. And they tell that sanadores² accepted to make these ³viajes, but nothing says of the miracle. UNDER EARTH Carola Lorenzini one killed the 23 of November of 1941, making an exhibition in the base of Morón. The visit of a group of Uruguayan aviatrices to the country was the pretext so that they invited it to make his famous looping inverted. But the relation of Lorenzini with the authorities that sponsored the event was terrible: a year ago it was suspended, and the reasons seem to be a fight that it had with the Air Force by the lack of gasoline provision for his flights. In the middle of that tension, very angered, Lorenzini it was sent to the acrobatics with an airplane that were not his and without taking the necessary safety measures. A computational error and its body went to become engraved in the ground, digging the grave in which would lie their rest. Its burial was multitudinal. Between the thousands that accompanied the body was a girl of few years called Maria Angelica Medina. Perhaps it was then when Medina saw its designed future and wanted to respond to an atavic question: why we want to fly? THINGS OF WOMEN Today, Maria Angelica Medina has more than seventy years, comprises of the Feminine Organization of Aeronavegantes (Orfea), credits 10 thousand flight hours and remembers this way the figure of Lorenzini: ³Ella was the best figure than I found in aviation. It had, yes, other women who were received from aviatrices at their time, but did not do anything: their lives married and followed. However, Carola wanted to be commercial pilot and to make acrobatics, and that was very important for which we followed its steps. It had learned with Santiago Germanó, were only the two that made that type of looping. Germanó got to finish off the acrobatics raising a hat or a handkerchief of the ground. Imagínese: this man went from to the 80 the 18 years doing every day that. He is like the women who cook all the life: they feel it commonest of mundo². The death of Carola was very impressive, and still that gives dark points on the events of that day. Angelica Medina Says To Maria: Ella was suspended by a year, but they went to him to request please that it participated in the exhibition because was the best one. She was very brave. And very it was angered by something, because they had left it outside of the lunch or by some perrada that would have done to him. Perhaps it was not its airplane either, it could not prove it, very it was loaded of gasoline. This is very important in the acrobatics, since the weight of the airplane must be very controlled. Lorenzini entered looping inverted and esto it is what I think yo as rabid and were apostatized, wanted it to make low much more. He was fatal. If it had had more meters, it had not been killed. It made a grave with its body; half was destroyed completely. Pieces scattered by all sides. A chiquero in which they walked the dogs, that were to frighten them. In addition it was in a complicated, critical age. Why it says it? A the 40 years begins the menopause and the period begins to retire. Although many woman the menopause begins and the period begins to retire. Although many women do not feel it, either walk legs for above, with that pressure that put the eyes that seem that they leave. This is important for the women who fly: when you are going to make a course, they have it to ask, because the irrigation is different. It is a disadvantage with respect to the men. Los men also have their menopause, but he is pronounced to them different. You had these symptoms? A me did not bother to me. I never was of those women who throw themselves in the bed or take tablets because they are in those days. But one considers: if the instructor is conscious, must ask. They had some contact with feministas groups that were interested in the activity that you develop? A me personally I do not like. They go to the other side. They already want to make things of men. To me I liked to fly like woman, yet what she could do and what no. Because flight I am going to be with a pipe and to cross the leg and to say words like the men? No. I let live alongside to the men and alive, but I do not enter those stupid war that the women wage. < BR > CRAZY PEOPLE of the AIR In the 2000, a legislator of the City of Buenos Aires presented/displayed a project to baptize a street with the name of Carola Lorenzini. The photo that remembers the event shows a small group of women stopped underneath the poster: they are the members of Orfea, the organization of flying women formed in 1991, in whom they have Medina and another called woman Luisa Quiroga, who finishes turning 45 years of romance with the flight. the ninety ³En we formed an association of aviatrices: we were eighteen girls. Now we are less because the girls come with I do not know what expectations, and seems that this is not what they look for. We organized encounter with aviatrices of other countries, met and make competitions of aterrizaje², explains Medina. Quiroga, that was dedicated to sport aviation, clarifies the question of the desertions: ³ Las that came and went away are youngest. Some were put of fiancèes with boys who are not of aviation and they did not let them come more. I do not know what imagines of us, or of the world of the pilots. Much fantasy, many films of pilots galanes². How they were its beginnings? Cuando it was fifteen years old I wrote a letter to the Secretariat of Aeronautics asking if they accepted to me or if they gave a scholarship me to make the course of pilot. They had the deference to answer to me, but they said to me that it was not in its plans incorporating women. This was 45 years ago. I had to hope to have my own dinerillos and then yes, I paid the course and, while it did, I entered the military factory of airplanes. I was one of the first women who worked there. He was incredible that lugar:en that time (1949), in Argentina made airplanes. I was in the administrative part, but she died to me to fly. The pilots who came to my office listened always the same: ³Quiero to fly those aviones². Until a day I obtained it and I had my first experience of flight. But my race as aviatrix has not been very long, and always was sport. Medina, on the other hand, grew up in the field. Their parents, ordered of a stay, did not want to know nothing whereupon he flew: ³Sobre everything that I never wanted to fly to fly. I wanted to be profesional². What means to be professional? Profesional is when you make a license commercial. In addition I am flying instructor, and I had the great luck to get to be flight inspector. This qualifies to me to inspect pilots, always in the civil part. First I had the license of deprived pilot, whom it qualifies to make any flight of stroll, of baptism. Everything what it is not to receive. In the commercial part you can receive. Of what he worked like commercial pilot? Muchos years I was in aerial propaganda. Later, when I was received from flight inspector, it was going to the flying clubs to take examination them to the pilots. They were not very common works for the women. How it fought with this? Es truth, were not many women. There was a species military with the man, because here the men are very machistas. They did not like anything that a woman tried to become professional! The same it happened when the women wanted to put in medicine and other races. they En the sport thing is different dice Quiroga: I did not have against from the men. In my course only we were received two girls; all the others were men. The strategy not to feel the rejection was to put itself on a par of them: if there were to push an airplane to remove it from the hangar, there she was I. Thus already they had to you of another form. We always insisted to them to the people in charge of the Air Force: ³ and? When they begin mujeres?². Medina, in what year it removed his first license? Me I received from private pilot the 15 of December of 1948; I removed to the first commercial license in?52 and the one from flying instructor in 1957. In 1960 I removed the one from fumigador. And later the balloon license. I made many works in balloon, as much in observations as participating in competitions. How it is the subject of the balloon in Argentina? El balloon began before aviation began, but soon it was lost. Years ago it returned, but only there are twenty balloons in all the country. And he is very expensive. There is a Hill gentleman of Zamora that has one, other three in Cordova, one in Morón, and thus. And with twenty balloons they make annual a competition national. In the competitions of outside, in Japan or Germany, they participate like 250 balloons. It worked like fumigadora? No, I made the course in case it had to work. Like woman it was not very easy to put in the school of a flying club and to be inspector. I, all the licenses that could remove, it removed them: I removed aerial the one from and many more. So large what of airplane is authorized to fly? Hasta five thousand kilos. A great twin-engine airplane, for more than ten people. It can fly inside and outside the country? Teniendo license, to leave the country it is necessary to make a proceeding. I crossed all Argentina; I was in Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay... Europe or the United States? No. It knows that '? Always it is left a trip to do. There are women working like pilots of scheduled airplanes? Sí, are three girls who fly in line. It was never happened to him to be line pilot? Lo that happens is that there is an age, and no matter how hard yo has como 50 years of license, is not allowed. To the 60 years it is necessary to let fly, thus one is the best one of the pilots. But in the private part there is no age. While one is passing the medical checkups... I flew until the 2002. This year I was with a problemita of health that left me awhile in the Earth. But next year I retake. How many flight hours it has? Completé 10 thousands. In order to enter an air line thousand hours are needed, in addition to a series of licenses of nocturnal, instrumental flight, et cetera. And they will have to handle another technology. La bases is always the same one. What happens is that there is much modern apparatus. Now the airplanes come all computerized. Not even they already must learn to fly: they must learn what button to touch. The visual flight does not exist more. to Volar is to see by where you go and to recognize the place dice Quiroga, and that is being lost. In an emergency, by more Jumbo than you are, tenés that to know how to read the references. The old pilots know; the new ones, no. How he is to be in danger and near the death? they En an airplane dice Medina are many resources before losing the control totally. For example, podés to glide. They were in some situation limit? I had two small accidents said Quiroga: Once I lost the stability when landing and raised one polvareda. The other, I lost my way. In Cordova, the fog covers everything at a moment, and I could not find the field. He looked for the route and he did not see it. Suddenly a huequito in that dense fog is opened and appears the track. Of down they listened to the machine give returns, but they could not help me because it was not seen. Yo I was in a storm very hard said Medina. I had a single accident in my life and I was saved because, according to it seems, was called on to me to go me for above. I fell, I stuck a pretty blow, like to have killed. It took hold the wedge of a front of storm that was in Uruguay, to the height of Dolores. I made a turn to land in a way, because it did not have another thing and it could not maintain the airplane. A wing absorbed all the impact of the blow and it became broken. The incredible thing was that it came from end and killed to me. But not ': somebody put the hand back and it rotated it. I had much luck, because the gasoline tank was perforated and the loss of fuel was falling in a plowing and it did not touch the hot motor. I stayed as buried in means of a field, but without no scratch. They are things without much explanation. It was not sensitized after the accident? It thought about letting fly? No, of no way. One then does not think: it is concentrated working with the handle. What taught in their classes of flight? Un exercise that made them make my students was to extinguish to the motor flight in the heat of: thus they realize of which the airplane does not fall and it does not pass anything. Also it made cut the gasoline them to verify that they have many minutes to land. Later they can return to ignite it? these airplanes do not have electrical contact. They ignite in earth, turning the helix. For that reason, when the motor is extinguished, it is necessary to lower gliding. Generally the human being is scared and thrown for back. But never it is necessary to do that: it is necessary to maintain the handle without touching the accelerator. Another exercise is to put overweight advanced to him back or, and to fix them to it. It is necessary to only regulate and to stabilize the airplane with the handle. Knows the force that there is to do? Investigation, digitalization and restoration of photos: Tomás González Naveyra. |
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