San Miguel de Tucumán – Antofagasta

I’m leaving San Miguel and I’m about to take one of the most challenging and dangerous flights of my journey so far. I’m going to fly over the Andes Mountains. Flying at the limit of my plane’s altitude range and over places with tremendous and dangerous turbulence.

The Andes are the longest mountain range in the world. The mountains are 7,240 kilometres long and 200 to 700 kilometres wide. They stretch the length of the west coast of South America from Panama and the Caribbean Sea to the Drake Passage at Tierra del Fuego. There are 91 six-thousand-foot peaks in the Andes, 14 of which are over 6 500 metres high. The highest mountain in the Andes is Aconcagua in Argentina, at 6,961 metres.

For most of the flight over the mountain range I am pulled to the right by very strong winds reaching up to 50 kts (92 km/h), I also have to choose a route that avoids peaks that are above the limit of the aircraft’s reach. During the flight I can admire the beauty of this inhospitable high mountain environment. I manage to cross the mountains and land at Andrés Sabella Gálvez International Airport near Antofagasta, Chile.

• Distance: 774 km
• Total distance: 25 146.5 km
• Flight time: 3 hours 6 minutes
• Total flight time: 86 hours 56 minutes