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Caracas, capital of wealthy Venezuela, whose oil resources have made it perhaps the best customer for U. S. goods in the southern hemisphere.
Port of Spain, Trinidad, is the end of the day's trip. The crew climbs down for a well'earned rest and another pilot and co-pilot take over as the Clipper, considerably lighter now, takes off down the east coast of South America — for Paramaribo, Surinam; Belem, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre, Brazil; Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, the end of the line.
The return trip is apt to find the Clipper carrying a half-dozen race horses for Caracas. At Belem, the live cargo may be increased by several cages of monkeys aind an assortment of brilliantly colored jungle birds that will wind up in zoos and pet shops throughout the United States.
BECAUSE trade between Latin America and the United States right now is pretty much a one-way deal, PAA flies nearly ten times more goods south than north. The Clipper may make a wide detour on the way back. It may cut across the north coast to Panama and work its way up through Central America, putting in wherever a payload can be found.
On one such trip not long ago, the skipper was advised by radio to pick up 12,000 pounds of iced shrimp at Carmen on the Mexican Gulf Coast, and fly it to Brownsville, Texas.
The loading and takeoff at Carmen were uneventful, but when the Clipper was half way to Texas a radio message was received that Brownsville was weathered in and that the
Swinf August, 1951
plane should land at Vera Cruz.
It was one o'clock in the morning when the big craft taxied up to the deserted Vera Cruz terminal with its load of perishable shrimp. The pilot i found a telephone and routed an icci plant operator out of bed. Using his) Sunday-best Spanish, he cajoled the Mexican into bringing out a truck load of shaved ice. The shrimp were saved, and the next morning delivered fresh < at Brownsville.
PAA pilots' logbooks are full of similar crises, especially apt to arise if animals are aboard. There was the cow being flown from Guatemala to San j Jose, Costa Rica. When the Clipper j reached San Jose at sundown, the ; skipper found there was no ramp nor . hoist to disembark the cow. j
The pilot hurriedly rolled up an en' gine work stand and led the cow out"* onto it. As he taxied out he could sec ,: the disconsolate creature outlined ' against the dimming sky, eight feet off the ground. He's often wondered how ' they got that cow down to earth. , | Then there was the little spiderji monkey that escaped his cage aloft i and startled the crew by leaping into the cockpit and disappearing behind the control panel. When the Clipper^ reached Miami, mechanics took the plane's nose almost apart before they were able to reach the little rascal.
Bites from nasty-tempered toucans, parrots and monkeys, and an occa* sional kick from a nervous horse arei accepted hazards, and the cargo pilotS' take it all in stride. They enjoy it! You couldn't get them back on a paS' senger run, even if you dangled a passenger list full of Betty Grables and Hedy Lamarrs in front of them.
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