Why the F-28?

    I was born on November 16, 1971, and lived in Adrogué, Buenos Aires, Argentina. My father worked at Aerolíneas Argentinas from 1963 to 2010. When I was very Little, my father took me to Ezeiza Airport just to see airplanes. From that moment my passion for airplanes began!.

In 1975 we moved to Bahía Blanca. All my family lived in Buenos Aires, so we began to fly frequently to Aeroparque to visit our relatives.

    Many times I flew in the Aerolíneas´s F-28. The first thing that caught my attention were the oval Windows. I loved looking at the sky and the clouds through those windows! I also remember the interiors that gave a feeling of warm atmosphere with the seats printed with tulips of different shades of orange.

    Without a doubt, the most characteristic feature of the F-28 was the descent and landing, which was carried out mostly with the engines idling. As the Fellowship lacked thrust reversers, the touch down on the runway was quite silent. ¡You could even hear the sound of the landing gear brakes! If you were traveling close to the wings, when you touched down you could see the deployment of the large spoilers.

    Another distinctive feature of the F-28 were the airbrakes that were located aft at the base of the skid. In the landing phase, they were deployed, and the plane traveled through the end of the landing with a “nose down” attitude, as if “hanging” from the drift. The design of the airbrakes was later copied by the Bae 146 – today Bae RJ.

In the city of Bahía Blanca the Fokker F-28 was well known and had special affection for it.     There was a flight served exclusively by the Fellowship, commonly called “the Local”, it was an exclusive service to Bahía Blanca.

    When my father started working at the Bahía Blanca airport I accompanied him to see the planes. In the 80s there were two flights, one of them was the Aeroparque – Bahía Blanca – Viedma – Bahía Blanca – Aeroparque route. The other was Aeroparque – Bahía Blanca – General Roca – Bahía Blanca – Aeroparque. When the F-28 arrived in Bahía Blanca, my father asked the commander if I could get on the plane and fly to Viedma or General Roca and then return to Bahía Blanca. So many times I had the best fun in the world! Flying on the Fokker! And on several occasions in the third seat in the cockpit!

Gonzalo Carballo