For an Air Cadet in the Air Force Academy with his head full of WWI books and stories it was something very especial to fly and even more if it was wit the ”Gaucho “ Figueroa.
Stories of the legendary “Gaucho Volador” (Flying Gaucho) were told when resting from their flights in gliders pulled by biplanes stories.
He arrived in his bike while the ground crew were looking for the pilot of the crashed plane. When starting a Focke Wuld the brakes got disengaged and the plane took off by itself and after crossing the highway fell in the Escuela de Suboficiales (Non Commisioned Officers School).
-“I landed with a ground loop” was another explanation when his wheel fell off and landed with the one remaining thus saving his plane.
He won bets looping a basic instruction glider pulled by a truck…and many more….
After he passed the 10,000 flying hours he stopped recording them.
…..thanks Gaucho for taking me for a ride as a stow away and allow me to touch the commands in order to feel like Von Richtoffen with the wind in my face and the rigging buzzing.
1961-Club de Planeadores “Los Caranchos”
Cadete Martínez- Suboficial Figueroa.
Artwork by Exequiel Martínez
This work by Exequiel Martínez captures the poetry of flight in the early years of Argentine aviation. The fabric-and-wood aircraft of the 1920s and 30s required pilots with a special sensitivity to read the wind, air currents and weather conditions without modern instruments. Martínez, as a veteran aviator with thousands of flight hours across multiple aircraft types, conveys in his paintings that intimate connection between pilot and aircraft. Learn more in the artist’s biography.
Early Argentine aviation pioneers like Jorge Newbery and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry—who flew mail routes over the Andes and Patagonia—embodied this same spirit of man against nature that Martínez captures in his art. Their courage and those who followed them laid the foundation for the proud aviation tradition that the artist celebrates throughout his collection.