Mr. Torno

Of the six gliders we rented for this contest, the one in the best shape was ZC, the ASW-20 provided for Juan. So it was a big surprise during the practice week when Juan discovered that his tailwheel was completely shot, about to fall out of the housing. The roller blade wheel itself was salvageable, but the axle, bearings and bushings were not.

Fortunately, there are a lot of hardware stores in Chaves, and after visiting all of them, Juan had everything he needed for the repair, except for the special bushing needed to fit the axle to the new bearing. He needed a machine shop for that.

The word for such a shop is "torneria," which means "place where thing are turned." Finding the recommended torneria required following very precise directions. There is no sign outside. The final step is to walk through an unlabeled open doorway.

Inside, we found Mr. Torno (his actual name!) to be a charming gentleman whose shop would have looked familiar to anyone looking for a part for a steam locomotive a hundred years ago.

Juan and Mr. Torno spoke at length about the project, and it was clear, even to a non-Spanish speaker, that Mr. Torno takes genuine pleasure in solving other people's problems. He was very impressed by Juan's engineering drawing of the part needed.

Mr. Torno invited Juan to come back in an hour, but Juan was so delighted by the experience so far, that he insisted on staying to watch the master at his lathe.

In much less than an hour, a perfectly fitting part was produced. The bill came to 100 pesos, about six dollars.

Mr. Torno is hereby declared an official sponsor of the US Soaring Team.  We would put his logo on our webpage, if he had one.