Italy Redone

[Guest ozzie]

I've been lucky in my work to be able to visit northern Italy several times in the past few years. I deal in steam devices and the company we import from with is near Bassano Del Grappa. typicaly Italian including the driving habits. But the "Gods of Asgard Aperto" shined on me when i found out on my first visit that my oppersite in the Italian company was a keen paraglider pilot. This has opened up the door to real aviating in Italy . not just paragliding and hanggliding with 4 takeoff sites within ten klms, most of that is up, stepping out over a flat land that goes to the coast 70ks away, from a 5,500 high takeoff with another 2000ft of mountain still behind, fly around for a while have lunch were you land, ten minute drive to 'Kookaburra Flying Club' (really) check out the views you missed earlier with a huge variety of machines, after that if you rang on thursday to book a slot you can drive another 20minutes to the drop zone for a skydive back to the landing zone for beverages and play with electric rc models. If you where really greedy you could sprint back up the mountain for a quick hang glide. Finish the night off at Asgard. Of course the weather here is just like anywhere else in the word and as soon as saturday turns up it goes to crap. It is turning into a quest to try and do it all in one day. maybe next year. A double blow for this year was a planned flight to check the Dolomites from the air fell thru. no pun. the day before planned trip in the 'Flashlight', a little 582 powerd high wing i had flown on last visits, a 2000mtr high section of it had fallen the footage shown on TV had campers running in front of a wall of dustcloud that compared to 9 11. amazing no one was killed. so anyone need 600milion cubic mts of crushed grannit? so airspace closed as bits kept falling and arriving weather boned that plan. needless to say my good mates pulled another little surprise treat and we headed off to see the company who build the Flashlight and the other 5 models. just up the road in Galliera, EuroFly have been operating out the same field since 1985. So i had the chance to see close up how they build these machines, Flash Comfort 912 really caught my eye. On the GRASS runway a new FB5 Starlight warms up. going to pick up the new owner and return for circuits with factory pilot. Even with the bigboy owner this was breaking ground around 70 mts and with good 1200fpm climb out. landings looked to be no drama. great construction and all models are +6 -4 g. Another popular model is the enclosed tandem two seater pusher the 'Firefox 2000'. finally a small single seat trike made from chome moly. I can say if you are looking to import check out euroflyulm.com top people great products. kit built factory built paperwork. really jealous of there nice grassy field.

 

some photos

 

and a little more adventure later

 

ozzie

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

couple more of the Firefox2000 and FlashlightComfort engine instalation.

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

few more

 

 

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Some more snaps taken at Cassola

 

Pair of Silent self launch sailplanes

 

The neat low wing had Aerodream on the cowl. looks like 'Bertie the jellyplane"

 

 

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

These are simple cheap hangers built for the Firefox.

 

 

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

The launch ramp. your committed after the first step. lots of wings in the air. no less than 35 in the air taking off from three launch sites. and this was a quite day.

 

 

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

A very neat sundial hanging from the wall.

 

The missus was very indifferent looking at the photos . until i got to the accomodation, a very neat B&B villa on an organic farm. full of indian teak antiquies, then she went right off. either way next years trip will be expensive. she goes or it's divorce.