Martinsicuro 14:16 hours, the appointment is the usual place, near the Smaila's
Monto cage paramotor, slowly, carefully following the checklist that I printed. I have a ten-liter tank of fuel, I put the whole, I do not know why I do it, the wind is weak and I am very uncertain about being able to take off and that bit of extra weight in my head could make the difference between a successful take-off and a failure to take off ...
I go to the beach, the wind is still weak. Doubts, fears, thoughts of various kinds, pervade my mind as I start the engine, take off Italian with little wind is not my forte, a flap in the wind than I would take off the French, but at the moment there is calm.
I open the canopy, Enrico today allows me to try one of his Jojowings, I understand what changes if compared to the Gradient and actually helps me, especially during take off. Checking every single string, look at her with the face of those who are asking for something but do not know what, I would like to talk, maybe she could fade away my fears. I make a mental outline of what I do in take-off run, all gas, control of the sail, still running, braking and plucked away ... easy to say, a bit less done.
I harness the wind is slightly increased but not enough to take off the French. First attempt, the sail is up, but I do not run enough and abortion. I follow the suggestion of my friends and I decided to take off the French. Shooting on the wing and start to give gas the sail is still up, I turn around, open the throttle at all and I run and run ... I'm in the air!
E 'an indescribable feeling, a few seconds worth of flight hours, to hear this megaventilatore push hard in the air thanks to a wing that was just seconds before a race with the leaves to those who first touched the ground. That huge agglomeration of aluminum and bolts to put together some kind of mad sorcerer, sacrificed to the cause of the huge blender Flying desperate that until a few seconds the first hurdle, with his weight, your ride, now pushing you violently into the air, leaving you speechless. The first few times it happens like that, we do not know anything, I just feel this force that leaves you wordless, fear tempts you and tells you to release the gas, but you keep it open because that is what they taught you. Think of many things ... "but no, you must not think, mona! You have to run! Run until you're far away from earth, only then you can settle into the saddle! "But in those seconds you think, if you think all right! Do you think if you followed all the steps correctly, you think if all goes well, you think to sail in the meantime he goes to his c. .. and if you can recover thereby avoiding a second exhausting race, you think ... we think that if something does not go your way are bitter cabbage!
Immediately after these comes the interminable second stage I call ebony. We do not know how, you're off your feet and going high, choked a bit on gas and get settled in the sling. Look below, disbelief, despite the mistakes made in 1725 off you realize that you're actually in the air and not in heaven, smiling like a perfect idiot you are printing on the face. I was on the ground with a face like that, it becomes the laughingstock of the country but lucky for you the air you do not see anyone!
Once in flight begins to scour the length and breadth of pending that my friends take off. I try to get a feel for the new wing and in the meantime to analyze millimeter every lawn in the area trying to figure out what I should do to land. I'm going to do a tour around the harbor, checking out in my house there are thieves but also try Smile HER: she is now elsewhere, she would be moved to see me go, she and a way to everything ...
are just a few minutes at the mouth of the Tronto. Go up the river and start doing to raise the quota of 360 very large, I observe the park's bilge and the farther the runway of my company, "almost ... almost." After a while I see a piper go under the watch of me Smile stunned, I did not think to be so high, I look to the west and I realize that you are at a height of Colonel: soaking up the gas and glide in softly for a few meters from the beach, where Henry is playing. The agreement is that we were going for a ride to St. Benedict, as I see through the Tronto I follow suit. Go! The adventure begins, a new place to reach, to discover a new experience to live and enjoy all the way, like a good vintage wine!
exceeds a bit intimidated the border between Abruzzo and Marche, and placed me at 30m in order to better study the environment near the park look even better with his unkempt vegetation, its abandoned houses and a few people walking here and there . Everything is new, everything is different, everyone has something special here and say that I've got a couple of times flown by helicopter, but this time is different: it's me that I drive that I decide where and when to get there but most of all the damn plexiglass I isolated from the world!
A child is watching me and mention a greeting: I can not ruin his dream, I greet him in my turn and do a 360 on him! "Do not stop dreaming boy, whatever your dream, never stop fighting to get there!" - I think to myself.
My tour continues in a northerly direction along the waterfront of St. Benedict. Carefully observe all that I will pour from the front, and the comparison goes to the free flight, the landscapes seen in 5 years of gliding, all that I have experienced flying in the mountains: the comparison does not hold, are two different things, what you do with the engine it is almost impossible with the free!
A tour like this can not get to the monument to Jonathan Livingstone Seagull located at the entrance of the port, but not this time: this time we decide to settle and stop a few meters.
I make a couple of 360 to look around and then point the sail to the south: you come home! People are still watching in amazement, not even God knows what we did, maybe for them the flight is something impractical or maybe I'm just bothered by the noise of our engines ... noise ... even at the end I feel more focused as they are on the flight, and the "new world" that I will pour from the front, as well as I do not feel the biting cold due to the two-hour flight. Everything takes second place, and time seems to stop ... "The flight? E 'state of mind rather than a physical state "I think to myself ... but these are speculations from Alcoholics Anonymous, when you're up there you have to be with his feet firmly on the ground, otherwise you're hurting me!
gaze falls on the stage, picks up the game to see how it goes, but without a meter away from the beach: I look at the bleachers, the fans, until you see the players, but I do not understand anything about what's going on. The day find out later that he was taking a long playing on the air of San Benedetto - Fermo Smile
I'll be back to flutter about in the bilge and are quick on the seafront in Martock. Wingover recent hints of a few grazing sull'atterraggio step in taking the action after more than three hours are on the ground. The face of a tired and satisfied me stupid on his face, while I put away my equipment. I speak with Henry's flying, what I saw, not taking off just perfect. A subsidiary of the engine and a quick look at the tank: there were only 2 liters! It's only 16.30 and began to get dark, who knows what will happen in the spring: I'll have to stop for gas x road!
I think ... I think of the new world, what I began with the unit on, I am thinking of new adventures, to many places that I would like to see in flight, first of my house, how many times a child I dreamed of flying, I think ... I think of them Lorenzo, Ubaldo, John, Emmanuel, my fellow free flight. E 'to them that I dedicate my adventure, I dedicate it to those who shared with me the beautiful days of flight but also challenges, fears, mistakes. I dedicate it to them because if they got this far, I have also, and above them, and if I have one regret today is that they were in the air with me.
I can not mention Henry, a friend even before it was a great builder. His passion for flight is the law in the face, his advice have been essential. Hello
Mané
