From 18th till 28th of June I went to Semonzo at Monte Grappa in Italy. It is situated close to the city of Bassano del Grappa, Treviso and Venezia. The German paraglider manufacturer UP in Garmisch gave me the opportunity of testing a tandem wing (K2), a sportive wing (Kantega XC) and a brand new mini-wing (Xpress).
In Semonzo I stayed at the Camping Santa Felicita and if you don't like to make evening lunch in your camper, you can visit the wonderful restaurant Antica Abbazia, situated at the side of the camping. The office of the local paragliding school is called Monte Grappa Airpark and is located at the side of the official landing and the emergency landing. The office has a shop where you can buy paragliding attributes, but you can also buy your Flycard and shuttlecard... or at the end of the day a landingbeer... The shuttle service starts at the landing place and it drives to the different starting places, from the east-start in the morning to the south-start during the day to the west-start in the afternoon. The shuttle can even bring you to the highest start almost on top of the Monte Grappa, if it is not in the clouds. From there you have a difference in altitude of 1500m before you reach the landingfield. An amazing view awaits you up there.
Flying at Monte Grappa can be done all year long, the Monte Grappa Airpark office is open the whole year, flying is possible in spring, summer, fall and winter. The flying area is so big that it is easy to understand why they call it Airpark... it is a big play ground for free flight addicts, not only for paragliders, but also for deltas and sailplanes.
Patrick came from Nice to Semonzo to spend some nice airtime at the Monte Grappa. He specially wanted to test the Kantega XC, but he also flew with me as a passenger under the tandem wing. We had only one day of rain, the rest of our time there it was just flying. We'll be back soon at this beautiful, warm and welcoming place.
I wish to thank UP for testing the wings, thanks Emanuele and his team for the nice food, thanks Andi and the Airpark-team for the good service, thanks Patrick, Egle, Klaas & Daan for flying with me. Also many thanks to Walter, Hannes, Nikolas, Marc, Bartek, Gabriele, Julio for sharing your happiness, jokes and advices. Enjoy the pictures (click on picture to view Picasa-album).
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