12 days, 9 flights, 18 hrs hours of flight time. What a blast!

I joined the Raduno for the first time. A biennial event organised in Italy by Ricardo. many thanks to Ricardo for a brilliant event!

This year the destination was L’Aquila (LIAP), at 2200ft in the heart of central Italy Abruzzo region and in the middle of the Apennines.

The weather outbound over the cahnnel was very challeging with Simon Keeling putting many off. At least 5 pilots went by airliner!

I left early via Chateauroux (excellent for customs). Met up with Mark Saunders and we went on to Cannes for the night. Then 3 days on Corsica (Calvi) followed by an aborted trip to Elba (weather) on the way to L’Aquila. Lots of socialising and new friends, good food and even a bit of culture visting the Castle of Rocca Calascio.

After the Raduno I was in no rush to get back so flew southwest to Sardinia. Tortoli (reccomended by Marco over dinner). It proved to be a well placed airport right next to some amazing beaches. Not much going on so PPR essential.

Then, over the Sardinian mountains and a long sea crossing , staying at 6500′ most of the way to Avignon for the night. Following day I was refused landing at Chateauroux on the way back, provided an oportunity to do a diversion into Amboise to get new customs paperwork sorted. Ended up routing via Le Touquet, with a record 23 min turnaround before heading back to Popham.

Private video of the trip 16 min 18s https://youtu.be/Jd4-xOUxUV8