I had some business last week in Milan, Italy. Because I had a little extra time between Milan and my next destination in Asia, I decide to take a day trip up to Lake Como... only 20 minutes by train out of Milan. I had always heard it is magnificent, so why not a $15 train ride to check it out.
Well, it was great. In fact it was made better by an unexpected side excursion. When my buddy and I got off the train in Como, I saw a Lake Amphibian taking off from behind a stand of trees. I said to Anthony that we needed to figure out if that was operating from the lake (water was not in view from station). As we got down to town, we figured out where the plane originated. It was the Aero Club Como on the edge of the lake. A pretty historic place and the only seaplane base in Italy and largest in Europe. To make a long story short, I went over to the hangar and struck up a conversation. Within 10 minutes one of the pilots said, hey come with me and let's go for a tour... I even got to be the sole manipulator of the controls for 20 minutes... right to final in fact, but our host did the landing... Cool on many levels. 1. No idea that the club existed 2. Beautiful place 3. Pilots all over the world seem to have the same open arms and hearts for fellow flyers 4. We got to go for a ride 5. First time for me in a pontoon equipped plane (Cessna 172 on floats) 6. All the begging in the world to convince our host to take some money or go to lunch was ov no avail... he merely said, make sure you get your face back here soon to fly again... and get a rating! Maybe an LSA Mermaid or Lockwood is in the future? 7. Club manager gave me one of every post card they had in stock (probably 15 with old and new scenes of the club) 6. Priceless! I can go on and on... Here are two links to the flight... Part 2 is where my new friend through up his hands and passed me control of the ship. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3j7z8pVHqo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwp8e6RtHJo
