Random flying photos thread

Landed here this afternoon. Conoisseurs will know it…

…Agriturismo Sant’Illuminato in Umbria, with the homonymous aviosuperficie next to it.

@boscomantico – would you land there in the SR22?

boscomantico wrote:

Agriturismo Sant’Illuminato

Would love to know more! How’s the runway?

@mmgreve @nokicky

You’ll find all the details (both regarding the agriturismo and the airstrip) here:
http://www.santilluminato.com/en/

See here a photo of the airstrip, taken (yesterday) from that little hill where the agriturismo is located:

Due to that hill, the runway is essentially one way in, the other way out. The runway has been extended 8 years ago from the original 500 meters to now 800-850 meters, but as you can see, the far end borders right to some tall trees. So, in summary, it still is a somewhat challenging strip. Unless it’s in an ultralight thing, don’t go if you aren’t intimately familiar with the aircraft you are flying, short field & soft field operations and airfields with obstacles and runway slopes.

I went there with the SR22 about 6 years ago, 3-up, with some fuel. Landings are easy. But the takeoff can still be difficult, as the grass of this particular airfield tends to be rather draggy and you then have those trees to deal with. Remember the SR22 has raw power.

This time, we went with the Arrow IV, which is a poor short/soft field performer. With 3 up, 2.5 hours of fuel, 20 degrees C and a little bit of tailwind, we lifted off after 500 meters and cleared the trees at the end by I guess 10 meters.

Still, it’s worth it. I would say that all in all, it is problably the most beautiful, idyllic and welcoming of all avioturismi in Italy. Also, the good thing is that the owner, Marco Silenzi, does speak decent English (as well as French, btw), hence, it is possible to get some advance information from him, get a briefing, book rooms etc. without any problems. In many other Italian avioturismi, this isn’t the case, rendering them somewhat difficult to access for people don’t speak Italian.

Since about 5 years, Marco also acts as the chef in their own tiny “restaurant” and does a good job of it. He is a good host.

boscomantico thank you for the write up

last week visited the nice Oaksey Park near Kemble – good hangars and maintenance base with some interesting aircraft based there.

Always liked this shot. Captured the landing phase well.

Always nice to feature “on the board”….

Wonderful

I have seen that at Sitia LGST and Tirana LATI, many years ago. I have also seen it at Luxor HELX but that was an airline trip, and the regs I saw were bizjets.