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The Grumpy Gang

The Grumman Aircraft Pilots Association European Branch

Planning for the event took a year and was admirably organised by AYA member Prof. Marco Petroni, aided by a top-notch band of people from the Pisa Aero Club, who included its President: Colonel Giulio Ottaviani and supported by Dr.Barbara Guidi, Colonel Ermanno Ferro, Dr.Maurizio Tredici, Simona Sacchini, General Dario Orru and our very own personal ATC man Colonel Tino Moia (+ Pasticcio, Barbara's dog!)
With such a bunch of ex.military men the event just HAD to go off with military precision and excitement - And so it proved.

The lead up to the actual gathering started early for some, many had to come from long distances and we were very glad to see that once again we had enticed some Americans to be present. Matt Drahzal had made the supreme sacrifice and had volunteered to help this scribe find his way in his AA1 Yankee all the way down from England. (I think he found that he had some grey hairs after that!). Les Staples (he of Sky-Tec Starter fame) and his delightful wife Barbara came with friends Gene & Carol Chiappe. And finally those perennial attendees - The Mannings, Ed & Pat together with son Richard (who drove a mean taxi!) once again, dragged themselves reluctantly overseas! We welcomed them all. AYA Members came from all over Europe - far too many to mention by name, but, as a measure, we had 110 people attend the main banquet on the Saturday night, of which more later.

The journey to Valdera was exciting enough for many, we all had tales of daring do and adventure, diversions due to ATC requirements, poor weather in places, closed runways at Calvi in Corsica preventing some from landing and others from taking off

! But we all made it safely to land at the uncharted grass runway of Valdera. The majority arriving on Thursday, the day before the 'official' opening day.

On landing we were greeted to a warm welcome from our hosts and a chance to ride with our luggage on an improvised 3-wheeled buggy. The organisers had thought they would be getting about 12 people turn up on the Thursday - they had to do some hasty catering revision when over 40 of us turned up for lunch in the hangar! All hands had to man the bread and butter spreading table for hungry aviators.

On arrival at our allotted hotel rooms, at the delightful Hotel Tenuta Quarrata and others in the Porta Valdera Hotel, we found each room stocked with two bottles of wine specially labelled with the event's logo. A nice touch. As an aside, I had a few quiet hours at the hotel waiting for my wife to arrive (She'd come commercially - £36 return - Bournemouth to Pisa - can't be bad!) I wandered around the hotel Tenuta Quarrata and noticed a small cave in the rocky hillside; I peered inside to find a little old man pouring wine from one big cauldron into smaller bottles. He invited me into his dungeon and we began sampling the wines! I left him to continue his pourings as I weave my way back to the sunshine - A delightful way to spend a Thursday afternoon - but I digress…. Once fully ensconced and unpacked, we were all gathered up and bussed to a lovely little restaurant in Pontedera town for a pleasant evening of wine, food and conviviality.