Paginatitel

Scrumptious food (Thinks! I must get the recipe for the pasta dish!) A great time was had by all. Your scribe was presented with a very plush golden plaque set on a dark blue velvet, from the Mayor of Capannoli, inscribed with the regional badge and "Amm.Ne Communale di Capannoli - Grumman Meeting 2005 - 14 Maggio 2005" and in addition a wooden shield with the insignia of the Pisa Aero Club was presented by the club's President, Giulio Ottaviani. In response to this wonderful generosity I had the distinct pleasure of presenting some

inscribed plaques on behalf of the European Grumman owners and pilots.

The help and assistance given to us all by the ravishingly beautiful Barbara Guidi was commemorated with a gift of a tartan blanket, hopefully representing our gratitude for all her hard work. Matt Drahzal had also donated some rather superior baseball hats (emblazoned with remarks that had something to do with Boston winning some minor competition or other (Baseball? Basketball? Anyway, some game or other!!)) which were handed over to the Pisa Aero Club. As a reward to everyone for being well behaved your scribe made a speech! A looong speech! A speech with bad jokes but one with heartfelt thanks to everyone for making the annual fly-in the success it was.

During this absolutely riveting speechifying it was a pleasant duty to hand over our prestigious European award for the most meritorious flight made by an attendee. Last year Lauri Matilla won it for his long flight over the Baltic from Finland to Denmark. This year he got it back again! For his 20hr flight from waaay-way up north in Finland to Italy in his AA5 - OH-AYH - It was an epic trip fully justifying his being given the award.

During the evening our AYA Scholarship committee representative, the redoubtable Adrian Clarke, had been busily beavering away selling raffle tickets with a chance for lucky purchasers to win some decent prizes, Champagne, Whisky, Chocolates and wine. He also ran a lively auction for some aircraft parts kindly donated by our very own Grumman maestro, Ian "Hit it with a hammer" Matterface. All in all we made something like 400 euros (to be confirmed) thanks to the generosity of everyone involved. It was a memorable evening.

Day Three - Sunday 15th - Another early breakfast and a departure by coach to visit another picturesque ancient town - Volterra - some 40 coach minutes away. Our itinerary promised a "Surprise" and what a surprise we had - on stepping out of the coach we were greeted by a flag waving band and led triumphantly through the streets of Volterra to the medieval town hall .........