First Flying and FIB building

In the FIB factory in Gubbio, Italy, the FIB (Flying Inflatable Boat) lay half built.

It took 2 hours driving from Rome to get to the green hills of Umbria. We dumped our stuff at the Agriturismo (B&B) and went to meet Aimaro, head of PolarisMotor -- builders of the FIB. He took us to see the incredible little flying boat being built for me. There it lay in a state of 80% completion, like a bird whose wings have not yet grown feathers.


That afternoon I got to shake some rust off by flying Aimaro´s land Trike (a wing with a motor but wheels instead of a boat). Umbria is fantastic from the air - flowing hills, mountains in the distance and ancient stone cottages tucked into every crevice. We flew low, buzzed the FIB factory, and hurtled upwards again. The PolarisMotor ¨SKIN¨ with the same engine as will be installed in my FIB, flys really nicely - it is quite lilght and has a smaller wing than the FIB or the Airborne XT912 I had flown before. I practiced my 360 degree turns right above the B&B where Marga was studying. She would be going for her first flight with Aimaro the next day so she figured she should finish the photo job she owed a customer in case she was never to return...Despite these kinds of thoughts she felt little fear when the finally took off the next day.

Today we´re at a beach off the esastern coast of Italy - facing Croatia - practising with a local´s FIB and basically trying to avoid the scorching June sun. This FIB is owned by Simone, who runs a beach resort and therefore has the luck of easy access to the water. Nice life...hang out on the beach and fly off every so often...

Martin Picard - Flying Boat Adventures

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Sat 16 of June, 2007
In asking my friend, Bernard (who built a GREENPEACE ship), what would be a good little dingy to get for my old sailboat, I never would have expected him to say: "The FLYING DUCK of course!".... Flying duck?? Yes...a normal rubber boat with wings! Need one say more... So I had to learn how to fly one -- which took a few months thanks to Colin and Kyle of Float Trikes Australia. The next bit is flying far in one, so Sunday it is off to Rome and then the factory in near-by Gubbio to pick one up and try to fly to France or Spain... Marga from Barcelona is driving the back-up car with trailer. We hope to coordinate GPSs so that we can find each other on some beach every day after our respective sky and road trip... "We brought some money and plenty of Honey" and the rest should be a easy...I'll keep you blogged about how it goes...

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