After a long day of labouring over the gritty details of the AW139 electrical system and everything that could possibly go amuck, with PowerPoint presentations and computer graphics, what the various failures look like to the man with the big watch behind the controls on a dark and stormy night, how to interpret, analyze, manage what you have left and how to get your aircraft and passengers back to earth safely, then the same again for the hydraulic systems, the engines, the transmission, etc. etc., we then headed over to the technician's training area, with full Pratt and Whitney PT6 engines, cutaway and colour coded so one can see the air flow, the compressor and power turbine stages and bearings and oil lines, transmissions and electronic engine controls, servos and rotor blades, airframes and starter generators, the smell of engine and hydraulic oil....I was giddy. Damn, I love helicopters. Tomorrow we are in the sim, and all those theoretical emergencies will be thrown at us non-stop for each two hour sessions, and we'll be sweating but most definitely with smiles on our faces.......
After the day's festivities, we headed to Arona, just up the road from Sesto Calende, and found the Italy I had been looking for. Too dark for pictures, it was obvious from the cobble stone roads and quaint restaurants and cafes that a return in daylight was well warranted. And we found some good grub too!
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