Review: The Italian retro meeting took place from 10-12 July 2020 in the Acquqrossa Park in Gualdo Cattaneo / Perugia. The date of the meeting was actually fixed for June. For months the accommodation in the region had been fully booked. Due to the Corona Virus the event had to be cancelled. Italy was paralysed.
Fortunately, the situation in Italy stabilised, so we set the new date at 10-12 July 2020.

Already the terrible news of the loss of dear friend Ivano Garzena, great aeromodeller and 28th doctor who died due to the virus, had left us all dismayed, so when it was seen that, with the appropriate precautions it could have been done, we decided to dedicate it.
An important meeting both because it is a memorial and because, thanks to the idea of Cristiano Giustozzi, it would have been the 10th meeting, becoming the longest-lasting meeting reserved for classic models, that is models built or designed between the 1950s and 1990s of any category: from free flight to rockets …
The formula is simple, there are no scheduled flights or lists, you fly among friends who meet once a year in the “usual place” for two or three consecutive days.
In fact, in the splendid setting of the Acquarossa Park in Guado Cattaneo, there are all the comforts for pilots and their families: Bar, restaurant, museum of cars and agricultural machinery, a parking lot used for campers as well as a 900 mt track in asphalt with a lot of notam for the days dedicated to us.
This year, for the first time, there was a minimum of advertising on social media so as to allow some new friends to join the group.
And they responded from different parts of Italy.
The farthest came from Aosta (670 km) followed by Bari, Vicenza, Siena, Pisa, Milan, Rome, Pescara, Ancona, Bologna and several Umbrians, more than 20 participants, very many for an event that is reserved for a restricted category but which is affecting more and more fans year after year.
Surely the star of the rally, to which the prize for the most beautiful model went, was Ernesto Capobianco’s Kiki, multiple of the 60s that featured on the cover of Reinero’s Aeromodellista book.
The model, designed by Kiki Guglielminetti, known for having, as an aircraft model, who invented, among other things, Formula 1, was marketed as a futuristic model by Aeropiccola as it was equipped with a plastic fiber fuselage that would have facilitated the model building.
Ernesto Capobianco built it, in about a year of work, directly from the design with the fuselage in frames, sides in balsa and plating in the curved parts, while the wing was made of polystyrene covered in obece respecting the asymmetrical biconvex profile of the drawing.
The model was equipped with the engine provided in the original: a Supertigre G60 with rear carburetor while the Radio was an updated 2.4 Mhz Kraft.
In flight, having had the honor of testing it, I was able to appreciate the docility and ease of control even if, with the large size of the aileron string and without programmable reductions on the radio, the roll was really excessive, a problem solved by moving the levers to the second flight.
A really beautiful model that, as has already happened for the hunter, has already found new admirers ready to replicate it.
Carlo Stella Faggiani brought a beautiful personal design model of his father, I-VEDA, motorized red 60 head gold to long thing, admired however only in static.
Claudio Lattanzi from Pisa brought a beautiful 4m Old Timer and a Mystere 3000 canard while Leonardo Taglioni a twin-engine push-pull Cessna Skymaster and a Foke Wuilf from Marakuta.
Raffaele di Bonaventura from Roseto degli Abruzzi presented himself, for the first time with a vintage car built with a supertiger motor G 51, with a Hurricane combat with OPS speed 3.5 cc and a P 26 Boeing with OPS SLA 40.
Another spectacular model was the “Mon Amour” by Fabrizio Contedini, who took part in the RAC for the first time with this “old timer” model of 2.40 m wingspan, motorized os 120, with a slow and majestic flight.
A real pleasure to see it and make it fly …….
Not being able to remember all of them, I would like to mention Luciano Battoccolo last, who in addition to several vintage models including the spectacular DELMO, a delta wing model, brought a series of rockets with original charges still functioning, unfortunately too fast for a decent photo shoot …
For all interested enthusiasts, I invite you to view and register on the face book site of the RAC (CLASSIC AIRCRAFT REGISTER) where, in addition to all the photos, videos of the rallies, they will find information and, in the FILE section, they can find many drawings of classic models of the years 1950-1990.
The dates of the meeting have already been set for 2021 which will be accompanied by a market of classic and non-model aircraft models and objects for which I hope to see you – see you again in Gualdo Cattaneo on 18-19-20 JUNE 2020 both with models and to exchange , buy or sell your material.
Text Marco Buono
Photographs: Matteo Buono, Martina Olivati