From 11th to 13th October, San Damiano airbase, near Piacenza, hosted the 1st edition of the Aeronautica Militare Balloon Cup.

“…did you really went there to take photos of balloons?!?”

Well yes, but actually no. The main target was the mini-airshow held during the event. Unfortunately, I missed the fly-bys of 6th Stormo aircraft, performed only on Friday.

Frecce Tricolori display

Obviously, the sky then became cloudy, as happened in almost all airshows this year…

Replica of the SPAD XIII flown by Italian top-scoring WW1 Ace Francesco Baracca, built by Jonathan Collection

The only airworthy G.91R in the world

Legend Formation with current and past Italian Air Force trainer aircraft: SIAI-Marchetti S.208, North American T-6 Texan, Fiat G.46, SIAI-Marchetti SF.260 and Aermacchi MB.326, MB.339 and M.346

Some photos of the static display:
Tornado IDS wearing the first flight 50th anniversary livery

Aermacchi T-346 with International Flight Training School sticker on the rudder

Some aircraft belonging to the museum under preparation in San Damiano airbase:
Agusta-Bell HH-212 wearing a phase-out (happened earlier in February this year) and 180’000 flight hours special livery

AMX wearing a 30th anniversary in service special livery

Tornado ECR wearing special livery

Campo 100 with historical aircraft, a smaller version of the one on display last year at the 100th Anniversary airshow in Pratica di Mare.
Gabardini monoplane

Macchi MC.205 Veltro mock-ups

What? Something is missing?
Oh yeah. The balloons.

The helium balloons race was held on Friday. Some of the balloons flew for hours, even during the night, with the winning balloon reaching Southern Italy, 550 km away.
The hot air balloons race was held on Saturday. I missed the start of the morning race, but in the afternoon I was able to see the start of the “fox hunt”: a balloon (the “fox”) takes off before the other balloons. The crew then lands and puts a bullseye on the ground, which must be hit by the crew of the other balloons.
Not really exciting to see (also because it was possible to see only the take-off), but I’m now eager to know which strategies should be used to achieve the objective.

Tethered balloons area

It was possible to walk inside the envelope of a decommissioned balloon, kept inflated by fans (no burners, fortunately!)