Controvento (Against the wind), the name of the association, is the word most commonly used in the world of free flight, because you fly and land against the wind. Taking off with tail wind is impossible. “For those who want to fly a paraglider, knowing the currents is even more important than mastering the flying technique,” explains Giose.
His idea, however, did not originate in the Marsica: “I enrolled with the ReStartApp ‘on-campus’ course in Pavia, where I spent four and a half years. I wanted to learn how to fly, and to do it, I just flew. I had resigned from Ovs, where I had worked for six years as store manager, first in Rho, then in Pavia, and subsequently in Biella. I had returned to Pavia because I had built up good relationships there. I worked with a flying school doing odd jobs like harvesting grapes or delivering school meals to pay for my flying equipment. I made sacrifices to learn how to fly, but today I have joyful memories of that time, because it made me realise I have broad shoulders”, says Giose today, looking relaxed and content. He spent his Ovs severance pay to buy a motor-powered aircraft – which he now keeps in Vasto – to fly with tourists on the Trabocchi coast.

When he returned to Avezzano, he set up Controvento on his own, but immediately looked for collaborators. Today, behind the association’s activities stands a group of people including other pilots and even Giose’s father, who drives the nine-seater van to take clients from the base camp to the take-off point at the top of the mountain. Each flight lasts between 15 and 30 minutes, depending on the wind conditions, and costs €120 euros, €80 of which go to the pilot. The association covers all collaborators’ expenses except insurance: “In Northern Italy they sometimes called me, for example, to fly on Lake Garda, but they offered me €50. I thought I should establish a different work relationship with the professionals that work alongside me”, explains Giose.