Monte Baldo (Lake Garda, Malcesine) and the SIV clinics. Without a doubt the most beautiful site for doing SIV and acro clinics in Italy in complete safety.
You reach it via the A22 motorway heading north, exiting at Affi Lago di Garda, then following the signs for Garda (a small village located on the shores of the lake of the same name), then again ever northward until you reach a superb and typical village called Malcesine.
Malcesine is a small and lovely town located at the foot of Monte Baldo. Made of ancient hamlets and towers that recall to the eye and to memory times gone by. The little town teems with busy shops where nothing is lacking for the delight of the many tourists who frequent them. The tourism, curiously, is essentially German. Everywhere you hear the Germanic language and at certain moments you really feel like you're not in Italy. Malcesine, as I was saying, is served by a superb and efficient cable car that goes all the way up to the summit of Monte Baldo, about 1800 m. Once at the top of Baldo, the view is breathtaking. It's like being on top of the world. All around, sweeping 360 degrees, rise high, immaculate, snow-covered peaks despite the advanced season. And wherever you look, it's a hymn to the beauty and purity of nature, which in this place was more than generous. This is our flying spot. Here we carry out what in the jargon are called SIV clinics (simulation of in-flight incidents). Here you learn to manage, with the safety of water beneath your feet, all those abnormal configurations of the paraglider that, otherwise, without the necessary knowledge, could turn into dangerous situations.
The weather on Baldo isn't easy. Extremely variable, it can swing in a few minutes from one situation to another with minimal warning signs that only the expert and attentive eye of a local can perceive. You take off at about 1800 m of altitude and glide (or climb, sometimes) toward the center of the lake, where the safety of the water and the presence of a Red Cross rubber boat with personnel highly trained in rescue guarantee the greatest peace of mind. In the glide toward the starting point of the maneuvers, you lose from a minimum of 300 m to a maximum of 500 m. The remaining height is in any case enormous and ensures us considerable margins of safety. The team is made up of 3 instructors, each with their own very specific competence, and a group of guys who handle the ground footage of the maneuvers, the shuttle transport, etc.
The organization is well-honed, efficient and impeccable. The trio of instructors is made up of Michael Nesler and Alessio Casolla of the “Professional Flying Team” and Mirco Bardelli of “Top Level”, a paragliding school in Tuscany. The clinic lasts four days. We factor in the possibility of losing a day because of an unfavorable weather situation. If we manage to have at least two good days out of four, the work that results has something incredible about it. The results are beyond (in a positive sense) the most optimistic expectation of the most demanding participant. Sometimes, even we who are in the trade are in turn astonished at the excellent and surprising results achieved.
What to say about this. We hope with all our hearts that the culture of SIVs enters the common mentality of every paraglider pilot. That people stop thinking: “I won't do it, otherwise I'll get scared and won't fly anymore”. SIVs, if done well and above all with true professionals, are the most beautiful gift you can give yourself. They increase your active safety exponentially. Being master of the craft, knowing exactly what's happening, knowing how to intervene with speed and competence is fundamental and imperative for any good pilot worthy of respect. This way, not only do you learn to extricate yourself serenely from abnormal, otherwise dangerous situations, but you acquire a peace of mind, due to the awareness of your real preparation, that will make you better and more relaxed in facing, for example, a demanding cross-country route. Here we also and above all need the collaboration of free-flight instructors who, in the training phase of their students, should be aware of teaching how important these SIV clinics are for the safety of their own students. We have a wonderful sport that we are head over heels in love with. We are privileged to be able to enjoy what paragliding offers us in all its incredible facets.
Let's all grow together and make sure we benefit from this good fortune of ours by increasing our active safety. Many will object that, since I'm a professional who derives an economic advantage from these clinics, I obviously have a particular interest in pushing the SIV talk. And indeed, that's how it is. I also derive an undeniable advantage from it, but only in my profession. But I assure you, and you're free to believe me or not, that in light of what appears before my eyes at the end of every clinic, I truly and firmly believe in what I write and I try to carry it forward with all the strength of my conviction and my honesty.