My Flying and Riding Blog

Italian life, Motor touring, Flight simulation, Scale model building, Painting, 3D design, Travel, Shooting, Food, and Bruno

I have many hobbies, and had many jobs and a few careers before getting retired. I started blogging when I founded my private little flight simulator software publishing company back in 2005.
And now retired in Italy I continue filling this blog, hoping to get rid of Facebook some day. I prefer my own, FREE, ‘social’ media.

Come back often and enjoy our Italian life with Nina, Bruno, and me.

Check my stories and blog posts

I have been writing here since 2005, so there is lots to read, and new things added regularly

Book Reviews

Railways in the Second World War

Railways in the Second World War By Michael Foley I am not a railwayman by any measure, although my brother and I built an extensive model railway back in the day. But what caught my curiosity was the cover of

3D Design

Basic Blender Tutorials

Downloaded the latest Blender app and was looking for tutorials. This is the list that Blender provides themselves. There must be many more on Youtube and I’ll post more of them when I find them.My main project is to build

2016 US trip

Independence Pass, CO, 2016

Independence Pass, CO, 2016 September 1, 2016US travel Not only the Dutchy, in fact, but a whole bunch of people from the “Kachadourian Lodge” set out to visit the pass, and subsequently have lunch in Aspen on the other side!

Aviation

Thunderbolts over Burma

By Angus Findon, Mark Hillier A very special book. It shows us the life of a British fighter pilot, but not in the usual way where young men jump into the Hurricanes and Spitfires and fend off Hitler’s Luftwaffe over

What am I writing about here

Our life in Italy

In 2017 we moved permanently to Umbria, smack in the middle of Italy, after buying our house in 2014. We have been restructuring for 6 years now

Flight simulator hobby

Since I also stopped my business in 2017, I should finally have more time to enjoy the hobby myself, instead of just servicing others. Been at it for over 35 years now, and building a home cockpit

Motorcycle touring

One of the reasons to move 'south' was the riding weather. Alas, ever since I bought the new BMW back in 2017 I have not been riding much. Hopefully, we still can in future

Art and Scale modeling

Also picked up drawing and painting again, and the scale model hobby. Some of the results are posted on the blog of course

Some of my loyal customers wrote

Getting back to the Lysander and Gloster, I almost feel guilty about buying these at a discount. I was glued to the screen reading your evocative documentation, which was worth the price alone. Living the memories again, the Lysander was the first aeroplane cockpit I ever sat in. Not as a pilot mind, it was just before I joined up, and I was what they called an ‘electrician under training’, which means I was fit only for hanging over the tailplane to keep it down while the engine was being run-up. But I certainly remember the plane. Thanks to you I have also ordered “They landed by Moonlight”. Cheers, from Jim

Jim

I received the package in a timely manner and have been enjoying the product for two days. Thanks for being a business that a fellow can rely on and trust in the future.

Brett

Thank you. The scenery is excellent and I do know Vancouver. It is a destination too in my simulated travels. I had to switch a few things off as I have a medium speed computer. It is an investment as next year - maybe a full blown gaming computer. Thank you again for your courtesy and personal service. Yours sincerely, Michael

Michael

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