austraLasia #2665 Ultralight evangelisation - or the flying bishop!
GIZO (Sol. Is.): 23 June 2010 -- The 'Flying Bishop' (not the
Anglican variety) Luciano Capelli is missing just one small item at the
moment - the ultralight plane that he has just received his licence
for. But his many friends and supporters in Europe are working on
resolving that problem in the near future.
Our indomitable 'don Luciano' as he prefers amongst
friends, took advantage of an extended stay in Italy, not only to
attend the Rector Major's invitation to another 100 plus of his kind
(Salesian bishops at Valdocco), but to catch up with his ageing mother,
raise some funds for various diocesan projects 'back home' in Gizo -
and get his pilot's licence!
He had tossed the idea around "as a bit of a joke"
while back home in Valtellina (Italy) and some friends promptly brought
him down to the Aeroclub at Caiolo. "Go on, climb up in, let's go for a
test spin", a young instructor said. "And I said to myself, bringing
the Gospel from on high would make things easier. So here I am now,
promoted to pilot".
Up until now - and for the moment he must continue
this way - Bishop Capelli has a motorboat for moving around his
far-flung diocese. 10 hours and 500 litres of fuel later he is likely
to arrive at his destination. Now he figures he can do the job in
an hour, hour and a half.
The local Lions Club in the Valtellina area saw this
as a worthy project - paying the initial training, and they and a few
others are now working on the other part of the deal. Not much use
being a 'flying bishop' if you have nothing to fly in!
The instructor admitted that his new pupil was "not
an easy pupil" to work with, but added that this was partly because his
pupil is no longer a spring chicken, and that the area they were
training in is pretty testing for atmospheric conditions. No
doubt it will be no less testing around Gizo!
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