FRIENDS WHO SHARE WHAT THEY LOVE MOST IN LIFE
VOLOLIBEROVALCOMINO
Our club was founded in 1987, thanks to the commitment and passion of Ciociari friends including Gennaro Vitti ('o President), Marcello Messercola (Diesel) and Mario Tedeschi (Capa) were the most active and passionate. At the beginning of the 90s a group of friends from Naples arrived in the valley. He moved from MONTI DEL MATESE to VALLE DI COMINO to an exclusive hang gliding school (ex DELTA CLUB NAPLES) run by Fabio Melisurgo. The CASA del CLUB is born and the formation of a competitive section. The club lives its most flourishing era, reaching about fifty members and consolidating the foundations of the CLUB VOLO LIBERO VALCOMINO. Fabio Melisurgo is among the most representative members of the club with his teaching activity as well as having distinguished himself in the competitions of those years and the vololiberovalcomino is one of the main hang gliding clubs in the whole of Italy.
The club continues to grow and follow the new construction technologies of hang gliders both those with "FLEXIBLE WING" and those with "RIGID WING". The classes of hang gliders are divided into those with rigid wing “CLASS 5” and those with flexible wing “CLASS 1”. The latter is still the most popular, the most widespread and with the greatest number of pilots but for our CLUB and "our" COMINO VALLEY the rigid wings have had a particular history because when in 1998 We are shown for the first time the ATOS rigid wing project of the German Felix Ruhele, there was a particular feeling around this advanced flying machine and a large group of pilots chose to try it, reaching 18 drivers convinced of the new RIGID technology. Our Valley certainly became the site in Italy, with the highest concentration of rigid wings, earning the nickname of "Rigid Valley". Perhaps only in some parts of Germany and the United States have RIGID wings been more successful. The excitement for this wing led some of our competitive pilots to take part in the most important competitions. In 2000, Gaetano Matrella won the Italian Championship in Class 5 (that of the rigid wings); in 2001 Fabio Melisurgo won the team gold medal at the Class 5 World Championships; in 2002, at the Class 5 European Championships, Onorio Marsella is decorated with the team gold medal, and is third overall !; in 2003 it is again Gaetano Matrella who wins the Italian Class 5 Championship.
After this brilliant period, the Club slows down when many founding pilots, having reached age limits, leave the activity. The club's school also suffered a major setback. In addition, the untimely death of dear driver friends, first of Armando Montuori and then Tonino D'Aguanno, demoralized everyone, causing the abandonment of other members. The VLVC is thus, after the first years of the third millennium, in its worst period made up of few but irreducible enthusiasts and still young pilots friends including our Piero Dell'Aversana who conserves extraordinary energy and becomes a bulwark for the cohesion of all. . In the following years, the number of entries remained fairly stable, around 20 pilots. There are very few new entries and very few who leave.
Thus an adverse period ends and great satisfactions return, this time in Class 1 (that of flexible wings), Marco Laurenzi wins the Italian Championship. In 2016 Laurenzi himself won the team gold medal at the 2017 and 2019 world championships. In 2021 Francesco Marsella returned to competitions and immediately stood out among the strongest drivers among the Italian agonists.
It is also thanks to these results that Fabio Melisurgo, enticed by all the friends of the CLUB, takes up the hang-gliding school again. Friendship and passion today unite us and pilots from all over Europe come to visit us with pleasure, the hang gliding school follows new students reinvigorating the Club. The competitive section is proudly captained by our champion Marco Laurenzi followed by the very strong Francesco Marsella and all the competitive team.
Our current President Mauro Marsella follows us and helps us by always bringing new ideas assisted by Daniele Cerroni, excellent secretary and very strong driver, and by our great Salvatore Fariello, expert pilot and promoter of innovations and extraordinary initiatives.
2022 is waiting for four other future pilots and friends to “take off”. New blood has started flowing again in the VLVC's veins and we are proud to boast the honor of being one of the main realities of free hang gliding in Italy, certainly the main reference of the whole Central-South.