In 1997, in one of its earliest "Aerospace News", Aeromedia was the first to announce the formation of the Associazione Volovelistica Alpi Graie based at the new Envie airfield in the province of Cuneo. Soon Envie became a point of excellence for the maintenance and overhaul of the Fournier motor gliders and their engines. In June 2013, AVAG helped to organize the first Italian meeting of the Club Fournier International. Unfortunately, on April 1, 2022, the building used as a workshop was destroyed by fire with the loss of all the equipment, tooling and the precious stock of replacement parts. The aircraft, which were in the hangars on the other side of the runway, were untouched by the disaster, but their owners wasted no time in moving them to other airports and airfields in the vicinity. As an example the Alpavia RF-3 I-RYMO (HB-2005 until 2019) was based at Turin/Aeritalia from 2022 to 2024. Now the Envie airfield is abandoned and Eugenio Lanza of Casalanza has moved to the Astigiana airfield where he continues his maintenance activities.
In the picture: Fournier (Sportavia-Pützer) RF-5B Sperber SX-GEB (c/n 51070 built in 1976). The photo, showing its bent propeller, was taken at Envie on October 8, 2016. The damage occurred during a take-off following routine maintenance. This motor glider was initially registered D-KMPD, then coded S-14 / SX-14 of the Greek Air Force until 2004. From 2016 it was British-registered as G-CIMO and in 2020 it was exported to Hungary. The background shows the Valentino farm hosting the workshop and offices of AVAG, burnt out on April 1, 2022. (Aeromedia)
(Aeromedia, April 2022)
