Mountain Flying

Mountain Flying Rating (MOU – EASA FCL.815)

In 1999 the Powered Flight School of Aero Club Belluno took on the Mountain Flying rating — in ENAC’s own wording, the rating for the use of sloping airstrips with snow-covered or icy surfaces, or, as it is known today, the MOUntain rating EASA.FCL.815 — and in doing so took up the legacy of the distinguished National Mountain Flying School of the Aero Club of Trento, which had sadly closed. As things stand (early 2026) Belluno is still the only school in Italy to offer this discipline.

This is not the “mountain flying” you usually hear about

It is important not to confuse the MOU rating EASA.FCL.815 with the “mountain flying” courses run by many flying clubs and private schools, which offer thoroughly sound training in flying valleys safely, in crossing passes and ridges and in flying over mountainous country.

The mountain flying rating follows the syllabus laid down by the EASA regulation (FCL.815) and, on top of the training just described, teaches one thing above all: how to land safely on sloping strips — often very steeply sloping, and normally unprepared ones. Pilots flying aircraft with the right qualities can then reach enchanting, unspoilt places without doing them any harm and ... with no need for roads!

The course also teaches, of course, the deepest respect for the environment and for the people who live in it.

The ground school

The theory course runs to no fewer than twelve hours of lessons in the classroom, or online as well nowadays, and covers subjects such as:

1. the history of mountain flying
2. mountain meteorology
3. mountain navigation
4. flying technique
5. performance
6. safety
7. aviation medicine
8. current regulations

The flying

For the practical part, once the candidate has shown that he is thoroughly at home on a tailwheel aeroplane, the training moves on to airstrips, prepared and unprepared, of steadily increasing difficulty and in varying conditions, until he is fully able to operate on such strips in complete safety. This normally calls for at least a hundred landings, which corresponds to at least ten or twelve hours of flying on the School’s Husky.

The rating is flown on aeroplanes only, with a PPL or CPL licence: the VDS microlight certificate does not give access to the mountain flying course.

AIPM, the Italian National Association of Mountain Pilots

Just as decisive is the close partnership between the School and AIPM, the Italian National Association of Mountain Pilots, which brings together the rated pilots and the enthusiasts of this exacting discipline and promotes it, makes possible a valuable exchange of information, keeps the airstrips serviceable, and maintains the contacts with public bodies and private owners that secure permission to operate, while organising meetings, international ones included, as a member of EMP, the European association of mountain pilots.

www.AIPM.it – info@AIPM.it

How you get there

Before the mountain come two ratings that here are everyday tools of the trade: the tailwheel aeroplane and the variable pitch propeller. Anyone who does not hold a licence yet starts with the PPL: that is the road that leads here.

For information and enrolment, your point of contact is always the club office: write to us using the contact form.