Let me share some stories about the service of Imperial Airways seaplanes on Lake Bracciano, excerpts from my book - in English - "Flying Empires", freely downloadable from the web.

[The flying boats of Imperial Airways in general came to Bracciano after a stopover for refueling in Marignane, about 20km north of Marseille]. The route included crossing the northern part of Corsica, passing of Bastia and then arriving on the Italian coast at the estuary of the river Marta, near Tarquinia. After having covered a distance of about 557 km, approach in Bracciano by seaplane was often rather risky, given the frequent presence of low clouds over the lake. When stopping for the night, the passengers and crew were taken with a bus at the Grand Hotel de Russie in Rome. The next leg of the flight from Bracciano to the south included a stop in Brindisi. In case of unavailability of Lake Bracciano for adverse weather conditions, the airport alternative was the lake of Paola, also known as Lake of Sabaudia, in the province of Latina.

[An accident touched by seaplanes on Lake Bracciano occurred when] he commander J.W.Burgess, in training by the master FJBailey, attempted its first take-off from the lake with the aircraft "Canopus". The commander ordered Burgess to fully extend the flaps of the seaplane, checked whether they had started to move, then settled into the fuel mix of "Full Rich" and pushed the throttles all the way forward, bringing the engines at full power. I flap, but, did not stop in the normal take-off position, but they continued to extend to the maximum. After accelerating the lake for about 30 second, the seaplane made a sudden leap in the air about 15 meters, to slip back then downwards. Fortunately, the commander Burgess, who had experience of departures from the troubled waters of the Indian Ocean, managed to regain control of the aircraft, but only after a series of kangaroo jumps across the lake, while the instructor, Commander Bailey, who was standing behind the pilot, was tossed to and fro in the cockpit and shouted "Fermalo, boy! FermStop it

[The only other notable failure occurred in the Lake] the 27 November 1938, Commander SGLong signaled the shutdown of two of the four engines of the seaplane due to strong turbulence in the section between Alexandria and Bracciano.

[It was a tradition on seaplanes come to one of the ports to stop the long maritime routes were hoisted the flag of the country in which the airport was located. However] in January 1938 the aircraft "Centurion" stopped three or four times in Bracciano without an Italian flag on board. In the hope that the representatives of the airport not notice the lack, the crew of the seaplane hoisted the French flag in place of the Italian.

[But there is one final story pretty funny.] On one occasion, Soup (for the precision of the potage St. Germain) was the only liquid able to bring the fire under the cover of one of the engine closest to the fuselage seaplane "Canopus". The oil tank that supplied the Sperry autopilot was on fire and there was was no way to extinguish the fire or with all the on-board extinguishers, nor with the water collected directly from the lake with thermos for food use these sull'idrovolante and paid into the engine on fire. As a last resort, a thermos full of soup was poured on the fire. The pea soup was really too much for the fire, that was so off.

Cordially,

Brian Cassidy
[translation D.M.]