G.A.S.S.: A Collaboration That Helped Us Take Off
During the 2024–2025 academic year, a valuable collaboration began between Fly-Mi and the Experimental Sport Aeromodelling Group (G.A.S.S.), which proved to be essential for our journey toward the UAS Challenge 2025.
It all started almost by chance, when a few representatives from STMicroelectronics (https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en.html) visited our lab spaces in B14, accompanied by the EPC Department. Among them was Giulio Ricotti, a member of G.A.S.S., who—upon recognizing the same passion for flight in us—immediately offered to support us, not only as a pilot but also as a mentor.
From that moment, a genuine and fruitful collaboration began: we brought a touch of youthful and academic spirit to G.A.S.S., and they gave us invaluable experience, practical advice, and hands-on knowledge of RC flight—a world quite different from the scaled-down theories we study in textbooks.
Throughout the year, we conducted numerous flight tests at the G.A.S.S. airfield. They not only provided the flying space, but also expert and passionate pilots, capable of guiding both small foam trainers and our beloved O.L.I.V.I.A.
The goal wasn’t simple: learning from scratch how to configure ArduPilot on a fixed-wing drone, making it capable of completing a fully autonomous mission—from take-off to landing—while navigating through waypoints efficiently. It was a complex, iterative process: from initial calibrations to tuning the flight axes, navigation system, altitude and attitude control
(O.L.I.V.I.A.’s tuning flight: https://youtu.be/23weo9tMIZE?si=qhygiqmNNgdbiaRg)
In each phase, we could rely on the constant and competent support of the G.A.S.S. pilots.
Of course, there were crashes, technical issues, mistakes, and moments of bad luck. But there were also lessons learned, sighs of relief, laughs, and, most of all, immense growth, both technically and personally. This practical approach to problem-solving was key to taking the EPC Department a step further and laying the foundation for the association’s future.
For all this, a huge thank you to Giulio and everyone at G.A.S.S.: your passion has fueled ours.