87th Anniversary of the ItAF - Pratica di Mare - 26.03.10 April 8, 2010
Posted by David Cenciotti in : Italian Air Force, Military Aviation , add a comment“This is not the time to stand still. This is the time to build, with flexible far-sightedness, the new Air Force’s architecture so that it is integrated and not absorbed in the new joint context that has a strong European and International connotation”: these were some of the words that Gen. Giuseppe Bernardis, Chief of Staff of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF) addressed to President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano in his speech during the ceremony for the 87th Anniversary of the ItAF, held on Mar. 26, 2010, at Pratica di Mare airbase. Bernardis explained that over the past ten years the size of the Air Force has been cut in half in terms of personnel and material but it has not lost its capabilities or efficiency, as the ItAF has invested and continue to invest in both the quality of the equipment and, above all, in the training of the personnel.
The rest of the article can be read here:
http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/itaf-87th-anniversary-pratica-di-mare-26-03-10/
71° Gruppo - Pratica di Mare - 2004 - 20.000 hours on the P.166DL3 April 7, 2009
Posted by David Cenciotti in : Italian Air Force, Military Aviation , add a commentOn Apr. 6, 2009, at 03.33AM LT, a 6.3 magnitude earthquake hit the Abruzzo region, in central Italy, killing more than 200 people, causing entire buildings to collapse and leaving 17.000 people homeless.
Reconnaissance missions were performed by an AMX of the 51° Stormo from Istrana and by one of the last P.166DL3 APH belonging to the Pratica di Mare-based 14° Stormo. The DL3, that can be fitted with Leica RC-20 and RC-30 (modified in order to mitigate the effects of the movement) performed an aerophotogrammetric mission aimed to the photographic survey of the areas hit by the earthquake. In the last years, as the following images (displayed by the 71° Gruppo in 2004 during the celebrations for the 20.000 hours on the “Piaggione”) show, the aircraft was often involved in missions aimed to the update of the land cartography or to the photographic survey of a portion of territory as a result of natural calamities, even if they have also been employed in reconnaissance missions in support of the Police or for the survey of building abuses. Following are pictures of the P.166DL3 of the 71° Gr that I took on Jul. 7, 2004, when the Squadron celebrated the 20.000 hours on the type.
An article on the missions of the 71° Stormo (2007 - 2008) can be read here: “71° Gruppo: Master of many tasks”.
311° Gruppo / Reparto Sperimentale Volo - Pratica di Mare March 14, 2009
Posted by David Cenciotti in : Aviation, Italian Air Force , comments closedOn Mar. 11, 2009, I visited the flight line of the 311° Gruppo of the Reparto Sperimentale Volo, the Test unit of the Aeronautica Militare Italiana (Italian Air Force, ItAF), inside Pratica di Mare, the largest italian military airport. Accompayned by Maj. Igor Bruni, one the RSV pilots (and the MB339CD display pilot in the past two years), I spent a few hours on the “PB” apron of the Sperimentale where I was able to observe the daily flying activity. The flight line had many aircraft parked or being prepared for sorties: MB.339A, MB.339CD, C-27J, C-130J, NH.500E, Tornado IDS, AMX-T ACOL, Tornado ECR, AB-212 . More or less the majority of the aircraft types in service with the ItAF were in the flight line of the squadron. Recovered inside a hangar was also an interesting aircraft I was not allowed to photograph but that is far from being a secret addition to the RSV fleet: read here. A few missions were flown during my stay. In the early morning, the MB.339A CSX 54453/RS-30 departed to perform a flight inside the R-62 area. In the front seat a former 23° Gruppo pilot recently assigned to the 311° Gruppo was performing a sort of “orientation flight” with Maj. Giacomo “Jack” Iannelli on the back seat. Later, the MB.339CD MM55091/RS-32 also departed for a local sortie, followed by the C-27J CSX 62219/46-87. Before noon, both MB.339 (1 CD + 1 A) took off to perform a training mission together.
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