55 years: if you were talking about a person, you could think of a woman or a mature man, who sees her children approaching the moment they will have to take their place, in an important role.
The birthday party for such a celebration can then be resolved into a beautiful cake with a glass of sparkling wine, or the moment to stop for a moment to think about the important generational shift, the changed needs and the family structure.
Surely a person who comes to such a birthday, from time to time and, perhaps in the dark of a sleepless night, stops to make considerations of this kind.
The difficulty is to stop and take stock of the situation while you are raising the glass to toast in front of the cake, but the Air Force, last weekend did it. Without noticing it, but it did. He gathered all his family and many exceptional guests, opened their presents and gave his best to accommodate everyone with generosity and security (despite difficult times both for the other thing) demonstrating be perfectly prepared and without giving any signs of fatigue.
There were so many "gifts to the celebrated" and all of them beautiful. Acrobatic teams and soloists from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Finland, France, Turkey, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, USA, Austria, Poland, Holland have provided acrobatic demonstrations of absolute precision and the party was truly memorable.
The comparison with the cake and the toast we need to make it clear that there are two possible ways to participate as spectators at this birthday party.
The first is reduced to note only the "cake" and "gifts" we mentioned. It is the modality of participation of those who do not go beyond having a sort of thread that unites the national football team with Ferrari and the Frecce Tricolori. For these, everything that has been in Rivolto last weekend translates into seeing thousands of people upside down commenting on liveries, smoke bombs, clangs of post-burners of the most powerful aircraft, in the reductive "search for the best" , in pure Italian "tifoseria" style, that is of someone who always arrives at the dogmatic conclusion that "the best are ours". Conclusion to which they would have even left the bar in the house to play cards.
The second mode of participation, however, means looking into the eyes of the celebrated while drinking at his mature age, without paying too much attention to the unpacked gifts. In this case we see many more details, especially much more significant.
First of all, it must be said that looking for "the best" when it comes to Military Pilots representative of an Air Force is the most stupid thing you can think of doing. Because to be able to do it you have to be acrobatic pilots with experience and competence to know how to grasp the details and nuances of each of the many forms of flight seen this weekend.
To allow everyone to understand, col. Paolo Tarantino, former commander of the Acrobatic Patrol and current commander of the 61 ° Stormo (an internationally recognized department of excellence for the training of Italian and foreign Military Pilots) has done a great job of explaining, complete and concise. To give him the col. Riccardo Rinaldi, who with his voice has accompanied the performances of the National Aerobatic Team for many years.
Between explanations and anecdotes time passes quickly and "without dead times". The col. Tarantino has on the flight suit a "patch" embroidered in a particular way (the Military Pilots and the Astronauts do not have all those tattoos with which the youngsters are disfigured, precluding in this way also prestigious opportunities for their future, but their suit from flight and jacket in a sense yes). His "patch" has embroidered the words "I-AM Legend" in memory of the "Legend formation", performed last May 10 on the basis of Galatina (LE) at the ceremony of changing the coat of arms of the Stormo he led and revived here at Rivolto.
It is a formation made up of a specimen by type of the aircraft had in force, in time to the 61 ° Stormo, in formation "to Delta".
But notice one thing, before thinking of that patch as a self-congratulatory act of a megalomaniac: the "I" is the acronym of Italy, "AM" of the Air Force and the patch is close to the heart ... This summarizes the values in which these men believe and spend their life: the Homeland and the Armed Army of belonging that have allowed them to achieve statements of absolute excellence.
In these two days I met military pilots of recognized excellence, test pilots the likes of the gen. Francesco Presicce (I can not but recall his amazing presentations of the Tornado and I am still impressed by the fact that he is already an air division general at only 49 years) and even the astronaut Luca Parmitano. What unites them all is modesty and "solar" availability. Natural qualities that go well beyond the duty of reception of the landlord. They do not consider either Superman or legends, but they do not hide the commitment they have had to sustain, with constancy and determination to establish themselves in a context made up of other "competitors" at least equal.
They esteem each other, respect each other and above all do not envy each other for the activity carried out and / or the successes achieved. They know they have received the same level of preparation, albeit with different specificities and they know that regardless of how their career has developed, the foundations and the basic potential are absolutely the same. And they remember with unchanged affection their comrades who fell in service, because in the 55-year history of the Frecce Tricolori there have also been other fallen, besides those known to all from the Ramstein accident.
Speaking of astronauts and “patches”, I noticed a curious thing that speaks volumes about the seriousness and attention to detail on the part of those responsible for the ceremony. Upon his arrival, the astronaut Maurizio Cheli was wearing a suit, appropriately "tattooed" with a lot of "patches" from NASA, his space mission and more. Among these "patches", however, the one indicating the country of origin was a beautiful American "stars & stripes" flag! Considering that in the sector intended for the authorities there was such an expanse of marching flight suits, "patches", decorations, friezes and sequins of every shape, size and origin, even the nationality patch of a personality like Cheli, becomes a detail negligible. Well, when Cheli then went on stage for the handshake of the President of the Republic, the suit was another (one of those in use in Rivolto), with an Italian flag…!
During the performance of the Red Devils (Belgians) and the four Extra 300 of the Royal Giordanian Falcons the "people of the air show" is going to fill the belly in the bar (I saw a 'guest of the sector "Authority" pounce on 4 freshly baked croissants, as if he had never seen them before). After all, the show arrived mid-morning and many spectators came to Rivolto to see the Frecce Tricolori and the most flashy formations, equipped with many aircraft and with reaction. Evidently for these estimators (of croissants), keep in perfect tight formation 4 airplanes having a rolling rate of 300 ° / second or make safely evolve three 1200kg aircraft equipped only with 260 HP is trivial ... Anyway, we also respect those who are more interested in brioches, hoping that they pay attention to the jam, which being freshly baked, can scald ...
To keep the attention on the propeller planes, the "Breitling Wingwalkers" will take care of them, both for the splendid Boeing "Stearman", both for the show offered (a sort of synchronized swimming in flight), both for other personal qualities of the two blondes on the wing ...
After having tasted (instead of the brioches mentioned above) both the Red Devils and the Royal Giordanian Falcons and their accompanying Arab music, it is time for three small ultralight planes, but belonging to a very special acrobatic team: the " We Fly Team ", also known as" I Baroni Rotti ". Two of the 3 pilots are invalids, but deserve all the admiration as Men and as Pilots, not less than that given to the astronauts.
He performs a ground attack helicopter of the US Army: the "Apache". Incredible presentation with two "tight loops" at the limit of the impossible for a helicopter. He leaves, and having seen the pilot's curriculum (a Test Pilot with experience also of war actions in Mali) nothing takes me away from the head that is going to watch from above to protect the public and the airport. And if it is not him to watch, there will certainly be someone else of the same level and equipment.
In terms of security coming from above, also landing the parachutists of the 17 Stormo, launched by another Italian helicopter, the HH139, with characteristics very different from the Apache, but still exceptional (the same applies to EH101, which has simulated a refueling in flight).
Do not miss a connection with a drone flying over the sky of Rivolto in a position invisible to the eye and inaudible to the human ear but that sees everything, and shows it on the big screen. I hope I do not frame a damn speck on my white polo ...
After the interruption of the program for the lunch break, I think among myself that it was from the times of the Breitling Devils that I could not see more flying SF 260 in formation, ... but as the "Eagles Alps" flew on the 260 ...! Who has not seen them fly, does not know what has been lost!
And exactly as I make these considerations entering the restaurant tent, now virtually empty, I find myself in front of two of the riders of the Alps Eagles: Beppe Liva and "Gibì" Molinaro.
They too were riders of the Frecce Tricolori, belonging to that team to which we owe virtually all the program that our Patrol still performs, since the introduction of the MB-339 (ie from the distant 1 January 1981).
I think that an occasion like this will never happen again and with great boldness I approach, I introduce myself and after a minimum of pleasantries to "break the ice", I risk a few questions hoping for the complicity of the Friulian wine that sip: result? They run away! Moreover, as artists and Italians, they are still two former soldiers, and certain secrets (absolutely not those covered by "intelligence" constraints, but tricks of the trade) will NEVER disclose them. But since I made them understand that they are responsible for my flight sickness, they take me in sympathy and a very pleasant interlude comes out of it.
I say they should write a book to teach their secret tricks. They agree that they should really provide that, but for a different kind of book: a memory of the crap combined together! And they are right, because to see the perfect things they did together, just look for the many movies that concern them on the Internet. What we need to remember, however, are those anecdotes of life that have allowed us to overcome many difficulties together and make their teamwork perfect. A team, as they tell me, always united in life even before airplanes. And this is their only real secret: having transferred into the conduct of the airplane in training, their group and individual personality entered into a group.
The chat is informal and very pleasant, "Gibì" Molinaro, one of the most fantasistic "soloists" that PAN has ever had, really cares about the importance of the team, which owes so much to his Speaker, although this is not exhibit neither in the "crazy flight" nor at the head of 9 jets equipped with colored smoke bombs. Speaking of Speaker, especially then with these two interlocutors, we can not but give a thought to their companion of that "Wonderful Adventure", the col. Renato Rocchi, who described it in his books that bear this title.
I ask "GiBì" to make a parallel between his way of being a soloist and that of one of the greatest pilots ever existed, who in the years' 60 was performing just before the PAN with a MB-326 and before that the FIAT G59 (both seen in the "Legend formation"): Magg. Pilota Riccardo Peracchi. GiBì is transformed and as a dialectic pyrotechnic fantasist, becomes a very precise and serious analyzer and descriptor. He tells us that his way of being the PAN Soloist (which is the way he has been handed down to him until now) is still part of a team that works in unison and needs the soloist, as the team's soloist. Like an orchestra. Peracchi was a "solo" presenter and the whole team was himself. In this case, a capable speaker puts the icing on the cake.
On the theme of the speaker, "our" have given proof of modernity (detail not negligible), with an engaging synergistic comment by the mag. Andrea Soro and ten. Liberata d'Aniello. They are also very good. No less than them, their Turkish counterpart. His comment was a true masterpiece equal to the exceptional evolutions of his 7 “flying” colleagues also because it was made in Italian, despite the comprehensive linguistic difficulties. With the background of Western and Turkish music, he described the "Siberians", the mirror flights and the 11 consecutive ascending "tonneaux" made on Saturday by their soloist (who managed to keep a car of the same age below the penalizing cloud cover of Saturday of the PAN, equipped with very high speeds but which requires maneuvering space proportional to the speed).
Someone told me that the Turkish Stars show is a bit too long and of a level comparable to that of the Patrouille Suisse, equipped with the same aircraft. Very true, but for someone like me who goes to Rivolto every 5 years to see “real” planes fly with “real” pilots it was a delight and also a lesson in patriotism.
Why patriotism? Surely also for that paraphrase with the colors of the Turkish flag, opened without real need in front of the authority stage that housed a high representative of their government: it recalls the times of Molinaro and Liva, and of the many other "ex-Frecce" unearthed in that same grandstand, which after having < >, deployed the braking parachutes of the same color as the smoke bomb used in their flying position of their FIAT G91 PANs.
But the reference to the love of Patria comes to me also and above all for the words of love for Italy and for the Frecce Tricolori (also made by other foreign teams), sincere and dictated from the depths of the heart, made by the head pilot information via radio during their final passage. And it is much more noble and sincere this type of sensitization of that felt by the voice of a famous name of the press, who hoped to see everyone standing with his hand on his heart to sing the national anthem, except the fact of admitting then to reside in Switzerland…
Concluding this analysis on the 55 years of this splendid National Aerobatic Team, a thought to its future.
Beyond the periodic, recurrent threats of closure of the 313 ° Acrobatic Training Group typical of the populist propaganda of certain political subjects who should only make us the courtesy of disappearing forever by renouncing annuities and other benefits, the symbol chosen for this anniversary leaves us patriotic potential voters still a light of hope: the tricolor trail that connects to the number "55" actually draws a sort of elongated horizontal "8", which in mathematics is the symbol of INFINITY!
For many "fans" of the Frecce Tricolori, their survival is a hope linked to sentimental needs. For Italian engineering and industry it is a necessity, because events like this birthday are an important showcase for certain Italian products other than biscuits and tomato preserves, aimed at executives of visiting foreign armed forces and who must decide plans over ten years of modernization. With this in mind, the Italian industry has already prepared several products of absolute excellence, many of which are exhibited in the static exhibition, here at Rivolto and especially in perfect time on the future needs of NATO.
Such hope may perhaps be allowed by the introduction of a less demanding aircraft than the wonderful MB-339. Of course the Aermacchi M-345 (here in the livery "Frecce Tricolori in the Finmeccanica stand, practically in front of the deployment of CASA 101 of the Aguila Patrol), is not the MB-339, especially for important construction details, but after seeing the miracles that has always done the Spanish patrol with a less performing MB-339 airplane, I think I can say (with the cry in my heart and without wanting to betray my true and sincere love for that extraordinary airplane the MB-339) that one may still have a more than sufficient image in the future.
The M-345 is a national product that comes to this name after several decades of "maturing" and maturation that hides with extreme difficulty its origin of SIAI 211.
But the comparison is only aerodynamic and mechanical, because from the point of view of the complete aircraft, the growth from S211 to M345 has benefited greatly from the electronic functionality developed for the development of the M346.
To be honest, for the needs of the National Aerobatic Team this type of development does not produce benefits, but if we really have to give up the 339, there are no other alternatives.
M-346 electronics, here at Rivolto you can not "taste" a crab, despite the descriptive effort of col. Tarantino. To understand what you are talking about, you should visit the 61 ° Stormo.
Here, however, we are at a birthday party, and just before opening the sparkling wine with Frecce Tricolori we attend the presentation of the Experimental Department of Sea Practice that in the tradition of this department of excellence presents sublime the exuberant performances of this thoroughbred, to the point that its capabilities even seem very close to those of the Polish 29 MiG (the 22000 ft / min declared of initial climb are all seen!), which is a hunt for still much higher performance.
It is not known what reasons prevented seeing the Russian supercaccia squeezed as the cap. Mangini did with the M-346. Of notable things he has done (flared and knife-like passages), but the presentations of the same type of airplane made by Anatoly Kvotchur were quite another thing!
It would have been nice to see (remembering to have heard of a challenge to "singolar torment" between Riccardo Peracchi with the MB-326 and Bill Ongena on FXXUMX) a similar challenge between Kvotchur on the MiG 104 and the Eurofighter tester, gone in flight after the 29 and that has squeezed his "beast" as much as his colleague who preceded him.
But the weekend turns (unfortunately) to the end and it is finally time to see the hosts perform. Saturday's meteorological conditions (initially overcast skies, which passed to the flood in the middle of the Saudi exhibition, serene until the Patrouille de France and catastrophically changing during the performance of the Frecce Tricolori) may have given the impression that the performance of "our" was a little less good than the one seen the next day, with "storm of serene". Instead, "our" have continued without interruption and safely the "high" program in meteorological conditions from the "low" program, also facing a significant change in the provenance of the wind. Of course, the Saturday public could not see the "flared", the Lomcevak and other spectacular maneuvers, but these were nevertheless regularly performed and in very difficult conditions. On the front of the ranking of the best French, the Swiss and the Turks will have benefited.
The revenge arrives the next day before the President of the Republic, the Minister of Defense, the governor of Friuli Venezia Giulia and obviously the Chief of Staff of the Air Force.
Here we had the chance to see the new figure of the Frecce program: the "Scintilla Tricolore".
A curiosity: the name was revealed a moment before its execution and chosen through a competition open to all. A lady confides to us that she has also participated, proposing the name of ... "Falling Stars" ...!
I slip a hand in my pocket and a smile but we are sure that his proposal will not be forgotten and will probably already be hung in some bulletin board next to a scaramantico red croissant, in pure Italian style!
(photo: Giuseppe Lodi, Andrea Troncone)
