On Friday 15 November, the “Elephant Walk” took place at the 72nd Wing in Frosinone, an exercise conducted with 12 TH-500B helicopters, which “taxied” simultaneously on the runway with subsequent take-off, overflight and landing in sequence with 4 formations of 3 helicopters.
THEElephant Walk It is the name used to indicate a ground maneuver carried out by a formation of aircraft that concentrate and move together.
The aim of the exercise was to increase the operational capabilities of the wing's pilots with the massive use of aircraft to demonstrate high line efficiency.
The aircraft used is the TH500-B in service at Girolamo Moscardini Airport for almost 35 years with more than 200.000 flight hours, which continues to be the reference aircraft for the basic training of all helicopter pilots of the Air Force, the Armed Forces and State Corps.
THEElephant Walk is an activity within the 1st “Samba” gathering. “Samba” is the radio callsign that has been assigned for over 60 years to Air Force pilots serving at the 72nd Wing as flight instructors.
The commander of the 72nd wing, Colonel Alessandro Fiorini, in his opening speech thanked all the attendees present, many of whom were former wing commanders, who over the years, thanks to their work, have shaped Moscardini Airport and its capacity.
The 72nd Wing of Frosinone, depends on the command of the Schools of the Air Force/3rd Air Region, the only school in the rotary wing sector in Italy, is the unit that trains helicopter pilots of the Air Force, other Armed Forces and Armed Corps of the State, as well as foreign attendees. The inter-force and inter-agency synergy, developed in the field of training at the Helicopter School of Frosinone, is part of the perspective of continuous improvement of training and contextual optimization of resources.
