ABOUT FLYING: LUNA ROSSA PRADA PIRELLI AT TOP GUN SCHOOL
The team visits the International Flight Training School
A delegation from the Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team, led by skipper and team director Max Sirena, was invited to visit the new International Flight Training School (IFTS) Campus inaugurated last May. The base, located at the military airport of Decimomannu (Cagliari, Sardinia), is highly reputed internationally for the preparation and advanced training of military pilots from the air force units worldwide who fly fighter planes such as the Typhoon Eurofighters or F-35 aircrafts.
Accompanied by General B.A. Davide Marzinotto, Commander of the Air Force Command for the Autonomous Region of Sardinia, together with Colonel Federico Pellegrini, Commander of the Experimental and Standardisation Department for the Air Defence, the members of the Italian challenger to the 37th America's Cup were first introduced to the background and stages that led to the birth of the IFTS, and then were accompanied by personnel from the 212th IFTS Flight Group to the facilities of the Ground Based Training System, where the latest generation of ground simulation systems are housed, and to the flight line hangarettes, to admire close-up the integrated system of the two national realities.
The Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli team members were fascinated by the similarities between their world and that of the pilots who are preparing to become top guns, starting from the integration between the highly advanced aircrafts and the increasingly realistic simulation equipment, which allow the young pilots to practice in different flight scenarios, learning manoeuvres from basic to the most complex combat techniques: an approach that is very close to that of the Luna Rossa sailors, who use the simulators to validate the design choices made on the boat and as a training tool.
