Trapani – 08.06.09 – "Cheero" and "Masa" achieve 1000 hours on the F-16 – part 1

June 10, 2009 Aviation, Italian Air Force, Military Aviation
David Cenciotti

On Jun. 8, the 37° Stormo of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF) presented two F-16 ADF (MM7240 and MM7249) painted in special colour schemes to celebrate the 1000 Flight Hours achieved by both commanders of the 10° and 18° Gruppo, Maj. Salvatore “Cheero” Ferrara and Maj. Maurizio “Masa” De Angelis. The two “specials” performed an interesting air display that involved also other 7 aircraft of both Squadrons, comprising MM7239 that is a sort of semi-special having the tail painted with the colours of the 10° Gruppo on the right hand side and the ones of the 18° Gruppo on the left hand side: MM7253, 7257, 7241, 7260, 7250, 7267, 7239, 7240, 7249.
Following is the first selection of pictures taken during the event, which comprised 9 ship flypasts, and aerobatic maneuvers (schneider, looping, rollover, etc) of the two Specials. More pictures will be published in the next days.












About David Cenciotti
WebsiteFacebookTwitterLinkedIn instagram
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

Related Articles

6 Comments

  1. Amazing pictures and….amazing day….thanks David for sharing those baeutiful images and thanks to all the 37 Stormo personnel for making this day possible !!

  2. Complimenti ! let me post it to FLAPA
    ciao. da Seattle Vivo ora a 30 min di strada dal 787 .

  4. Posso notare che nella prima foto di gruppo ci sono anche alcuni piloti molto giovani…L’ F-16 per loro dev’essere veramente un gioiello!!!

  5. This site often breath-taking pictures, but this ones are really special!

    Great plane, great color schemes, great pilots….but even more great shots!

    Well done David! Keep on the good job and thanks for this pics (and -of course- for all the rest)

    Always amazing to visit your site!

    Ciao!

Comments are closed.