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With all those wings, MotoGPs tend to look like jets, but this time the Pramac team took the simile literally and yesterday made a stop at Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls, home of the 80th Flying Training Wing. The U.S. Air Force base in Wichita Falls, Texas, is home to Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT), the international manned and managed flight training program designed to train future NATO fighter pilots and hosting student pilots and instructors from 14 allied countries.
The Italian team was a guest for two days at the 89th Flying Training Squadron led by Lieutenant Colonel Aristide Carotenuto, and also meeting with the commander of RAMi, the Italian Air Force Representation, Lieutenant Colonel Andrea Cerri. Through the ENJJPT program, prospective pilots move, during a 55-week course, from ground school to the T-6 Texan II turboprop trainer and, then, to the T-38 Talon, a supersonic jet.
Usually, the 'look and don't touch' rule applies on these occasions, but not for Gino Borsoi. The Pramac team manager went back to wearing a pilot's suit and helmet, but this time of airplanes. In fact, he had the chance to participate in a training flight.
"I am extremely grateful for this opportunity that was granted to me by the 89th Flying Training Squadron as part of the ENJJPT program. This has been the best experience of my life," Gino declared. "It requires a lot physically and, in fact, for someone like me who has never faced such a situation before, at first it is not much fun, in the first few minutes it is mostly about enduring. But then, when you get used to it, you experience unique sensations. If I have to emphasize the aspect that impressed me the most, it was not the acceleration as much as the turns with the sustained Gs in the air: in those moments you have to concentrate on breathing, on doing strength in the abdomen, pushing with your legs. All extremely challenging but at the same time fascinating, because, although very different from each other, it allows you to discover the points of contact between the aviation and racing worlds: the technology, first of all, the discipline, the training. One thing I know now: in my next life I want to be a 'pilot' again, but this time as a fighter pilot," he concluded with a smile.
Now it's time to get back down to earth, on the asphalt of CoTA, where the Pramac team will field, alongside Jack Miller, Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez, replacing the injured Miguel Oliveira.
Meanwhile, enjoy all the photos from the visit to the military base.
