The 313° Gruppo Frecce Tricolori Virtuali is actually the virtual group that represents and simulates the equivalent of the famous Italian Military Air Force aerobatic team. Born in April 2003, the 313° Gruppo F.T.V. aims to develop friendship and passion among the internet flight enthusiasts and those who esteem the real team and its famous aerobatic airshow with the synchronized formation flight and the precise soloist manoeuvres, using 10 Aermacchi MB339A PAN.
The team started to operate on MS Flight Simulator 2004, helping to develop (and then using) a new plugin software called Ibnet to improve the online "close" flight simulation on MS FS, and attended to real events such as The Italian Flight Simulator Show Contest 2005 and 2006 in Milan, Extreme Air Show in Fano, Flight Simulator Show in Forlì. On December 2007 the team decided to approach Lock On in order to join the community with the aim to perform the famous Frecce Tricolori team display on VFAT 2008. Unfortunately the only flyable Lock On aircraft that suits the MB339A flight speeds parameters is the A-10, this meaning that all pilots had to come to the compromise to fly with an aircraft about 7 Tons heavier than the real Aermacchi MB339A.
Our Team practices on average twice per week on Lock On Flaming Cliffs, with 8 effective members and some new pilots in training. The real team is divided into 2 sections (5 aircrafts in the first section, leaded by PONY1 and 4 aircrafts in the second section, leaded by PONY6) and a solo (PONY10). In the VFAT 2008 we performed a display with 7 planes, but for this year we'll fly with 8 planes: 3 in the first section, 4 in the second and the solo.
