The Armed Forces of Malta’s Air Squadron pilot sergeant Ivan Marmara of the 2nd Regiment recently graduated from the Italian Air Force Instructor-Pilot School at the 72nd Squadron in Frosinone, Italy.

Sergeant Marmara enlisted in the AFM in 1994, and joined the Air Squadron soon after his basic military training.

He qualified as a helicopter pilot on the Bell 47-G2 in 1996, and went on to also qualify as a pilot on the Hughes-500, Bell-212, and the Alouette III helicopters.

In Frosinone, sergeant Marmara qualified on the school’s Nardi Hughes 500E helicopter as a prerequisite for his instructor-pilot training course.

The course tuition involved some 80 hours of flight time and focused on perfecting flight-manoeuvres such as formation operations, flight-instrument navigation, mountain terrain and water-surface landings and various other operations in which helicopters are used.