Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Aviano Air Base sits at the foot of the Carnic Pre-Alps in Friuli Venezia Giulia, roughly 15 kilometres from Pordenone, and is Italy's oldest airfield, dating back to 1911. Today it is a front-line NATO fighter base, jointly controlled by the Italian Air Force and home to the United States Air Force's 31st Fighter Wing, making it a striking and historically rich destination for the simulator pilot studying northern Italian military aviation.
Aviano Air Base, known historically in Italian as Aeroporto Pagliano e Gori, is a military airfield near the town of Aviano in Pordenone province, Friuli Venezia Giulia. It is administratively and militarily controlled by the Italian Air Force but hosts the United States Air Force's 31st Fighter Wing, flying General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons, alongside search and rescue squadrons. For a simulator pilot the field is notable both for its long single runway capable of handling heavy fast jets and for its unusually deep history, stretching back to the earliest days of Italian military aviation.
The base lies in the Aviano municipality at the foot of the Carnic Pre-Alps, also known locally as the Southern Carnic Alps, about 15 kilometres from Pordenone. It sits at coordinates 46.0301N, 12.5988E and an elevation of 367 feet. As an active military installation it is embedded within Italian military-controlled airspace, and movements are governed by Italian Air Force procedures rather than routine civil access.
The field has a single physical runway, 05/23, a hard-surfaced strip roughly 8,533 feet long and lit for night operations. An instrument landing system serves runway 05, supporting approaches for the resident fast-jet and rescue squadrons.
Published frequencies for the base include ACP on 264.8 MHz, approach (APP) on 275.325 MHz, ATIS on 262.95 MHz, operations (OPS) on 262.95 MHz, PMSV on 257.75 MHz, POST on 262.95 MHz, and tower (TWR) on 142.05 MHz. Runway 05 is equipped with an ILS.
The base is readily identified from the air by its position hard against the foot of the Carnic Pre-Alps, with the town of Aviano immediately adjacent and Pordenone lying some 15 kilometres to the south, both useful landmarks when orienting toward the field.
Aviano was established by the Italian government in 1911, making it Italy's first airport, and it was subsequently used as a training base for Italian pilots and as a construction facility for aircraft parts. During the First World War the airfield was used for missions against Austro-Hungarian and German forces, and it was from here that Captain Maurizio Pagliano and Lieutenant Luigi Gori launched their unauthorised but celebrated air raid on the Austro-Hungarian naval yards at Pula; the field was renamed Aeroporto Pagliano e Gori in their honour in 1919. Austro-German forces occupied the airfield between November 1917 and November 1918. After the war it returned to training duties, and during the Second World War both the Italian Air Force and the German Luftwaffe operated from it. British forces captured the base in 1945 and ran air operations there until 1947, when the Italian Air Force resumed control. The United States Air Force first arrived in the winter of 1954, and the 40th Tactical Group was formed on the base on 1 April 1966. The base was undamaged by the 1976 earthquake. On 1 April 1994 the 31st Fighter Wing activated at Aviano, bringing the 555th and 510th Fighter Squadrons and their F-16s, and the wing was quickly drawn into the Bosnian conflict as part of Operation Deny Flight. In June 1995 a major search and rescue effort recovered Captain Scott O'Grady of the 555th Fighter Squadron after he was shot down over Bosnian-Serb territory. The wing went on to fly strike missions in Operation Deliberate Force in 1995 and, in 1999, as the 31st Air Expeditionary Wing-Noble Anvil, in Operation Allied Force over Kosovo. A tragic incident occurred on 3 February 1998, when a US Marine Corps EA-6B Prowler flying a low-level training sortie from Aviano severed a cable car wire at Cavalese, causing 20 deaths.
Aviano remains an active front-line NATO base, hosting the 31st Fighter Wing with its 510th and 555th Fighter Squadrons flying F-16s, alongside the 56th and 57th Rescue Squadrons and associated maintenance and support units. The base also has a role in NATO nuclear sharing arrangements. As a military installation it is not open to general or civil aviation traffic, and any visiting aircraft would require prior permission.