How to shame a wannabe test pilot.
41°39’31.9068”N 12°26’31.8372”E: these are the geographic coordinates of the infamous “Pad of Shame”. If you plot them on Google Map, they will take you right smack in the middle of Pratica di Mare airbase, near Rome, Italy.
It’s located right off the taxiway that runs perpendicular from the Reparto Sperimentale Volo’s (RSV – the Italian Air Force Test Unit) parking apron to the secondary and primary runways 13/31 of the airfield.
It’s a quite small helipad and, there, tenths of fighter pilots have been throughly humiliated. I know that because I was one of them!