The Blue Angels are in town

[Whaler]

I took this one from my balcony. Thought he was going to come in for a cold one.
Dick

[Pappy]

Nice shot, Dick.

If memory serves correct, #1-4 do most of the formations and #5 and 6 handle the individual and pairs (Like coming in head to head, doing a 1/4 roll and passing canopy to canopy) maneuvers.

My favorite bird is "Fat Albert"!

[JoeyGee]

WOW what a treat that would be. I have seen the Thunderbirds, and would love to see the Blue Angels. Seeing them from my balcony would be even better.

[prlundberg]

They were flying around my house earlier this year. Not as good as being at the show, but still pretty fun to watch.

My favorite part of the show is the "sneak attack".

[cgallery]

When I was a kid the Tunderbirds would fly their shows over Summerfest (huge outdoor music festival) here in Milwaukee.

They did their show over the lake, and we would sit on St. Mary's Hill, which was a bluff overlooking the lake.

Although I'm sure they were still quite high, we sometimes felt like we could reach-up and touch the bottoms of the planes.

Love those air shows. We just got done w/ the EAA here and we have a lakefront air show pretty soon (this month I think).

[Mrs. Wallnut]

We have missed the last couple of years going over and watching the Blue Angels but the first time that I saw them I was amazed and we had a pretty good spot to watch them.

Maybe next year we will be able to go over and watch them.

[mater]

That is a great pic. I would love to see them in person.

[DUD]

Dick
You have some balcony. Bill

[Pappy]

As impressive as they are, it was more fun to watch them when they still flew the F-4 Phantom. The FA-18's they fly today, and the A-4's that preceded them, are designed to handle, and take the stress of quick manuevers. The Phantom wasn't.

Best desription was that the F-4 was proof positive that a rock will fly if you can throw it hard enough.

[L. D. Jeffries]

Last year we were waiting for the ferry to go across Lake Champlain to NY at the dock in Burlington, VT. The Blue Angles were going to have a show the next day. We saw almost the entire performance as they were practicing over the lake, on the VT side. Wows..Wow! Another story later about the Thunderbirds.

[goslin23]

We were able to see the Blue Angels in Abilene, TX when Dyess AFB had their airshow. It was a fantastic show. I was suprised that navy planes did a show at an AFB. My favorite part of the show was a flight demo of a F-14 Tomcat, it was around the time of the Desert Storm and they were still in service. Man I loved the sound of that aircraft, it was like some big beast growling at you. It was an impressive sight for sure.

I always loved living in Abilene when the B1B's would be flying their training missions. The loudest jet's in the military for sure. From what I understand, they have 4 F16 engines on them. We lived about 7 miles away from the base, but you could feel the vibrations occasionally when those big birds took off!

-=gos=-

[dkerfoot]

My wife Brenda is a professional Air Show manager and has been in the business in one capacity or another for 20 years. She is currently the General Manager of the Dayton Air Show, which ran last weekend.

I've had the opportunity to hang out with all the top jet teams as well as the best civilian acrobatic pilots in the world. Of course, being a former enlisted submariner myself, it has taken me awhile to warm up to all those officers. But, I finally realized that it isn't their fault their parents weren't married.

The Thunderbirds flew last weekend in Dayton, along with a very impressive team from Brazil - the name of which translates as the Smoke Squadron. It was an amazing lineup this year, but was tragically overshadowed by the death of my all-time favorite pilot, Jim Leroy. He was an amazing performer and a genuinely great guy.

This was Brenda's first fatality, though it seems each year, someone she knows is lost. The air show industry is a very small, tight-knit family and I can't tell you how hard it was (and is) on everyone involved to lose Jim.

Well, I don't want to put a pall on the conversation. But I guess I couldn't talk about air shows without mentioning Jim.

If anyone has any questions about air shows or jet teams, I'll be happy to take your questions to "the source."

-Doug

[Scottydont]

Yeah, I grew up in Seattle and Seafair wouldn't be the same without the old Blue Angels. I have been watching them for 30 years and I still get goose bumps. Man those F18's are LOUD!

I ran across this Virtual Blue Angels video including Fat Albert (The C130.) These guys are very serious about what they do. Sometimes it's hard to believe it's a flight sim. Very impressive.

Her's the You Tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VivFXJPeNSs

Here is their website http://www.virtualblueangels.net/2007web/main.html

For those of you who don't know about Seafair, here is a Hightlight video from last year http://www.seafair.com/about/history...&AutoPlay=true

[Stytooner]

I guess I am privileged to be living 25 minutes from Home Base at NAS Pensacola. Sometimes they fly right over my house, usually in pairs practicing.
When I worked at the beach, you could see them very often right over the shoreline all the way up and down the beach. Very cool. When you can watch them practice, you can see that they practice each manuever many many times repeatedly.
Often the day before the show, they practice the full routine. That is the day to go, though they don't advertise that this is what they will be doing. This is when to go see them. You get the best seats in the house so to speak. Very little traffic afterward.
Great picture BTW, Dick.
I have watched them over the shore from the top of some of the high rise condo's at the beach. It does seem like you can reach out and grab one.

[L. D. Jeffries]

The other team...The Thunderbirds

As I mentioned in last post..more to come. Years ago I was working the control tower at San Juan in P.R. when the Thunderbirds were scheduled for an air show. Pulled senority so I would make sure I was on duty. It was a grand experience, being on the "inside" of all their radio chatter as they were doing the show. Things like. "Break right...NOW" and 5 airplanes snapped into a right bank like they were tied together! A couple of days later as they were heading back to the mainland, one of the pilots singing to the tune of "On a Merry, Merry Day in May", sang instead; "I was lying in the grass, with a lovely, lovely lass with all the chiggers biting me on the a**". We all got a good chuckle out of that. Ah, fond memories