Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

That flight path the governor put out was bullshit.

They should have flown right over my office just east of 130 on 79 and I was out there 5 minutes early and waited 30 minutes.

I caught a glimpse of 1 plane southwest of where I was, which would have it just south of Dell Diamond. 

Guest Lobo
Posted
  On 5/13/2020 at 9:10 PM, gsoda3 said:

is there always a chase plane?  what's its purpose? 

 

 

Expand  

To keep up international relations.  Duh.  

Guy on top of our parking garage was blaring Top Gun soundtrack the whole time.  We had a good chuckle with him not knowing this was USAF, but yeah---not a lot of homoerotic films coming out of Hollywood about anything but the Navy.  I had to help him jumpstart his car (no homo) and the kids had a great time.  Fun afternoon in an otherwise shitastic month.  

Posted
  On 5/13/2020 at 9:46 PM, Lobo said:

To keep up international relations.  Duh.  

Guy on top of our parking garage was blaring Top Gun soundtrack the whole time.  We had a good chuckle with him not knowing this was USAF, but yeah---not a lot of homoerotic films coming out of Hollywood about anything but the Navy.  I had to help him jumpstart his car (no homo) and the kids had a great time.  Fun afternoon in an otherwise shitastic month.  

Expand  

Yeah, but that's still pretty fucking awesome. 

I got to see them up close in San Antonio. Very, very cool. 

Posted
  On 5/13/2020 at 9:39 PM, Steamboat1874 said:
That flight path the governor put out was bullshit.
They should have flown right over my office just east of 130 on 79 and I was out there 5 minutes early and waited 30 minutes.
I caught a glimpse of 1 plane southwest of where I was, which would have it just south of Dell Diamond. 

This.
What a ripoff. They were supposed to loop over Lakeline Mall according to the plan.
All we saw was grackles.
“Good show, Dad.”
Posted

Walked out by the pool and informed the wife that “we’ll likely not see them”. A few seconds later came the sound, then five of them flat hatted it right over the top of us with the solo and chase plane arriving about 1/2 second later. Air Force all the way in this family and have seen the teams perform several times over the years and I still get a rush from seeing them for 2.5 seconds.

  • Like 3
  • Haha 1
Posted

Heard them hauling ass down I35 on their way back to San Antonio. Caught a glimpse of a tail through the trees. Well worth it. 

Sucks I am essentially non-essential which means stuck at home working. 

Posted
  On 5/13/2020 at 10:35 PM, Texas_Rocks said:

Walked out by the pool and informed the wife that “we’ll likely not see them”. A few seconds later came the sound, then five of them flat hatted it right over the top of us with the solo and chase plane arriving about 1/2 second later. Air Force all the way in this family and have seen the teams perform several times over the years and I still get a rush from seeing them for 2.5 seconds.

Expand  

Your wife surely shares your love of the 2.5 second long thrill.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 1
Posted

That was badass.  I parked my truck just in time to get out and see them right overhead.  

When I got hired at my current job we had a former Thunderbird guy in my class.  He's exactly the guy you'd think he'd be.  Smart, humble, funny, jacked, gets drunk as fuck at the bar every night and the next day in class he's verbally dissecting aircraft systems like he built thing, then planning the next happy hour when the rest of us are just trying our hardest to keep up.  

My 15 year old, who has grown up around airplanes, first words after they went over today were, "I wanna do that."  Spoiler alert... he's colorblind, it ain't gonna happen.  

  • Like 3
Posted
  On 5/14/2020 at 12:34 AM, Your Mom said:
That was badass.  I parked my truck just in time to get out and see them right overhead.  
When I got hired at my current job we had a former Thunderbird guy in my class.  He's exactly the guy you'd think he'd be.  Smart, humble, funny, jacked, gets drunk as fuck at the bar every night and the next day in class he's verbally dissecting aircraft systems like he built thing, then planning the next happy hour when the rest of us are just trying our hardest to keep up.  
My 15 year old, who has grown up around airplanes, first words after they went over today were, "I wanna do that."  Spoiler alert... he's colorblind, it ain't gonna happen.  

Yep, Had a buddy that was color blind that somehow slipped thru a bunch of Navy flight physicals. Finally caught up to him in an ugly crash. Of course the causal factor was his “color blindness”. Time to steer your boy to another profession.
Posted
  On 5/13/2020 at 9:06 PM, Armybrat said:
They flew directly over St. Davids on 620. We are in Brushy Creek and standing on our street I caught a brief glimpse of the chase plane.
 

We neighbors bro. That’s all we saw too. Got some friends in Oaklands and they flew right over their house.
Posted (edited)
  On 5/14/2020 at 12:39 AM, DallasGatr said:


Yep, Had a buddy that was color blind that somehow slipped thru a bunch of Navy flight physicals. Finally caught up to him in an ugly crash. Of course the causal factor was his “color blindness”. Time to steer your boy to another profession.

Expand  

A career in the sky is still wide open to him, just not in the military.  Colorblindness is very common among civilian pilots.  I don't see how color vision would be a factor unless it was on a crazy bad level.  Not saying you're wrong, just seems odd.

Edited by Your Mom
Posted
  On 5/13/2020 at 9:39 PM, Steamboat1874 said:

That flight path the governor put out was bullshit.

They should have flown right over my office just east of 130 on 79 and I was out there 5 minutes early and waited 30 minutes.

I caught a glimpse of 1 plane southwest of where I was, which would have it just south of Dell Diamond. 

Expand  

I'm in Old Settlers just north of 79 and Redbud and could hear them but couldn't see them. Bummer. 

Posted (edited)
  On 5/13/2020 at 9:10 PM, gsoda3 said:

is there always a chase plane?  what's its purpose? 

 

 

Expand  

He's the guy who says, "You can run Maverick, but you can't hide."

Oh, and there's another guy who says, "Damn, this kid's good!" and/or "Get your butts back to base!"

That's pretty much it.

Edited by Cajun
Posted
  On 5/14/2020 at 12:34 AM, Your Mom said:

That was badass.  I parked my truck just in time to get out and see them right overhead.  

When I got hired at my current job we had a former Thunderbird guy in my class.  He's exactly the guy you'd think he'd be.  Smart, humble, funny, jacked, gets drunk as fuck at the bar every night and the next day in class he's verbally dissecting aircraft systems like he built thing, then planning the next happy hour when the rest of us are just trying our hardest to keep up.  

My 15 year old, who has grown up around airplanes, first words after they went over today were, "I wanna do that."  Spoiler alert... he's colorblind, it ain't gonna happen.  

Expand  

Dont squash his dreams just yet........look into it a little more. Also, talk to your T-Bird classmate.

http://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/22194-change-to-air-force-color-vision-policy/

  • Like 1
Posted
  On 5/14/2020 at 12:45 AM, Gourmand said:

I'm in Old Settlers just north of 79 and Redbud and could hear them but couldn't see them. Bummer. 

Expand  

we have friends who live on redbud about a half mile south of the heb on 79.  they have a 30 second clip of the tbirds making a 290 turn right over them.  looks like they turned just short of 79. 

Posted
  On 5/14/2020 at 1:58 AM, BillyGoatHill said:

Dont squash his dreams just yet........look into it a little more. Also, talk to your T-Bird classmate.

http://www.flyingsquadron.com/forums/topic/22194-change-to-air-force-color-vision-policy/

Expand  

Hmm.  Over the years I've probably talked about this with 100+ USAF pilots, Academy grads, guys trying to get pilots slots for their kids, etc... I have never been given any message other than, "No waivers for colorblindness."  I'm really surprised I've never heard about this but thanks for posting.  I've got some research to do.  

Posted
  On 5/14/2020 at 12:44 AM, Your Mom said:

A career in the sky is still wide open to him, just not in the military.  Colorblindness is very common among civilian pilots.  I don't see how color vision would be a factor unless it was on a crazy bad level.  Not saying you're wrong, just seems odd.

Expand  

 

Posted

Tomorrow, Amarillo and Lubbock are getting B1-B flyovers from Dyess in Abilene.  Routes pass over  hospitals and the schedules have been pretty well publicized.

Posted
  On 5/14/2020 at 12:02 PM, Iceman said:

Tomorrow, Amarillo and Lubbock are getting B1-B flyovers from Dyess in Abilene.  Routes pass over  hospitals and the schedules have been pretty well publicized.

Expand  

I was at a Tech game in 2001 (I think it was against OU, because if tech beat them we would have backdoored our way into the CCG, little did I know OkState would do us a solid a week or two later) when a B-1 did a flyover. It was by far the loudest flyover ever. The pilot put on the afterburners right before they got to the stadium and was probably lower than they were supposed to be. I remember reading something a few days later that the pilots were reprimanded for that, but was by far the coolest flyover I’ve personally witnessed. 

  • Like 1
Posted
  On 5/14/2020 at 12:43 PM, hornian said:

I was at a Tech game in 2001 (I think it was against OU, because if tech beat them we would have backdoored our way into the CCG, little did I know OkState would do us a solid a week or two later) when a B-1 did a flyover. It was by far the loudest flyover ever. The pilot put on the afterburners right before they got to the stadium and was probably lower than they were supposed to be. I remember reading something a few days later that the pilots were reprimanded for that, but was by far the coolest flyover I’ve personally witnessed. 

Expand  

The Bone is an absolute monster and just about favorite bird in the inventory.  They’ve been beat to hell in the WoT and crews are being stripped of low level training (which it was redesigned for after the A model), which makes me sad...they’re broken almost as much as C5s

 

  • Like 2
Posted

Chase aircraft does photography primarily.   Link also has bio's of pilots.

The photo-chase aircraft will maneuver as required to achieve the desired photographic position relative to the diamond, solos, or delta. The same rules and regulations which govern the 6-ship within the TFR and aerobatic box also apply to the seventh aircraft. The photo chase aircraft will never fly during an official demonstration.

https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/airshow/media/military/Thunderbirds_Maneuvers_Package.pdf

 

 

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)
  On 5/14/2020 at 11:53 AM, Fudge Nuggets said:

 

Expand  

Sorry for the thread creep, I’d be happy if someone wants to continue the discussion over in the airplane fanatic thread...  I’m very familiar with that accident and the chain of errors that led to it was vast but I don’t believe that one guys color blindness led to all three of them allowing that airplane to get so low.  Full disclosure, I am colorblind pilot and I’ve been doing this for 20 years.  You don’t just get a color blind waiver on your FAA medical by asking for one. You have to go to the FAA office and demonstrate that you can actually see the different colors of the lights. The actual lights, not just a picture of them on paper or something random on a computer screen or colored bubbles in a booklet. Today the waiver process is even more thorough, you have to go in the air with a Fed and point out all kinds of different lights and signs and markings and what color they are. I am without a doubt colorblind, based on the Ishihara test in a doctors office but I was able to get through that waiver process with no problems and have always been able to see what lights are which colors on airports. They probably don’t look the same to me as they do to you but I can differentiate them easily to see what is what   It’s even easier to see those at night.  On airports, PAPIs and VASIs aren’t  even required.  We land on runways all the time, day and night, that don’t even have them installed.  If they are installed but are broken the approach minimums remain unchanged.  There are many tools and visual cues to let you know if an airplane is low or high on approach, the PAPI/VASI is just one of many. The primary causal factor of that accident was fatigue. The NTSB did list the FO’s color deficiency as a contributing factor but it was last on a list of many others, including fatigue of both pilots and failure to adhere to company procedures by all 3 crew members.  The captain had 3 1/2 hours of sleep prior to that duty period and the FO had about an hour and a half. they made some bad decisions together as a crew, regardless of the color vision of one of them. 

On the military side, I’ve looked into this many times over the years.  It looks like Billygoat Hill is right in that the military has relaxed it’s color vision policy some. It’s not so much a waiver that allows you to fly in the military if you are colorblind, but a waiver that allows you to take a different CCT color vision test rather than the normal Ishihara plate test (the numbers in the bubbles).  If you fail the alternate test you are still prohibited from flying in the military and no waiver will be given. I found a simulation of the CCT test online and passed it with no problems last night. There’s nothing official about that of course, I’m sure my computer monitor is not calibrated the same way the actual test would be. But I have failed every single Ishihara plate test that has ever been put in front of my eyes. 

Back on topic.  I’ve really been delinquent on getting my kids to some air shows. Got to get on that. 

Edited by Your Mom

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...