MasterBates
Well-Known Member
It's huge. And I could not park within sight of it, even though they were not home.
I am going to hazard a guess that their fuel is probably a lot more than their per diem. Small problem with government mess too, a lot of places they go don't have it.
Frankly I was a bit impressed at how low-budget their operation is the first time I saw it, drastically different than what I have heard about the T'birds.
Two words........Smart Perdiem.
I am sure that the travel budget is a big part of the Blue's budget. They could go for government messing and probably save at least $50 per a person per a day while on the road. It all adds up.
Maybe we can get the USAF to chip in since everyone thinks they are USAF anyways... Plus, the USAF never seems to be hurting for funds. Maybe we can play nice and they will share?
How about cutting the Thunderbirds?
They run a pretty bare-bones operations already, I think all but one of their birds are very used up A/B's and they work out of an old TRACOM hangar they share with VT-86, not sure how much more they could realistically cut bak without affecting them significantly.
All that makes sense, but...
I'm looking at it fatalistically- as if I were a mean old bean counter thinking that everyone will share the pain and everyone will have to figure it out... Stearmann's comments might be tongue-in-cheek and a little over the top, but something along those lines.
Bigger than for a normal unit, definitely. Big relative to everything aircraft related, no. An F/A-18 flight hour buys a lot of hotel rooms. I don't know specifically what their work schedule is, but I'm sure it gets slid wildly while they prep for a given airshow. Making it to the chow hall during the right hours may not even be an option, even if they are on a military base, which would be the minority of their shows.
Also, let's not kid ourselves here. Saving money by getting rid of the Blues or other demo teams is not 'saving money'.. that 'saved' money will all of the sudden become free money in which politicians will use to further their earmarks, etc.
The Air Shows provide their hotel rooms and rental cars, IIRC. Most hotels include breakfast, lunch is generally provided by the show as well. There are a lot of items that are in the demo teams' Support manuals that 'saves' the Government money already. Not sure if their Per Diem is adjusted accordingly. They are already running pretty efficiently. They are a great recruiting effort.
Also, let's not kid ourselves here. Saving money by getting rid of the Blues or other demo teams is not 'saving money'.. that 'saved' money will all of the sudden become free money in which politicians will use to further their earmarks, etc.
I'd fall in that category - seeing them was one of my earliest childhood memories. I ended up deciding on joining the AF, which turned out well for me, as when I did my NAMI flight physical I was told that had I been Navy, that would be the end of my flying career, but since I was AF I was good to go.Edit: (Even for the target audience, who know that the Blues are Navy. I am willing to bet a fair amount of USAF pilots saw the Blues at some point in their childhood to kick off the dream).
The Air Shows provide their hotel rooms and rental cars, IIRC. Most hotels include breakfast, lunch is generally provided by the show as well. There are a lot of items that are in the demo teams' Support manuals that 'saves' the Government money already. Not sure if their Per Diem is adjusted accordingly. They are already running pretty efficiently. They are a great recruiting effort.
Also, let's not kid ourselves here. Saving money by getting rid of the Blues or other demo teams is not 'saving money'.. that 'saved' money will all of the sudden become free money in which politicians will use to further their earmarks, etc.
I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to "save" money by canceling air shows, then have to add money into the MCCS/MWR accounts to make up the deficits in those programs.
I hope that the VFA-122 and VFA-106 demo teams will not be scaled back.