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Blues to Get Supers?
- Thread starter Hopeful Hoya
- Start date
Redux
Well-Known Member
Simplicity = reliability and yes, the A-4 was a better show unless............. one got to witness some pretty good tricks they put on for a dependents day cruise. Supersonic flybys with F-4's and RA5C', wasting sidewinders on flares and fishing with Mk-82's. Cool stuff!
I got the impression that they can pretty quickly change the tail number decal, I've seen a couple of demos where a B/D airframe has been flying in the slot with a 4 on the tail.
They can. That's why the number is a decal.
Could always go to T-45s. The Red Arrows fly Hawks, after all.
For the Friday show of the 'Homecoming' weekend in P'cola, their last shows of the season, I saw them fly with two or three two-seaters with folks in the back. I figured at the time they were incentive flights for folks leaving.
I pretty sure those are flights for the new pilots.
Not always. When I was a stash Ensign, I got stuck checking tickets at their VIP section for the P-cola airshow, and as I recall, then-VADM Keating had scammed a ride in the backseat of the slot jet.
707guy
"You can't make this shit up..."
They start flying with a two-seater in the slot late in the season. Mostly for the "newbies" but they also give rides to other VIPs. CSFWL Actual went up during Friday practice at NTU last year. That photo was from their "circle and arrival" maneuvers - the lead jet had a bird strike early in the flight so he landed and jumped into the spare.
That was possibly the dumbest 'get rid of the demo teams' article I've ever read. I know it's just the Pensacola mullet wrapper, but still.
- Yes pilots have been killed flying with the Blues and 'Birds. For one thing, they're volunteers and professionals, not animals in a bear pit being killed "for our entertainment." They're perfectly aware of the risks involved and do everything they can to mitigate them. For another, while I'm too lazy to look it up, I would bet the mishap rates for the demo teams mirror the overall mishap rates for the Navy and AF - in other words, the vast, vast majority of those mishaps were in the 50's and 60's.
- It's expensive, but $40M a year is not that expensive for what the Navy gets out of it. Unlike almost everything else in the DoD budget, the Navy gets a definite return on its investment. They're one of the strongest recruiting tools they have. For scale - the Navy and MC's FY16 recruiting and advertising budget was $407.8M. And the Navy still owns and pays for the planes, parts and people whether they're doing airshows or not. It's not like you could cut the team and have $40M to spend on Marine Corps lava-monster-fighting commercials.
- Pollution? Give me a fucking break. The Blues are not melting the ice caps.
It's pretty apparent this guy has no idea what the Blues are for (recruiting, not "boosting morale" or "showing off") or what they cost vs return on investment.
AQ-AT-NAVCIV
Citizen Sailor, Gentleman Farmer
Forgot about that one! Kill lava monster and unlock the polished sword.
My favorite recruiting commercial is the one that convinced Homer Simpson to join the naval reserve.
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Hey, at least this guy didn't accuse the Blues of "strafing" his city.
"You keep using that word; I don't think it means what you think it means . . ."
