I saw the new Thunderbird team at Moffett a couple weeks ago. These guys
are good. They are very good. They have a hokey introduction with the
"sharp young officer" act being overdone, but what the hell, the purpose is
recruitment, so I guess the over-enthuiastic rah-rah is just part of the
gig. Then they started playing the Air Force Anthem and the diamond
started to roll. These guys fly a tight smooth diamond that I didn't see a
bust in during the entire show..... and I'm a picky observer. I've been
aviating personally for over 40 years and watching military demo teams since
1955 and I think this is one of the better teams I've seen. All Majors with
one Captain. The solo surprise pass was just great with the solo appearing
from behind the large hangar and holding constant bank angle / turn rate,
that s.o.b. made one of those chest thumping, gut grabbing,
God-I-LOVE-this-****, full burner passes at maybe 20 feet, 50 at most and
then disappearing behind the other end of the hangar. They're worth
catching if you can. They also had a neat acro routine by a very smooth
gent (Robin Somebody) in a Lear 23. Long walk (mile from VIP parking to
the reserved seats) and not much on static display. One of the pilots
said most of the nation's military aircraft were in the war ops or training
for the war ops which made sense to me. He thought the big shows would
still have bigger static displays. This one had 3 F-16's (don't know the
blocks) with 2 from DC ANG and one from Arizona ANG, a KC-135 from Riverside
AFB, a Coast Guard Herc, a couple of choppers and a neat little Viggen (I
think) flown by Skip Holm. Cool, huh? Fun day at a well managed, but
s-l-o-w airshow put on by Air Show Networks.