Blues at Wings over Meridian

First air show at NMM in a number of years with (of course) the Blues as the
main attraction. Schedule doesn't permit attendence on Sat/Sun but I
managed to take my granddaughters to the practice show Friday ... the three
year old LOVES airplanes.

Blues showed up with 5 jets, dash 3 was Med down and didn't make the trip
.... first time I've seen a med down cut into the show (and I've been
watching 'em since F-11 days). A 3-plane with dash 4 on the wing plus the
two solos.

I realize it's early in the season and 4 doesn't often fly wing, but they
were pretty bad (and they were pretty bad when they last performed here ...
then a team with "issues") and seemed to have several A/C problems. 2 lost
his smoke in the line-abreast loop and then rapidly dropped aft 1-200 feet,
stabilized there and completed the maneuver (rejoined well away from show
center ... I'd love to know what he was looking at and what Betty was
telling him as he neared the top of the loop). A couple more maneuvers in
which they just flew by vice performing the acro. Then only four jets in
the sky (I think it was 4 that actually landed). OBTW, the solo act lacked
crispness as well ... the simo tuckunder was done in loose cruise.

I've always felt a lot of sympathy for these guys. They're attracted to the
team for maybe the wrong reasons. Go through a rush process (that's a kick
to see the wannabees ... we're talking about senior Lt's or Lcdr's with
somewhere well north of 1500 hours tactical jet time ... showing up at the
shows as eager as college freshmen). When they get to El Centro, the new
guys find out what the Blue Angel experience is all about: darn hard work,
being the Navy's reps 24/7, not a lot of family time. The payoff is doing
something very few aviators get to do with a level of precision second to
none. That can be immensely gratifying. But the price they pay is high.
It takes a special breed to do what they do, and I'm not talking about the
air work.

R / John