Sean Tucker Oracle Airshow

In article k.net,
Dudley Henriques dhenriques@noware .net wrote:

"Chris Colohan" wrote in message
...

The Thunderbird show seems to emphasize "look at how cool our planes
are", and not "look at how skilled our pilots are".)

You obviously know little about the Thunderbirds my friend :-)

To me, the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels fly an incredible and
amazing routine that is positively boring.

Standard Thunderbirds/Blue Angels routine:

Diamond takes off, disappears into next county.
Solos take off, do a 'dirty roll', disappear into next county.
Diamond does a fly by and disappears into the next county.
Solos show 'tactical surprise' by sneaking up behind the crowd and
giving everyone hearing loss, and then disappear into
the the next county.
Diamond comes by and does a four point roll, disappears into next county.
Solos do an opposing pass, disappear into next county.
etc.

They are great pilots, and what they do is hard, but unfortunately,
it is also never changes, so once you've seen either team, you can
head to the car and watch the show as you beat the traffic out of the
airshow.

The Snowbirds are a much more interesting jet team. Their jets
are slower, so they have to come up with more things to do then
just turning jet fuel into noise. With a nine plane formation,
they can come up with some interesting things, like a Canadian
goose.

The late Ameila Reid had a routine in a Cessna 150 that got to
maybe 500ft in altitude and used an area around 2500ft across.
Not high speed or high horse power, but it was a great routine
since it was right in front of you the entire time.

John
--
John Clear - http://www.clear-prop.org/

"John Clear" wrote in message
...

The Snowbirds are a much more interesting jet team. Their jets
are slower, so they have to come up with more things to do then
just turning jet fuel into noise. With a nine plane formation,
they can come up with some interesting things, like a Canadian
goose.

I agree with you strangely enough about the Snows. I did an aerobatic eval
as a guest of the team flying their #10 Tutor at the Reading Show in the US
once and got to spend a lot of time with them. Their mission profile is
different from ours in the states and they have much more latitude in the
"crowd pleasing" department.
Their choice of maneuvers reflect this and is directly attributable to their
founder, Col O. B. Phillip, who laid out the way the team would perform.
I like the Canadian approach.
It was decided long ago that the main thrust of both the Thunderbird and
Blue Angel demonstrations would reflect tactical maneuvering and not the
showmanship type demonstration followed by the Snows. What you are seeing
today in our team's demonstration format reflects about as far into the
showmanship end of things as the military has been willing to go.......so
far anyway :-)))))
Dudley Henriques

The most entertaining in my book was Duane Cole in his clipped wing
T-craft. His maneuvers never involved a violent loss-of-control like
a snap roll etc. He was old and had glasses etc. His act was the
ultimate expression of the possible. We didn't have to listen to any
music either........

Hoover is my favorite. An "ultimate expression of the possible" is a
good way of describing it.

nrp wrote:
The most entertaining in my book was Duane Cole in his clipped wing
T-craft. His maneuvers never involved a violent loss-of-control like
a snap roll etc. He was old and had glasses etc. His act was the
ultimate expression of the possible. We didn't have to listen to any
music either........

One item. It is one thing to do aerobatics. It is another to do them in
close formation with other planes. It is spoooky.

"Maule Driver" wrote in message
. com...
Hoover is my favorite. An "ultimate expression of the possible" is a
good way of describing it.

Second that.

Another would be the old "Flying Perfesser" (?) who did amazing stunts in a
J-3 Cub (haven't seen that one in YEARSSSS.)

OTOH, the TB's and BA's are not only demonstrating flying skills, but
aircraft performance at the other end of the scale.

On 2005-07-12, John Clear wrote:
To me, the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels fly an incredible and
amazing routine that is positively boring.

Standard Thunderbirds/Blue Angels routine:

Diamond takes off, disappears into next county.
snip next county

One of the best air force displays I've seen wasn't the Blue Angels, the
Thunderbirds, the Red Arrows or $OTHER_MILITARY_JETS.

It was the Jordanian Air Force display team. They came to our airshow a
couple of years ago.

They fly Extra 300s, IIRC. They remain within the airfield boundaries
and it's easy to see the entire display, and it is flown with great
precision.

The Thunderbirds would impress me much more if they did their big
display using Decathalons.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Dudley Henriques wrote:

"Chris Colohan" wrote in message
...


The Thunderbird show seems to emphasize "look at how cool our planes
are", and not "look at how skilled our pilots are".)


You obviously know little about the Thunderbirds my friend :-)


It's been a few years now, but I remember seeing the Blue Angels and
the Thunderbirds in different air shows. I was impressed by the skill
required by both groups, but I felt that there was a significant
difference in the "showiness" of the two groups. The Thunderbirds were
very precise, sort of like a top band marching in a parade. The Angels
were (IMO) "flashier", like a band doing a football half-time show.

"Rich Lemert" wrote in message
news
Dudley Henriques wrote:

"Chris Colohan" wrote in message
...


The Thunderbird show seems to emphasize "look at how cool our planes
are", and not "look at how skilled our pilots are".)


You obviously know little about the Thunderbirds my friend :-)


It's been a few years now, but I remember seeing the Blue Angels and
the Thunderbirds in different air shows. I was impressed by the skill
required by both groups, but I felt that there was a significant
difference in the "showiness" of the two groups. The Thunderbirds were
very precise, sort of like a top band marching in a parade. The Angels
were (IMO) "flashier", like a band doing a football half-time show.

Hmm, from my observations over the past three years (Blues twice, T-birds
twice) I came away with the opposite opinion.

I wonder how much depends on how they "click" on a certain day. A
significant amount, I'll wager.
--
Jim in NC