Another Cockpit Shot from the Thunderbirds Ride
Building Possibly the Coolest Logbook Page Ever
This is a regular blog post. If you’re looking for show notes or links to show audio, please check out the other posts.
I think that I might be working on the greatest logbook page ever. It just happened that the DC-3 training in Griffin started on a new page, so I start out with five lines and four flights in the DC-3.
(By the way, the DC-3 course documentation took the form of a completion certificate, but no logbook entries. I made the entries myself based on the in-flight recordings I made while covering the type rating course for the show.)
So that’s DC-3, DC-3, DC-3, DC-3, Citabria, Citabria, F-16D. And Maj Mulhare was kind enough to sign that F-16D entry and even filled it out as being dual received!
Not sure there’s much else I could get in there that would make it cooler. The Tri-Motor would have been cool and I paid for the right seat, but Detroit City Airport wouldn’t make the proper arrangements to accommodate the EAA’s Tri-Motor and they had to cancel.
So I’ll put a little more Citabria time in the book tomorrow afternoon. And, to be honest, that’s plenty good enough for me. What a great summer so far! Maybe ASES in August with Tom Brady, but I think I’m through adding stuff prior to AirVenture Oshkosh in a few weeks. It’ll be hard enough to live with me as it is.
I’m hard at work editing and I’ll have a summary episode for the Thunderbirds F-16 flight up soon. Watch this space!
Thunderbirds Ride – Full Description Episode
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These are the show notes to an audio episode. You can listen online right here by clicking: http://media.libsyn.com/media/airspeed/AirspeedThunderbirdsRide3.mp3.
Photography by Tim Reed.
Here it is! The full-length episode with all of my initial reactions from the USAF Thunderbirds flight!
I have a lot of audio and video yet to post and I plan to do a full summary episode with audio from the suit-up, the briefings, and the flight. But, in the meantime, I think it’s important to get the story out as soon as possible.
And what better way to do that than by using that age-old journalistic technique: Hangar-flying!
For this episode, I’ve invited friend, Civil Air Patrol (USAF Auxiliary) captain, and confessed Air Force and F-16 fanboy Rod Rakic to take over the flight controls and the microphone and interview me. This is a roughly chronological (but otherwise free-flowing) discussion of the media ride that I took with Maj Tony Mulhare, Thunderbird No. 8, this past Friday. We departed the Battle Creek Field of Flight Air Show and Balloon Festival just before the rest of the Thunderbirds team began its demo and returned just before the demo was complete.
In the intervening time, Maj Mulhare put the F-16D through its paces in the Hersey Military Operations Area about 80 nm and 12 minutes (!) of Battle Creek and I was along to observe the capabilities of this outstanding aircraft.
Listen in and you’ll hear my impressions just over 24 hours after the ride. Plenty to talk about, but it’s still gelling, so this episode contains from-the-hip, honest, and gut-level commentary about the flight, the Air Force, and how the experience expanded the way I think about aviation.
See the links on the right side of the page for links to US Air Force and Thunderbirds resources.
Thunderbirds Ride Video – The Takeoff and Climb
We got the video issues ironed out (mostly) and we have a post of the takeoff sequence!
Check this out! 0 to 350 KIAS in a matter of seconds and then a 4-5 gee pull-up.