Horizon Fly Over's

SurferLucas

Southern Gentleman
From the company website:

Hear the roar of the crowd? It's cheering the fact that Horizon Air's university-themed aircraft will be flying about 1,000 feet above upcoming home games in Eugene, Pullman, Seattle, Corvallis and Boise.

Achieving these flyovers is no small feat. It involves a tremendous amount of coordination between Flight Control, Flights Operations Technical, Corporate Communications, the Department of Homeland Security, the universities and local media.

"This is one of the most ambitious promotions we've ever done," says Dan Russo, vice president, Marketing and Communications. "It will generate a lot of excitement around our partnerships with these schools and strengthen Horizon's brand as 'Wings of the Great Northwest.'"

There is one important caveat: Each flyover will require final approval from Homeland Security, and Horizon will be notified if it has the green light to proceed 72 hours before each game.

"We've received several requests to ride on the flights, and while it would be wonderful to send the airplanes out full of employees and fans, we are limited by the Department of Homeland Security waiver to the approved crew (two pilots and an alternate pilot) only," says Andrew Taylor, assistant chief pilot. "Background checks on each crewmember are part of the waiver approval process."

Watch this regularly updated page for details about the flyovers as well as the Nov. 9 unveiling of the new Boise State University Q400. After the events, photos/videos provided by employees will also be posted.

Here's the schedule, if anyone is going to be a game with a fly-over, I'd love to see pics!

University of Oregon, 3 October 2009
Washington State, 10 October 2009
University of Washington, 24 October 2009
Oregon State, 31 October 2009
Boise State, 14 November 2009
 
Somehow a Q400 doesn't have quite the "wow" factor as a formation of F-18s.

On the plus side the Q400 is slow enough you'll see it for a while whereas the F-18s are gone before you know it.
 
The CRJ-700 will be flying over Eugene, Corvallis and Pullman. The Q4 will be flying over Seattle and Boise.
 
I got to see the 700 fly over yesterday while on my way out to watch the game at a party. I thought it looked like a gigantic waste of money when i'm not sure if anybody outside of some of us knew they were horizon's planes. I had to edumicate my friends that it wasn't the personal plane of the UofO and then that it wasn't owned by SWA.... Ugh...
 
There is one important caveat: Each flyover will require final approval from Homeland Security, and Horizon will be notified if it has the green light to proceed 72 hours before each game.

"We've received several requests to ride on the flights, and while it would be wonderful to send the airplanes out full of employees and fans, we are limited by the Department of Homeland Security waiver to the approved crew (two pilots and an alternate pilot) only," says Andrew Taylor, assistant chief pilot. "Background checks on each crewmember are part of the waiver approval process."

Am I the only one bothered by this? "Final approval"; "additional background checks"?

How much can you freakin' know about the crewmembers??? I mean, we already do an FBI 10 year check and fingerprints. Gimme a break!
 
Nothing, really...so something tells me it is something racist like if the pilot has a name that seems to be from the Middle east then he failed the background check.
 
The CRJ would be a more spectacular event. Throw in the baby dash for kicks and giggles.
 
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