Blue Angels

JPilot9

JPilot9

Well-Known Member
I was out at KAFW yesterday watching the Blues practice. When we left I noticed that 6 F-18s were parked at show center, Fat Albert was way down in the runup area of 35, and two backup jets were parked in the runup area of 17.

Does anyone know why they park the planes almost 2 miles apart? Do they just space the planes out to minimize any damage if something goes wrong?

By the way, there's a ton of iron on display at Alliance this year so if you're in the area head on down and take a look.
 
Justin172 said:
I was out at KAFW yesterday watching the Blues practice. When we left I noticed that 6 F-18s were parked at show center, Fat Albert was way down in the runup area of 35, and two backup jets were parked in the runup area of 17.

Does anyone know why they park the planes almost 2 miles apart? Do they just space the planes out to minimize any damage if something goes wrong?

By the way, there's a ton of iron on display at Alliance this year so if you're in the area head on down and take a look.
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I believe there may be a required clear area underneath and around where the performance will be taking place.
 
Fat Albert is a dedicated maintenance/support aircraft, so although it does take part in the show, it's crew also has work to do. My guess is that they were either staging for their portion of the show, or they were dropping off some stuff and did so in an out of the way location. When I was at Fallon several weeks back, they had a maintenance area secluded from the show birds, and they had one of the jets up on jacks doing something with it. Could be this, or it could be just a good place to park it.
 
They usually keep the spare a/c at the designated maintenance area. That way if a maintenance issue arises, they can land, taxi over, swap a/c and get back into the show as quickly as possible. Had a few buddies that were mechs for the Blues.;) I got to do a little TAD while I was waiting for a class in Pensacola and was surprised to learn that they have 4 spare a/c. that stay in Pensacola. There are two #7 a/c (two seater) and the other three can mirror any of the numbers of the other aircraft depending on sheduled maintenace cycles.
 
We had a LOX leak in the mighty War Hoover at an airshow in Reading, PA and two AME's from the Blues helped us get our jet back up. They were total gents and offered to help on their own accord when they heard we were having mx problems. They sent us over to "Bert" for a ride during the show...I have nothing but good things to say about those guys.

Now the airshow spectator smoking a cigar leaning over our shoulder while we were looking for a leak in the LOX compartment, well, I had less than kind words for him.
 
chunk75 said:
We had a LOX leak in the mighty War Hoover at an airshow in Reading, PA and two AME's from the Blues helped us get our jet back up. They were total gents and offered to help on their own accord when they heard we were having mx problems. They sent us over to "Bert" for a ride during the show...I have nothing but good things to say about those guys.

Now the airshow spectator smoking a cigar leaning over our shoulder while we were looking for a leak in the LOX compartment, well, I had less than kind words for him.
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C'mon, what's a little LOX and cigar mix? :D

Ever see that '70s Navy LOX safety video called "The man from LOX" with all the "....gonna have your ass" quotes in it? But with the graphic ending too?
 
Nihon_Ni said:
It could also be that they set up and ordnance area since Fat Albert uses JATO bottles.
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Not anymore. Last time was at the final Homecoming Airshow in Pensacola last month. I was fortunate enough to be there and it was really cool. The JATO bottles were too expensive so they are out of the show now.
 
MikeD said:
C'mon, what's a little LOX and cigar mix? :D

Ever see that '70s Navy LOX safety video called "The man from LOX" with all the "....gonna have your ass" quotes in it? But with the graphic ending too?
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Oh, that's dredging up a few brain cells that I haven't used in a while. I saw that in Maintenance School in the 90s.
 
subpilot said:
Not anymore. Last time was at the final Homecoming Airshow in Pensacola last month. I was fortunate enough to be there and it was really cool. The JATO bottles were too expensive so they are out of the show now.
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I believe they still have them, just special occasions only though as they are running low.
 
Maurus said:
I believe they still have them, just special occasions only though as they are running low.
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They made a REALLY big point at the airshow that this was the end of them using JATO rockets. The local news said it was because of cost. I think they quoted each JATO rocket as costing $20,000 and it takes 6 or 8 for the JATO performance. Granted, they could always bring it back one day.
 
The JATOs and Fat Albert have always been pretty slick. Not sure if it was a requirement or just an afterthought, but I believe the 130J can perform the same takeoff profile as the 130 with JATOs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyjK0zNs9oE

Around the 2:40 mark the takeoff roll starts. Kind of blocked by the 15's, but you can see how high the nose is pitched up.
 
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