Pilot Frank Zastoupil is an Aggie. Class of 2009

Enviroag02 said:

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Pilot Frank Zastoupil is an Aggie. Class of 2009

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what's his call sign?

Saw it in IMAX. Pretty cool.

SICK

That show was awesome.

Got to see the Angels fly very near my home a few years back.


This was back in 2020 when they did some cross-country tour. Flew south to north right up the Grand Parkway here in Katy. I parked my truck on a side street and snapped a bunch of pictures.

Is it just me or do the Blue Angels seem to get a lot more press than the Thunderbirds? I figured it was because I work on a Naval base, so of course I would see the Blue Angels every year.

I have been a little bitter because the Navy refuses to allow F-22s at our air show because they don't want to be shown up. I had to make a drive to finally see one of those.

This really was awesome, thanks for the rec

aTmAg said:

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Is it just me or do the Blue Angels seem to get a lot more press than the Thunderbirds? I figured it was because I work on a Naval base, so of course I would see the Blue Angels every year.

I have been a little bitter because the Navy refuses to allow F-22s at our air show because they don't want to be shown up. I had to make a drive to finally see one of those.

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1000% more press. Other demo teams get basically no run.

aTmAg said:

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Is it just me or do the Blue Angels seem to get a lot more press than the Thunderbirds? I figured it was because I work on a Naval base, so of course I would see the Blue Angels every year.

I have been a little bitter because the Navy refuses to allow F-22s at our air show because they don't want to be shown up. I had to make a drive to finally see one of those.

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Dept of the Navy is better at marketing

Blues vs Thunderbirds
Seals vs Green Berets
USMC vs Army

It's definitely not just you. I bet they get 3-4 times more coverage and publicity than the Thunderbirds.

I grew up in Ft Worth and my dad worked at GD/Lockheed for 35 years so the F-16 was a fascination for me and I noticed the difference. Even Van Halen used the Blue Angels in their video instead of the T-Birds. Lol

Strange since the F-16 is a better aircraft. One would think that would make a better show. Imagine the Thunderbirds as F-22s. That would be ridiculous.

I've never seen the two back to back so I have no idea if one show is better than the other. Though I've heard that it takes a long time for the Blue Angels to regroup. So there is a longer gap between flybys. I imagine the actual "stunts" are the same.

My impression is the Blue Angels are performing more difficult shows, requiring more training, fewer performances, and more rigorous selection. But again that's mostly just based on how hard I've seen it is based on documentaries about the Blue Angels.

The F16 is basically the most maneuverable aircraft in the US arsenal so could in theory make for a better air show than the -18, -22, or -35. But for whatever reason it's kinda considered second rate.

aTmAg said:

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I have been a little bitter because the Navy refuses to allow F-22s at our air show because they don't want to be shown up. I had to make a drive to finally see one of those.

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You should check the schedules for the F-22 team and the Blue Angels. There are multiple air shows where they are scheduled together. There are even shows with the F-35 team too. It's more likely budget issues than one team being afraid
of another.

Going to the Pensacola air show in July. Can't wait.

Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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That show was awesome.

Got to see the Angels fly very near my home a few years back.


This was back in 2020 when they did some cross-country tour. Flew south to north right up the Grand Parkway here in Katy. I parked my truck on a side street and snapped a bunch of pictures.

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They flew about a mile South of my house from East to West as they flew over a hospital near us. Super cool. My neighbor who always has to be the smartest guy went to his front yard (facing North) and shot me down when I tried to tell him that the map I saw looked like it was South of us.

I almost let him be right and instead said "I'm just gonna go to my backyard to check".

As I saw them fly by and out of view, he came running into my backyard and you would have thought someone stole his car.

Had a nice snicker inside.

Decay said:

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My impression is the Blue Angels are performing more difficult shows, requiring more training, fewer performances, and more rigorous selection. But again that's mostly just based on how hard I've seen it is based on documentaries about the Blue Angels.

The F16 is basically the most maneuverable aircraft in the US arsenal so could in theory make for a better air show than the -18, -22, or -35. But for whatever reason it's kinda considered second rate.

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My understanding from pilots who have flown both is that the F-18 is easier to control at slow (air show) speeds than the F-16. This undoubtedly is because the F-18 has a slower stall speed due to having to land on carriers. So the Blue Angle uses this advantage to fly closer to each other than the Thunderbirds at air shows. They don't do so because they are better pilots, they do so because their aircraft enables that. A Thunderbird pilot could do the same in F-18s and a Blue Angel pilot would have a hard time doing so in an F-16.

The F-16 has no problem landing faster since it does so on 1000s of feet of runway. Having a F-18 level stall speed would compromise other things that make the F-16 better than the F-18 in combat. So things that give the F-16 a better combat record make it harder to fly inches apart. However, this is why Thunderbird shows have higher speeds and have more "action". There is less time between "stunts" that the spectator is waiting for the next pass. This is because F-16s are able to catch up and rejoin much more quickly than F-18s.

That is what I have been told at least.

Marauder Blue 6 said:

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aTmAg said:

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I have been a little bitter because the Navy refuses to allow F-22s at our air show because they don't want to be shown up. I had to make a drive to finally see one of those.

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You should check the schedules for the F-22 team and the Blue Angels. There are multiple air shows where they are scheduled together. There are even shows with the F-35 team too. It's more likely budget issues than one team being afraid
of another.

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I have. I saw the F-22 and Blue Angels at Alliance airport in Fort Worth. That is a civilian airport, therefore the inter-branch politics does not apply there. (And the F-22 was FAR more impressive)

And my statement on the politics wasn't just a guess on my part. To avoid crowds, I watch the air show from my (work) side of the runway. The problem is that you don't hear any of the announcers or anything over there. I usually don't want to sit there all day, so I'd get the schedule from the flight ops people. Once I asked them, why the hell they never had F-22s when WE (LM) make them right there for crying out loud, and they told me what I mentioned above.

In fact, it gets even worse. The Air Force and LM pilots are severely restricted on their flight patterns. According to them, navy jets could fly lower and closer to the crowd, and the air force had to stay mostly over the far side of the runway. Lockheed has a set of old army pilots who fly a ridiculously tight pattern in order to impress foreign countries looking to buy fighters. So rather than have an active duty air force pilot fly the F-16, they'd have a 50 year old LM test pilot fly his typical pattern. That dude basically stayed in the confines of the RUNWAY. It was pretty freaking amazing.

A funny story... as a protest on their treatment by the navy, static display B-52 pilots would occasionally pop their chutes when they landed. This would force the navy guys at the base to collect the chute on the runway. But they didn't know how. A crew of a B-52 base knew how to pick up art of the chute a quickly by driving their jeep in a pattern folding it nicely. Navy dudes had no idea. And BTW, this was at CARSWELL which used to be a B-52 base. That runway was so damned long that B-52 never needed to pop their chutes. It was done as a general F U to the navy for the hell of it.

That makes sense, very interesting.

aTmAg said:

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Decay said:

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My impression is the Blue Angels are performing more difficult shows, requiring more training, fewer performances, and more rigorous selection. But again that's mostly just based on how hard I've seen it is based on documentaries about the Blue Angels.

The F16 is basically the most maneuverable aircraft in the US arsenal so could in theory make for a better air show than the -18, -22, or -35. But for whatever reason it's kinda considered second rate.

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My understanding from pilots who have flown both is that the F-18 is easier to control at slow (air show) speeds than the F-16. This undoubtedly is because the F-18 has a slower stall speed due to having to land on carriers. So the Blue Angle uses this advantage to fly closer to each other than the Thunderbirds at air shows. They don't do so because they are better pilots, they do so because their aircraft enables that. A Thunderbird pilot could do the same in F-18s and a Blue Angel pilot would have a hard time doing so in an F-16.

The F-16 has no problem landing faster since it does so on 1000s of feet of runway. Having a F-18 level stall speed would compromise other things that make the F-16 better than the F-18 in combat. So things that give the F-16 a better combat record make it harder to fly inches apart. However, this is why Thunderbird shows have higher speeds and have more "action". There is less time between "stunts" that the spectator is waiting for the next pass. This is because F-16s are able to catch up and rejoin much more quickly than F-18s.

That is what I have been told at least.

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That's a reasonable explanation.

aTmAg said:

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Is it just me or do the Blue Angels seem to get a lot more press than the Thunderbirds? I figured it was because I work on a Naval base, so of course I would see the Blue Angels every year.

I have been a little bitter because the Navy refuses to allow F-22s at our air show because they don't want to be shown up. I had to make a drive to finally see one of those.

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I think you are really on point with that comment!

Considering I was a CPT in the USAF Reserves it bugs me that the SEALS and the Blue Angels get a lot more pub

than Air Force CCT, PJs and TACPs

Chomps. He married my childhood friend. Great guy.