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Blue Angels steal the show at Quonset |
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Thursday, 02 July 2009 |
An insiders look at the operations of the most renowned air team in the nation.
By CARL CRITZ
QUONSET - Of the dozens of acts to see at last weekend’s air show, the most spectacular by far had to be the Navy’s Blue Angels demonstration team. The six-member flying acrobatic routine is ubiquitous with air shows, where the performers pride themselves on “maximum speed with minimum separation.”
What spectators on the ground might not know is that it takes a crew of almost 130 pilots, support officers, and enlisted support crew members to make sure the well-oiled machine of the Blue Angels keeps running. From public relations officers to corpsmen, the men and women of the U.S. Navy and Marines fly on honor, courage, and commitment, the values of the Blue Angels and the face of a much larger fighting force.
As part of this year’s campaign to “Look up Rhode Island!” in the midst of a national economic crisis, the Blue Angels were back at the Quonset Air Show after a one year hiatus. The blue angels are more than just a symbol of hope and might, they are a reminder of the over 600,000 men and women of the Navy and Marines currently deployed throughout the world and fighting for our country.
The Blue Angels began only months after World War II in an effort by Admiral Chester Nimitz to keep the public interested in naval aviation. Flying theGrunman F6F Hellcat and later the F9F-2 Panther, the Blue Angels took to the skies in their trademark diamond formation at air shows throughout the country. Since then over 427 million people have been treated to their aerobatics.
For their 40th anniversary in 1986, the team unveiled their newest jet, the sleek F/A-18 hornet. In the 23 years that have followed, not much has changed.
The six trademark navy blue F/A-18 Hornets are some of the oldest in the Navy’s fleet. The angels have a seventh jet, piloted by the team’s narrator, Lieutenant Ben Walborn. Walborn is the advance man, who arrives one day before the rest of the crew with Lieutenant Amy Tomlinson to ready the area for their arrival. The number seven jet is also the only one with a rear seat for media and other ride-along flights.
The crew also includes three C-130 pilots who fly “Fat Albert Airlines”, the Blue Angel’s support vehicle. More than just a cargo plane, “Fat Albert Airlines” has its own ten minutes in the air show spotlight, showing off the maximum capabilities of such a large aircraft.
Crew for the Angels are not picked lightly. Enlisted members are usually E-5 rank or above. In addition to an extensive application package, current crew members interview potential candidates for an entire week, even going with them to work to perform an extensive on-site analysis of their work. Attentiveness and effort separate these people from their candidates.
U.S. Marine Corps Captain Tyson Dunkelberger, a Blue Angels’ public relations officer, has been on the job for the last year and a half with the demonstration team. Dunkelberger joined the Marines out of college nine years ago. Prior to the Angels, Dunkelberger had been deployed in Iraq, and was working for the Marine Reserve program when he decided to apply for the position with the Blue Angels. “The team selects their own members,” Dunkelberger said. “It came up as an opportunity so I jumped.”
The program has its perks, and Dunkelberger can attest to them. He has had eight flights in blue angels F-18’s, with over an hour of stick time. “I actually got to fly Fat Albert on the way over here,” he said. “I went to give a magazine to the pilots and was just looking out the windows, and they threw me in a pilot’s seat.” Dunkelberger said that despite its size, the C-130’s controls are surprisingly sensitive.
Commander Chris Collins, a Blue Angels pilot for thee number three jet on the left wing, attests to the brutal nature of a two-year tour as a pilot. “Our schedule is so busy, we have a different show in a different city every week. It’s the same template, just with a different airfield.”
It is his first year of a two-year tour with the Angels. There are always three first year and three second year pilots in the formation, and this year even “boss” Commander Greg McWherter, who flies the number one jet, is in his first year.
“To be the boss you have to have put in at least 3,000 jet hours, whereas normal pilots you have to have flown at least 1,250 jet hours,” said Collins.
Collins and the other pilots took to the skies over Quonset on Thursday morning to familiarize them with the landscape and find some landmarks they will use during their performances here.
This trip is unique for the Blue Angels, as they will be traveling directly to their next venue instead of heading back to Pensacola, Fla. as usual. Their ten-day trip will include an air show in Binghamton, NY as well as several rest and relaxation stops including golf, lobster bakes, and local fishing trips.
Obviously the best part of it will be the Poison and Def Leppard shows at the end of all that,” said Collins.
A native of Darien, Collins attended Norwich College in Vermont. He has spent the last twelve years in the Marine Corps, the vast majority of them as an F/A-18 pilot. Prior to joining the angels Collins was with the fleet, having flown two tours of duty in Iraq and holding a position as an F/A-18 instructor in Miramar, California.
Collins and lead polo pilot Major Nathan Miller are the only Marines in the formation. Typically the angels are comprised of five Navy and one Marines pilot.
The schedule for the angels is grueling. After their last show on November 2, the pilots return to their winter home in El Centro, California, and the outgoing pilots will say their goodbyes. Only days later, three new pilots will come in and begin training for next years’ shows. From January 2 to March 14, the pilots perform over 120 training flights, two or three times a day, six days a week.
“We start out looking pretty wide, and then we work to a point where we’re flying as tight and as safe as possible,” Collins said.
These are standard hornets, not the super hornets that have graced the media as some of the most technologically advanced fighters in the U.S. arsenal. The oldest jets perform at the air shows, leaving the most modern aircraft on the front lines. The jets we stood around were produced in the late 1980’s, and once they have finished their tour with the angels they are typically donated to museums.
“These models are 2,000 pounds lighter, which gives them a greater thrust to weight ratio than many of the hornets in the fleet.” Collins said that driving an angel hornet as opposed to a fleet hornet is like driving a corvette versus a Cadillac on the highway with all of its doors open. “With all the armament its so much heavier, these are like little rocket ships.”
The show the angels perform is relatively unchanged from its routine in 2007, with the addition of a maneuver that involves all six jets in formation. “We do this thing where all the jets are coming at the audience and then we break off in different directions, its one of the easiest that we do but the crowd loves it.”
Navy Chief Dave Wentzel, a Vernon, Connecticut native, is on his third year of a four-year tour with the Blue Angels. Wentzel spent some of his youth hanging out at Misquamicut beaches, and is hoped to catch up with some family friends in Matunuck during his extended stay in New England. The nearly 16 year veteran of the Navy originally went to college for journalism and political science, but left in search of more exciting work.
Most members of the Angels enlisted crew serve three years, but Wentzel was graced with a promotion and an opportunity to work where he loves for an additional year.
For Wentzel, the best part is still meeting all the people. “Both the very young and the veterans are amazing. I love to hear the great stories they have for us. We get to see it everyday but that ‘ooh, ahh’ never gets old.”
Before joining the Blue Angels support team, Wentzel was stationed with the VFA-103 “Jolly Rogers” F-18 squadron in Virginia Beach. He works primarily with the electrical systems of the hornets, from instrument lighting to power distribution.
“The best part about working here is working with the people who fly and maintain these aircraft. These are the oldest planes in the Marine Corps inventory. When we’re done with them, they’re going to a museum.”
Wentzel flew in the back of the number seven jet with Lt. Walborn recently. “You’re just trying to hold on and stay conscious while experiencing five or six G’s, and the lieutenant is not only awake, he’s flying the plane and talking to you, all while executing maneuvers at 4 to 500 miles per hour.”
Lost in the jargon and technical talk, I wasn’t exactly sure what Wentzel meant as he described his breath-taking flight in the F/A-18. But only hours later. Hanging weightless in my own harness, I would be shown exactly what he had described within the Blue Angel’s largest aircraft, the C-130 known better as “Fat Albert”.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 04 September 2009 )
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