Smoke Question

[Blaze]

I was watching a video of the Thunderbirds demo at GML 2007 and the boss kept the smoke on after the Delta Roll during the turnabout for the Loop. I was wondering if that was something new they were doing, it was just for that show, or just the fact that he forgot. Anyways, just curious.

[Lawndart]

The Tbirds used to keep smoke on throughout the entire Delta Series years ago, then they stopped sometime around '02-03 (coindicentally during the same time the show changed inc. the Delta sequence). I've seen them use smoke in the Loop reposition several times the last year or so, but it seems they keep running out of smoke oil during the High BB sometimes as well. My guess is they kept the smoke on throughout the entire Delta before, but due to the old loop being the Delta Clover with Blue Out (on top), they killed smoke early compared to now as well as had no smoke setting up for its head-on pass. Then after making the show changes they probably tried flying the entire Delta Series as it is today with smoke on, but ran out during the High BB? I'm sure they are trying to make slight modifications to both show and the smoke system to allow smoke on during the Delta Series and if they have to pick one out of two turnarounds to keep it on, then the one between the Roll and Loop seem to give a better visual to the crowd than the one between the BUP and Roll. I'm sure they would like to keep smoke on the entire time if they could, but it usually means someone runs out of smoke at the end of the show!

As far as the Boss forgetting, my guess is that any turnaround with smoke on was planned, but on the radio you can usually hear him call for smoke on again (even if it's already on prior to the Delta Loop). The verbiage is so ingrained the way they usually do it, that remembering to say "Smoke Is On" vs. "Smoke On Ready Now" is really hard to do!

[Blaze]

Wow what a response! Thanks for that one, I'll add that to my notes.