I will be meeting 2 members of the Thunderbirds tomorrow in person and then working the airshow both Saturday and Sunday. I will post pics each day but I wanted to know if there are any questions anyone wanted me to ask the pilots?

Let me know here.

Airman David Campbell

Looking forward to the pics, David. Hickam will make a beautiful backdrop for the show. Do you know which two members of the team you are meeting?

Gunner wrote:Looking forward to the pics, David. Hickam will make a beautiful backdrop for the show. Do you know which two members of the team you are meeting?

They didn't say.

David Campbell wrote:I wanted to know if there are any questions anyone wanted me to ask the pilots?

David, here's one for you:

Being a real life pilot, in every aircraft you always perform some kind of flight controls check (box) before every takeoff. These vary slightly depending on the equipment you fly, and the Thunderbirds use a slightly different procedure than the most common F-16 flight controls checks AFAIK. I'm curious what the exact sequence of control inputs are in the cockpit by each pilot (heard during the EOR checks) when the Leader calls: "Flight Controls, Ready, One Release, Two Release, Three Release, Four Release, Five Let er go".

Note: This flight controls check is performed twice in the Block 52, once with the DBU on and then one more time with the DBU off.

Lawndart wrote:

David Campbell wrote:I wanted to know if there are any questions anyone wanted me to ask the pilots?

David, here's one for you:

Being a real life pilot, in every aircraft you always perform some kind of flight controls check (box) before every takeoff. These vary slightly depending on the equipment you fly, and the Thunderbirds use a slightly different procedure than the most common F-16 flight controls checks AFAIK. I'm curious what the exact sequence of control inputs are in the cockpit by each pilot (heard during the EOR checks) when the Leader calls: "Flight Controls, Ready, One Release, Two Release, Three Release, Four Release, Five Let er go".

Note: This flight controls check is performed twice in the Block 52, once with the DBU on and then one more time with the DBU off.

Today I talked to the enlisted side (Their Chief Msgt, Line Chief, and Crew Chief for Thunderbird 1) and tomorrow I got a rare oppurtunity to sit in and listen into their comms so I will be sure to let you know. I will also be meeting Thunderbird 1-6 tomorrow so I will see if I can get further clarification.

Also I asked about the F-35 being the new bird for the Thunderbirds and they said that it was, however, that is 11-12 years off.