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

Mancuso really is a great guy in real life. I remember being about 10 years old and standing in line with him for a hotdog at the Stockton Airshow. Here he narrates his own formation video explaining crowd perspective as it relates to different maneuvers. KILLER!!!

Awesome find! This needs to be viewed by every true air show fan!!!

Thanks Smuckers!

Thanks for sharing.

Absolutely beautiful. Damn that looks like fun.

Yep, I still get a chill everytime I watch the light change on the lead bird...the only real indication that you are upside down or right-side up...gosh I miss that about flying with you guys.

Oh boy, it's a dream for me to do that
Thanks for sharing!

Very cool vid, nice find

AWESOME!

Especially because I'm going to watch their show during lunch tomorrow at the Radio-Controlled Extreme Flight Championships in Muncie, IN!!

Interesting commment from the pilot in the commentary. "If you stayed in position the whole time it would only look like your in position some of the time". That might not be a word for word quote but he was explaining the necessity of creating an illusion for the crowds perspective by constantly altering your position. I believe the Thunderbird solos employ that tactic but what about the Diamond I wonder?

Slot pilot (4) doesn't fly exactly behind the Boss but a little left or right (depending what side the public is). Doing this prevents the slot pilot disappearing behind one of the aircrafts on the wing. Both Thunderbirds and Blue Angels do this.

Regarding the use of "offsets" asked by afneer...

For the Diamond, it depends on the maneuver... Most Thunderbird maneuvers are steep enough or with the enough "top side" towards the crowd that they don't need an offset. The Pass in Review is the most offset maneuver, since it's a photo pass. There are other techniques used during other maneuvers too to make it look right to the crowd. For instance the most amount of rudder (toeing) used during a roll happens when the formation is "knife edge" to the crowd and the most amount of bank (cupping) happens when the formation is inverted over the top of the roll. This gives the crowd the optical illusion of perfect positioning. It's a more subtle form of technique, that if, viewed from a chase plane is much more evident.

The Solos also offset, BIG TIME! During the opposing hits & two ship formations most noticably! The airplane closest to the crowd flies a lower altitude than the other plane during optical hits (line of sight from the spectator and both planes appearing to cross exactly opposite of one another in front of the crowd).

Having said this, compared to the video seen above with Mancuso - the Thunderbirds do not move around in this manner to always look correct to the crowd. Comparatively, they maintain their positions throughout each maneuver!