Your pilots from today's screenshots are:
- Texaco 1. Thumper
- Bon Jobie
- Gunner
- Redeye
- Burner
- Striker
- Lawndart
- Convertible
- Whack
AR enroute to yet another remote show location, Tbird 5 and 6 maintain their element formation waiting to get gas, while the others finished getting joined up on the other side of the tanker.
Once everyone filled up, the entire 8-ship formation joined up for an overhead pass to start off the area survey and arrival maneuvers.
"Smoke On Ready Now!" Area arrival at Oktyabrskoye from behind show center.
Following the overhead, Tbird 7 and 8 cleared off and landed while the demo team performed its site survey. Here, the Diamond transitioned into Trail formation for one of a few transition passes to let the Boss pick out his turn-in and pull points.
The Solos in the mean time set up timing runs for their Opposing maneuvers and Calypso Pass, as demonstrated here from angles not normally attainable in real life.
Taken by our photographer by the runway threshold as the Solos blast overhead in Calypso formation.
The Boss performs another low orbit to get a good tally on show center and his profile angles.
As with any sortie the Thunderbirds always finish with the Pitch Break for landing, this time from the Delta formation.
The following day (in Lockon time) the team performed its signature High Show demo for the people at Oktyabrskoye. The show was off to a great start in unfamiliar surroundings, but having mapped out pull points and distances from the airport, it appeared the same to the spectators in the crowd. Here are some moments from the show day!
The EPIR (Echelon Pass in Review) or more commonly referred to as the Trail Banana. The guys did a nice one!
Diamond Roll
Opposing 4-Point Roll. The optical hit is breathtaking!
Let's take a close-up look.
From our very own photographer located closer to the showline, capturing the minimal separation used by our two Solos.
Telescopic lens from the approach end of runway 24 in Oktyabrskoye of the same moment in time when Tbird 5 and 6 are belly-to-belly in their Opposing 4-Point Roll.
The Hi-Lo Hit... Tbird 6 has been accelerating downhill to mach .94 and is just about to overtake the Diamond with gear down, speedbrakes down at 200 knots, a closure speed of over 500 miles per hour!
Following the mid part of the show Tbird 5's aircraft went Code 3 and he had to abort. This meant an on-the-fly change to a 5-ship High Show and Tbird 6 set up for the Max Turn-Half Cuban and then circled for the Stinger Rejoin behind show center while the Diamond performed it's high G maneuver:
The Diamond 360 as seen here.
Once joined up in lieu of the Delta Series, the Stinger Series were flown with Tbird 6 dropping back behind our Slot pilot. Here seen in the Stinger Roll.
...and subsequently the Stinger Loop.
After completing the remainder of the show Tbird 7 and 8 took off and joined up with the airborne formation again for a closing pass and some 7-ship formations back to home plate. Unfortunately Tbird 5 had to be left behind due to mechanical difficulties (read: computer problems). Here are some of the moments during our cross country back to our home plate:
No. 4 moved out to outer left wing with No. 7 and 8 to complete the center of our Big Stinger formation.
Once in, our two wing elements dropped back to fly off of Tbird 8 to form the Big Arrowhead formation.
That completed our one day show at Oktyabrskoye and journey between two airports as the Virtual Thunderbirds completed yet another remote show on as part of their roadtrip. Thanks for checking out the screenshots and we hope to see you back soon enough again when we'll put on an entire, better than before live demonstration!
As always you're always welcome to approach us and have the opportunity to watch our practice sorties live too! Stop by our website and join our Ventrilo server! See you in the friendly skies soon!