Last Friday, I had the flight of a life time. After my glorious ride, Royce Gough and I waited patiently in the post-flight area. The doctor popped in and congratulated me on the flight and its success. With subtle over tones, I think she was eluding a verbal high-five to the fact that I did not puke and I did not pass out. Granted, both were of high probability.
After nearly three hours of briefing, “Split,” pilot of Thunderbird 8, explained to me that he wanted to give the ride of a lifetime and allow me to experience every move that the Thunderbirds execute during their air show. However, instead of capping the ride with a 7G (Seven G-force) which is the maximum experienced during the show, he would throttle our flight an hopefully hit 9G’s.
With light cloud cover, we took off the tarmac and immediately hit 6+G’s as we went into a vertical climb to approximately 18,000 feet. After an inverted roll out, we headed to a military no-fly zone in the far north/east corner of California. Imagine, a 600 mph ride at 15000 ft, high above the Sacramento Valley. It was exhilarating.
Trying to allow the adrenalin to settle, Royce and I began to walk out. I had been cleared to leave with a clean bill of health. One of the host Thunderbirds walked over and said, “Here is a cockpit video recording. I hope you enjoyed your flight.”
I hope you enjoy Part 1 of 2.
That was the warm up. Tune in tomorrow for where is started to get a little bit crazy...
Much hope and more love,
JHARP
