October 13, 2013 - Game Day - 49 ship Flyover |
||||||
OK, today's the day. Game day. First item of business, pull all the planes out of the big hangar. | ||||||
The brief. | ||||||
KC Flight lead -- BeeGee -- led the brief. | ||||||
OK, today's the day. Game day. We loaded the smoke cannisters into the rack and wired them up. All that was required was to crimp some D-sub pins on the orange wires, insert them into the recepticles in the wingtip and tape it up. I put some red tape on the Nav switch so I wouldn't turn it on accidently. Fortunately, the Nav switch was just above my throttle so when the time came, I could turn the smoke on without having to let go of the throttle. That may not seem like a big deal, but in tight formation, you really don't want to have to let go of the throttle! | ||||||
A photographer in a helicopter took this neat shot of us taxiing out on Sunday. As you can see, it is another day of Severe Clear. | ||||||
And now lining up on the runway.
|
||||||
Pre-takeoff runup on the taxiway.
|
||||||
Taxi for takeoff.
|
||||||
Takeoff. Two by two by two ...
|
||||||
Twenty-four takeoff pairs, plus tail-end Mike.
|
||||||
A good shot of the side-by-side takeoff. The only other pilot from the Mid-Atlantic region, my flying friend Jerry, is on the the other side of the red RV.
|
||||||
For all the people not flying, they had transportation to Arrowhead Stadium. Here is Lynnette outside the stadium before the game, waiting for us to fly over.
|
||||||
That cloud in the middle of the picture is our big arrowhead formation approaching the stadium. The pink smoke cannisters ran for two to three minutes. BeeGee gave the smoke-on command a minute or so out. |
||||||
Getting closer!
|
||||||
A nice shot of KC Flight from the left side.
|
||||||
Lynnette took this nice shot as we passed overhead. | ||||||
And inside the stadium ... The crowd started to roar when they saw us coming. |
||||||
The KC Flight lead, BeeGee, had us on top exactly to the second, just as the National Anthem ended. |
||||||
What can you say? Perfect timing. BeeGee did a masterful job. All 49 pilots did a fantastic job staying in tight formation.
|
||||||
|
||||||
In tight, we made a few shallow turns of no ore than ten degrees. But that was enough! | ||||||
A close-up of my used smoke cannister. | ||||||
A very happy KC Flight Lead BeeGee after the successful flight. | ||||||