Football Game Flyovers

[The Inspector]

I believe that there is a ground co-ordinator to keep the demo pilots aware of how much longer the particular 'artist' doing the national anthem will continue to stretch out what should be about 75 seconds worth of song by putting their 'personal stamp' on it and the ground person will estimate and relay '30 seconds' to the pilots which could explain why you see the exhaust trails flourish and wane as the aircraft approach show center.

[Wilson]

Here's an interesting little clip:

http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80924c91

[Bluedharma]

Wilson,
Most impressive!!!!
Thanks for posting that!!!!
Regards,

[JetStarMech]

How do you put a price-tag on our military flying and where they do it???
To start, any flight is a training flight, even in actual combat missions, pilots, crews and maint. personnel learn something and how to do it better.
As a young man (kid) I grew up around Air Force and Naval air stations, the amount of flying was non-stop, but nobody ever asked "Hey what is this costing the tax payer"...
The country was at war in Vietnam and the "Cold War" loomed large, our airman and crews had to be trained, continue to train, training, training training, you can't get enough of it.
For a flight to have a scheduled flyover at a game or to divert to the event and to put $$$$ value on it shouldn't really be an issue.
It's a good question to ask but not one to loose any sleep over.
Just go sit outside any Air Force base or Naval air station on any givin day and look at the amount of flying, would you ask the same question.
Besides, if the taxpayers are paying for the fuel, maint. time etc. for that aircraft to be airborn let them see their tax dollars at work, it's cool.
I've never sat at an airshow like OsKosh or Rockford, when the F-22 Raptor or F-18 Super Hornet are performing and thought "How much is this costing ME", my thoughts are "AWESOME!!!"...
Thanks, Out Here, Tom

[Bluedharma]

It's a good question to ask but not one to loose any sleep over.

Yes it was a good question.
No, I did not lose sleep over this.
I did not know prior to my question that these were training flights.

My main goal to get a comprehensive schedule of all flyover flights so I may take pictures of them.
More flights... more pictures for Bluedharma.
I was not saying we should Ban these events…Nor was I implying that we should reduce them.

I've never sat at an airshow like OsKosh or Rockford, when the F-22 Raptor or F-18 Super Hornet are performing and thought
"How much is this costing ME", my thoughts are "AWESOME!!!"...

Really? That is the same with me. I only asked the question, because my neighbor said “what the HE** this cost money. Why do they do that?
I did not have the answer at the time.

Thanks to all who correctly pointed out that these are training flights and that my neighbor should go pound sand.
I have passed these good wishes along.

I am still looking for a way to follow these flyovers (by looking at TFR) or reviewing websites. Any additional help would be appreciated!

[RyanShort1]

Here's an interesting little clip:

http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80924c91

Now that was an interesting watch.

Ryan

[Randy Haskin]

I believe that there is a ground co-ordinator to keep the demo pilots aware of how much longer the particular 'artist' doing the national anthem will continue to stretch out what should be about 75 seconds worth of song by putting their 'personal stamp' on it and the ground person will estimate and relay '30 seconds' to the pilots which could explain why you see the exhaust trails flourish and wane as the aircraft approach show center.

Here's how I described the process in a post on another forum:

That's just it...you're not hitting a point at a predetermined time.

You're hitting it at"...and the home of the brave", which can vary every time it is performed, even by the same singer. The art of it is having a good hack at how long the song takes, then having a hold point that is a certain duration away from the stadium at 360 KGS. The key, however, is having a good ground FAC who knows how long it takes you to get overhead the stadium and is providing comm as the song progresses.

In my experience, the comm from the FAC in the stadium usually goes something like...

"Hack..." <the singer starts, "Oh, say can you see....">

<jets start inbound from the hold point at the predetrmined ground speed>

Everything is fine for the first 30 seconds or so as the jets push in from the hold.

FAC: "and the rockets red glare...." <the FAC is repeating the song into the UHF radio, sounding really goofy>

FAC: "the bombs....okay, pull it back just a little" <the singer is embellishing the song a little more on game day that she did in the rehearsal, so the jets are going to be early>

<flight lead slows down to 300...the formation starts looking sloppy as the speed decreases>

FAC: "Oh say does that..."

Flight lead: "Eagle 1, 30 seconds." Flight lead hits the point where he knows he's 30 seconds out at his new, slower airspeed. The ground FAC realized that it's going to be LESS than 50 seconds untl "the brave".

FAC: "PUSH IT UP!!!"

<flight lead realizes now that he over corrected with the speed reduction, and shoves the throttles up into min burner to get faster QUICK! It's tough to make up more than a few seconds at this point!>

Singer: "And the home of the braaaaaaave!"

<flight screams over at 500 KGS, about 3 seconds late, in min afterburner, and sounding totally badass>

[gary1954]

I was standing next to a couple of folks during at a fly over a long time ago, and one of the couples said;"that is soooo noisy!" To which I replied...."Oh H e l l no its not, that's the sound of Freedom ". they ducked out

[Bluedharma]

Another Great Day and a Great Flyover during the Denver Broncos game.







Today’s flyover is courtesy of the 114th
Fighter Squadron, 173rd Fighter Wing,
Kingsley Field, Oregon Air National Guard.


Best Regards,

[Jack Frost]

Back on page 2 I read the following sentence:
"The money is all ready spent, regardless of what activity takes place during those sorties. If the jets don't take off, the hours are LOST and the money is wasted."

In other words, if a military flight is cancelled, the fuel that would have been used is dumped in a pit and burned or otherwise disposed of and the flight hours that weren't flown would still be flight hours accrued for maintenence purposes. Do the personnel get any credit for any training they missed because the flight didn't operate but they wanted it to operate?

I must be missing something here since it sounds like fuel was saved, etc. but it really wasn't because the whole exercise will be repeated at a later date because the unit has to spend it's allocation or will lose it next budget!