A Blue Angels Ride!

In March of 1992, Stan traveled the 97 miles from his home in the Coachella Valley to Naval Air Facility El Centro, the winter home of the Blue Angels. In the course of the day, he hung out with the Blue Angel pilots and watched them perform two different practice sessions. He thought that it been a pretty fabulous day, but a day later, was asked to come back for a ride! Yes, an actual F/A-18B Blue Angels Hornet ride!

On the flight day, shortly after arriving at El Centro, Stan met up with Lt. Dave Stewart, his pilot. Lt. Stewart started to tell Stan what to expect. One of the first things he mentioned was that we wouldn’t be flying with the rest of the team, just the two of us in the #7 jet. Sensing that this might be a bit of a disappointment, the Lieutenant leaned over to Stan and quietly said, “We will have an hour to do anything with the plane that we may want”!

There were a couple hours of hours of training regarding the dos and don’ts of riding in the back seat of a Hornet. Then a cursory physical exam to make sure that you’re likely to be alive at the end of the flight. After being firmly strapped into the seat, the engines were started and the Hornet was off and rolling down the taxiway. At the ready area off the end of the runway, Lt. Stewart asked Stan if he was ready. With an affirmative from him, they rolled onto the active and started to accelerate down the runway. With a further shove of the throttle into afterburner, the jet rushed toward flight speed and became airborne.

Lt. Stewart held it close to the runway with the jet rapidly accelerating. When they reached 250 Knots, he pulled back hard on the stick. Briefly pulling just under 6 G’s for a second an a half put them going straight up! For close to an hour, they executed most every maneuver that the Blue Angels did. The aerobatics culminated with a very brave Lieutenant letting Stan perform a “slow roll” with the jet. The roll went great! Lt. Dave was impressed! Stan knew it was shear luck!

Then they headed back to NAF El Centro with a very happy, but rather green Stan.

PS. We understand that, in the more current years, when a “guest” gets a ride in the #7 Blue Angels Super Hornet, the stick is removed so that there is no thought of having the “back-seater” try to fly the airplane!