Thunderbirds

To participate in the show it is an honour sought by many and awarded to few. Eight pilots comprise the team but only six fly the demonstration. Hundreds of applications arrive each year at Thunderbirds HQ at Nellis AFB on the northern fringe of Las Vegas. The team collectively whittles down the applications to a short list of around 12 semi-finalists who must go through a daunting series of interviews including fronting the two Generals who oversee the operations of the team. Each surviving finalist must then showcase their flying skills and their ability to meld into the operations of the team. From there, the Leader/Commander, Thunderbird One makes his recommendations and passes them up the line. Eventually, select individuals receive a phone call from a General that changes their life.

Typically, barring illnesses or operational exigencies, the team will replace three of the six demonstration positions each year. This year the Left wing (2), Slot (4) and Opposing solo (6) were the new kids on the block and were thrown straight into the enormous workload required to get them up to speed.

Training season is five months long and consists of two daily sorties. It begins as two ship sorties where the basics of the maneuvers are taught to them by their predecessors. As the months progress the team graduates to the four ship diamond and gets closer to the ground whilst the solo pilots work on their timing and specialist maneuvers. One of the highlights of the training season is when the team finally brings the six F-16’s together as the Delta. From that point on the priorities are to tighten the timing of the show and the closeness of the formations whilst keeping everything as safe as possible in time for the teams mid-March debut.

Safety is divided up into three main spheres of responsibility. Thunderbird One as Commander is responsible for the entire team.

Thunderbird Five is the lead solo and must ensure that the solo passes and the rejoins with the Diamond are properly timed and executed.

Thunderbird Seven is the Operations Officer and safety is his byword. The incumbent is Lt Col Derek Routt.

He describes his brief, “My job is to oversee and review every practice and show, either via a film or by flying chase and deliver to each pilot a comprehensive debrief of every aspect of their performance.”

Come March and the team is ready to go on the road. A typical air show season involves 70 displays and anything up to 270 days away from Nellis.

Whilst every position on the team has its challenges, it is the Lead who arguably has the most difficult job of all. The amount of information on parameters and contingencies that a Lead must have filed away in his helmet is awe-inspiring. Lead is currently Lt Col Greg “Charger” Thomas who must fly the show quickly, smoothly and seamlessly. He must at all times know precisely the position and parameters of the formation with reference to show-center and the whereabouts of the solos, which can be difficult because every airfield or venue is unique. Factor in terrain and changing weather and his hands are full.

Lead has some help in memorizing the sequence. One of the jobs of Number Two, Major John Baum, is to check that Lead has announced the next pass correctly. Air show spotters who tune into the Thunderbirds transmissions can hear a flamboyant “Two-ahh”, or some variation on that, as confirmation of a correct call from Lead. The rare call of “Maneuver” means Lead needs to rethink his sequence. Two is known as “The Secretary” for this reason.

Every Lead flies in slightly different ways and each team must adjust to that. The Thunderbirds have developed a way of communication from the Lead known as “the ditty”. Lead will constantly talk in a measured cadence to pre-empt each maneuver in such a way as to give each wingman a reference point to, for instance, start a roll or commence the pull into a loop. For a roll the command from Lead will be, “Rolling left and rolling”. The wingmen know that the roll will commence as the “r” from the second “rolling” is being transmitted. Lead spends the entire show talking his way through whichever version of the display is being flown that day.

There are three versions of the show available to fly depending on the weather conditions on the day.

The High Show is the full variant, incorporating all the higher altitude looping and bomb burst maneuvers.

The Low Show is used when the cloud base precludes loops but allows rolling passes. Passes like the Arrowhead loop for instance, can be made into a rolling pass. The Flat Show, a series of formation and solo passes, is used when the weather really closes in and includes no vertical maneuvers at all.

Whilst the team always takes two spare F-16’s to each air show, sometimes a ground or air abort means that the display can be forced into last minute changes. A five ship formation known as the “Stinger” can be flown in lieu of the Delta. In the Stinger one of the solos flies behind the slot instead of on the wing.

If Two, Three or Four are not present, then a hybrid diamond formation known as the “Flying Dorito” is used.

Flying the Diamond or being a Solo pilot demands different skills and temperaments. Major Sean Gustafsen is the current slot pilot and is in the unique position of being a USAF Reserve pilot in the team. Major Gustafsen was Delta Airlines 767 First Officer until late last year when the USAF hierarchy decided that the 750,000 Air Force reservists needed a representative on the Thunderbirds.

Sean has his own views on the capabilities required to do the various jobs, “Let’s just say that I appreciate the flamboyant aspects of the solos routine, but I prefer the precision of the Diamond.” He says. Modestly, he considers himself, “…only an average pilot.”

Every new solo comes into the team as Number Six and finishes as Number Five. They do not however swap wing positions in the Delta in their second year as that change would be too demanding. Solos do consider themselves a breed apart as evidenced by the inverted number five that is proudly displayed on the Lead solos aircraft. Many of the signature solo passes feature Five in the inverted position so it makes sense to have the “5” correctly oriented.

Viewing a Thunderbirds show means there is always something interesting to watch. From the twenty minute ground show where the aircraft are readied for flight by their super-efficient and motivated crew chiefs, to the new eye opening Block 52 powered loop after takeoff, followed by the syncopation of the diamond and solo passes. The show culminates in the six-ship Delta passes and the jaw-dropping high bomb-burst crossover.

After 35 minutes of aerial precision, Lead takes the diamond skyward where they separate for the first time in the show. A perfect cross is then painted in the sky at around 7000 ft for a following solo to rocket through. On command the diamond pilot’s maneuver to point their F-16’s towards the bomb-burst crossover point. The aim is for the diamond aircraft to arrive from all points of the compass, inside an impossibly small box of airspace in front of the crowd at the same time, giving the illusion of impending collision with 1700km/hr crossing speeds.

The Thunderbirds do their job very well and that is by no accident. “Incredible attention to detail” is the hallmark and motto of this elite demonstration squadron. We can only hope that it won’t be another 17 years till they grace our skies again.

The End