CoolPix: Michael Goulian In Formation With The Blue Angels - Wow!

(click pic for hi-res)  An amazing display of blue and yellow paint!  (photo: facebook)

 Last night, Michael Goulian posted this amazing picture on his Goulian Aerosports facebook page, and it just happened to be hi-res enough that I was able to make it into a CoolPix. What a fantastic display of aerobatic blue and yellow paint as Michael flies formation with the incredible Blue Angels! His caption for the pic on facebook reads: Some days are just better than others. Thanks to "Boss" & The Blues for the honor and the privilege!!!!!!

 I was already really enjoying the new Goodyear paint on his Extra 330SC, but when you put it in front of the similar colors of the Blues you wind up with a stunning combo. I'm not sure, but I think this pic is from the prep days for the Dayton Air Show this weekend July 7-8 where both the Blue Angels and Michael are performing, so I'm guessing it's from yesterday or the day before.

 I knew right away when I saw this pic that it would make for an excellent desktop image, so I've prepped up the standard sizes for y'all... I hope you enjoy this awesome pic as much as I do : )

Desktop Downloads: Michael Goulian with the Blue Angels 2012

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(check out the AirPigz 'Desktop Pic' category)

(check out my 2010 podcast interview with Michael Goulian)

Video: 1970 Super 8 Home Movie: Blue Angels In F-4J Phantom II's (Mesmerizing)

 With this video you get flicker, lint, and projector noise. But the cool part is, I think all of that is truly genuine. That's what makes this 3-1/2 minutes of vintage 1970 home movie (Super 8mm) so mesmerizing to me... it's just awesome. It's the most unusual little portal into a part of Blue Angels history in the early part of the 5+ years that they flew the McDonnell Douglas F-4J Phantom II. Filmed at Suffolk County AFB in Long Island New York in 1970, this film reminds me so much of the many airshows I attended when I was around 10 years old in that same era.

 There's a chance some of you just won't get this video, it'll seem odd and very unimpressive. I'm willing to risk that to be able to share it with the others who, like me, will think it's one of the coolest things they've seen in a long time. It's also kinda neat that it was uploaded only a little over a month ago and only had 125 views when I found it. A big thanx goes to youtuber distar97 for putting this little gem of history on the net for us to see. And wow, I had definitely forgotten how hot the F-4 looked in that Blue Angels paint!

 

UPDATE 6-29-12: Wanna watch this video with amazing background music?

First, mute the audio in the video window (you might have to hit play first, then just click the speaker icon to mute), then click here to open new browser tab with some awesome music on youtube - then start the music (it may start on its own), and after about 8 seconds, start the Blue Angels video. It's stunning. Seriously. STUNNING. It made me cry.

A big thanx to Jenessa who discovered this combo and shared it on the AirPigz facebook page.

Video (film) screenshot: Blue Angels F-4J Phantom II during 1970 airshow in New York

Screenshot: The Super 8MM view shot thru trees of a Blue Angels F-4J in 1970

CoolPix: Blue Angels Over Baltimore Last week (Now With Desktop Sizes!)

(click pic for hi-res)

 I've been bringing you what I call CoolPix images for a long time now, and I've always intended that you would use them as desktop backgrounds. But I imagine a lot of folks don't have the easy means to resize or crop an image to best fit their specific screen size. So I decided I'd give you some help, starting with this AWESOME Blue Angels image captured last Friday over Baltimore.

 This beautiful image is in the standard CoolPix size of 1600 pixels wide above (when you click the pic) and then below I have links to several of the most popular sizes for screen resolution. If I get some positive feedback on making the cropped and resized images available (for free!) then I'll see if I can make it regular part of CoolPix images in the future. So download and then gimme some feedback!

Blue Angels over Baltimore on 6-15-12:

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 Lastly, here's the description of this pic from the US Navy website:

 BALTIMORE (June 15, 2012) Capt. Brandon Cordill, left wingman of the U.S. Navy flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels, flies an F/A-18 Hornet over Baltimore during the Star Spangled Sailabration, which coincides with Baltimore Fleet Week 2012 and commemorates the War of 1812 and the writing of the "Star Spangled Banner." (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Andrew Johnson/Released)

Video: Blue Angels Rockin' The A-4 Skyhawk! (Hiller Museum Too)

Me trying on the A-4 Skyhawk cockpit at the Hiller Museum in San Carlos California

 Technically my wife and I are on vacation right now in California to visit my mom, but you always gotta squeeze some aviation in whenever you can. We actually planned to spend our first day seeing the tourist sights in my birth city of San Francisco before we headed up farther north to where she lives, but since it was raining in the city we decided we'd make a quick stop by the Hiller Aviation Museum on Wednesday. We stumbled onto the museum location on Tuesday night when we went looking for dinner shortly after we arrived at SFO... I honestly didn't realize that the museum was so close to where I had lived for a while when I was a kid back in the 60's. All I knew was that it was somewhere in California.

 This great little museum is located on the San Carlos airport about 10 miles south of San Francisco International Airport, and it's well worth the time and effort to stop in. I'll put up a detailed post on the museum before long, but for now I have two interesting things to share. First, I didn't even know that my avgeek friend @adamcanfly had a trip to SFO in the works, but I found out via twitter shortly after we arrived that he had just departed from SFO headed back to home. How weird that we just missed each other when we were both so far away from our homes in Indiana and Kansas. But imagine my surprise when on Wednesday, after we made a last-minute decision to go to the Hiller Museum (which I didn't even realize was in the area we were gonna be) and we sign their guestbook at the entrance we see the entry before us is Adam's from his visit the day before! The randomness of this occurrence is hard to wrap my head around! The only thing that could have been better of course is if we had both been there the same day rather than one day after the other.

 The other thing to share is my simple opportunity to sit in the A-4 Skyhawk cockpit that's not only on display at Hiller but is set up so you can hop in and give its fit a try. So I hopped in to see how it felt. I was surprised how snug it was, but that really gave me an awesome thought for how much this jet fighter must have felt like something you were wearing rather than a big machine you were sitting in. The short nose and snug cockpit made me realize the amazing feel of power that a pilot of such an airplane must have. Most of us never get this kind of extreme experience, especially as the sole occupant of a jet fighter. All I can say is: wow.

 So to drive that awesomeness home a little more, here's a sweet old school video of the Blue Angels flying the A-4 Skyhawk. The video appears to be from 1986 when the Blues turned 40 and were preparing to retire the A-4 and bring the F-18 onboard. I remember seeing some of the A-4 performances back in the day, but watching this video makes me realize that the Skyhawk rocked as an aerobatic platform for the amazing U.S. Navy Blue Angels!

Oshkosh Pix #3: Tuesday 7.26.11 - A Perfect Day (14 Pix)

 Tuesday morning started very early for me as I joined a handful of other fine folks with cameras at about 5am to get images of Warbirds at dawn. It was a perfect morning for it with still air, an excellent temperature, and some really fabulous clouds in the sky. For my first time out on a 'Dawn Patrol' I thought I got some great images. The following are some of the best ones. And, even of you aren't big into photography, I highly recommend you get up early like this sometime and experience beautiful airplanes in the light of a rising sun. It's awesome.

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Video Proof: Blue Angels Really Are Humans (Lynchburg Airshow)

Blue Angels 2011 Lynchburg Airshow - (Diamond Roll manuever at about the 23:30 mark)

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UPDATE May 26 11:58am: The Blue Angels have cancelled their U.S. Naval Academy graduation flyover on May 27 and their May 28-29 performance at the Millville Airshow in Millville New Jersey. Any changes to their future schedule will be determined at a later date. See blueangels.navy.mil/show for schedule updates. 

 You may already know that the Blue Angels had a safety related issue at last Sunday's Lynchburg Airshow. The situation is pretty serious in that it has the team 'standing down' and all performances are on hold while the incident is investigated, but the good news is that the only thing that actually happened was the team wound up completing the Diamond Barrel Roll maneuver at a lower altitude than is allowed. I'm not interested in making a big deal out of this situation other than to acknowledge that these guys, who often seem to be super-human (or not even human at all), are indeed capable of making mistakes. Personally, I believe the Blue Angels pilots prove every time they fly that they are the best pilots in the world. What they do is not only incredible, it's an amazing reflection on the spirit of America. 

 To better understand the incident on Sunday, the video above showed up on youtube today from user horsemoney, and it includes the maneuver in question. It's toward the end of the video, starting at about the 23:30 mark. If you watch the 20+ minutes before that point you'll see a really good video of a great Blue Angels performance. I never get tired of seeing their tight formation flying, and I never cease to be amazed that it can actually be accomplished.

 First, it's interesting to note that the mainstream media propagated some info about the incident that was very inaccurate. That info spread like wildfire across various outlets, and many of them have a correction in place now. Ultimately it shows again how they really don't understand what they're talking about. Nothing new here, they're almost always wrong when they speak about aviation. I wish they'd just stop. Anyway, on to the the real issue. The video below from youtuber Trickworm shows the same show element as performed in October 2010.

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Video: The Horsemen Pay Homage To The Blues (And The Bearcat)

 I've been an F8F Bearcat fan since I was 6 years old when I first saw Darryl Greenamyer fly the Smirnoff Bearcat (later Conquest 1) at the Reno Air Races in 1967. There's just something about this airplane that affects me. Big time. It's why I can't shake my adoration for Rare Bear still today. If I could be any airplane (and I couldn't be the GeeBee) I'd wanna be a Bearcat.

 So, this AirShowBuzz video is about how three Bearcats came together to fly with two Blue Angels F-18's in a tribute to the early days of the Blues. It's a kinda long at about 9 minutes, but it's an awesome video that anyone will enjoy immensely. Bearcats and Blue Angels... a match made in Heaven!

 Just for fun I snagged two pictures from the first Reno Air Races I was at as a kid. My dad took these pictures of the Smirnoff Bearcat that Darryl flew in 1967. They are an interesting piece of history, and they're where my love for the Bearcat began.

 Smirnoff Bearcat at the Reno Air Races in 1967
 

ABC Sports' Keith Jackson with Darryl Greenamyer at Reno in 1967 - that's some history!

Sun, And Fun, Bring #SNF11 To A Close (16 Pix)

 Like I mentioned yesterday, I'm just a tad obsessed with the Pitts Model 12. Here are two more nearly perfect examples to check out. The blue one being refueled belongs to Greg Connell, and the red one is Kendal Simpson's with the cowling off showing the fab M-14 radial engine that makes the 12 the beast that it is. Wow.

 This STOL Zenith CH 750 was getting ready to head back home to Georgia. It was on display at the Zenith booth to replace the one that had been blown over in the big storm on Thursday. Several vendors faced some serious challenges in trying to do business in the storms aftermath.

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Video: Blue Angels 'Fat Albert' And Stellar Cockpit Discipline!

 I'm actually on the way to Sun-n-Fun 2011 right now - literally... this post is coming to you from a Panera Bread in downtown Atlanta. I needed something quick and awesome to share with you, and since I'm gonna see the Blue Angels this weekend, I thought I'd toss up this fabulous video for you to check out. It has the most excellent example of effective cockpit communication and discipline I've ever seen.  It's simply fantastic. It's probably not unique to just this crew from 2009, but rather a necessary discipline for all crews when herding such a large aircraft around so vigorously at low altitudes. 

 I admit that I've sorta looked at C-130 (Fat Albert) part of the Blues show as a bit of a yawn. My bad. Seeing it from this cockpit pov gives me massive respect for the demo being put on... I can't wait to see it now : )

 Hat tip to Matt at LeavingTerraFirma.com for finding this 2009 video before I did.

Blue Angels And The 2011 Centennial Of Naval Aviation

(click pic for hi-res)    Click here for a pdf file of the 2011 Blue Angels airshow schedule

 2011 is shaping up to be an amazing year for the United States Navy Blue Angels flight demonstration team. Several of the events that they will be performing at are also special Centennial of Naval Aviation events. You may have seen my post the other day showing several of the extremely cool retro painted Navy aircraft that will be on display at many locations around the country... and if you do a little cross reference work, you'll be able to find airshows where some of those aircraft will be on display AND the Blue Angels will be performing too. I'm thinking an airshow can't get any better than that!

The U.S. Navy Blue Angels performing at the Reno Air Races in 2009

 If you've never seen the Blue Angels, or haven't seen them lately, then I highly suggest you start planning your opportunity to see them right now. In my opinion, this is the absolute pinnacle of jet demonstration teams... few things on earth can impress you as much as these men and their airplanes.

 If there's any doubt in your mind as to the extreme awesomeness of the Blues, watch this video below from youtube user jimboking. It's shot with a flip video camera from the back seat of one of the F-18's during an aerobatic routine. These guys are unbelievable!