The "Other 2" Thunderbirds?

Are these used in case one of the regulars is unavailable to fly? After the show yesterday I drove over to Republic and was pleasantly surprised to see that the jets had returned. Even better one of the support craft (With the wing and belly pods) was preparing to depart with a crew of two. LOL what I wasnt prepared for was how LOUD the jet was when it cranked its engines up!! WOW!! But the coolest part was watching how the ground crew prepared the jet for departure!! The precise way they went about their duties was like watching a military honor guard. I was very impressed. I would say from the time the pilots entered the cockpit to their eventual departure was about 25 minutes. But it was worth every minute watching.

The T-Birds bring 2 spares. When some of the pictures are posted you will see that the two-seater flew both Sat & Sun. If there are any hints of a maintenace problem with one of the single-seaters, they have the two-seaters to swap in. What I learned this week is that the engine pod decals on the aircraft are readily changeable, so that during the show you will always see 1,2,3,4,5 & 6. Unlike the Blue Angels who if they have to sub an aircraft will have say 1,2,3,7,5 & 6 performing...which is what happened last year here.

the numbers on the blues are painted on, no stickers there. don't forget, they'll switch out single seaters for media flights. usually, they'll only do that on practice flights. the actual shows are flown with single seat airplanes.

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Originally Posted by cancidas

the numbers on the blues are painted on, no stickers there. don't forget, they'll switch out single seaters for media flights. usually, they'll only do that on practice flights. the actual shows are flown with single seat airplanes.

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Hate to disagree...last year, #4 had an engine problem during one of the practice routines. When they went up on Saturday, #7 (the two-seater) flew as the slot aircraft. Now, keep in mind, that is not the norm, they want to fly all shows with the 6 singles-seaters, but, they do not take any chances with engine issues. Hence #7 flying in the 2006 show (someone has a picture somewhere I know).

The Angels yesterday had two birds there with #5(both single seaters) on it and #4 was a two seater. I saw them towing one of the #5s back away from the demo area. they only had 7 aircraft, yes I know they lost one, but read that they would pull one from a squadron somewhere. I guess it takes a while to paint one up and get it in condition for the demo?

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Originally Posted by lijk604

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Originally Posted by cancidas

the numbers on the blues are painted on, no stickers there. don't forget, they'll switch out single seaters for media flights. usually, they'll only do that on practice flights. the actual shows are flown with single seat airplanes.

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Hate to disagree...last year, #4 had an engine problem during one of the practice routines. When they went up on Saturday, #7 (the two-seater) flew as the slot aircraft. Now, keep in mind, that is not the norm, they want to fly all shows with the 6 singles-seaters, but, they do not take any chances with engine issues. Hence #7 flying in the 2006 show (someone has a picture somewhere I know).

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did they not bring the tent and shop with them? when they fly to SNS they take along just enough tools and spares to be able to do just about anything to thier airplanes they need to do.

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The T-Birds bring 2 spares.

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They aren't exactly spares, Maj Clark flies 8 to the show sites before the others to talk with the controllers and other FAA guys like me. He also gives rides to media. Number 7 also comes in earlier than the team for the same reason as 8, not only to check out the airport, but to brief the team on arr/dep procedures, noise sensitive areas, and the NY airspace.

Fat Albert for the Blues and the T-Birds C-17 or C-130's do carry tools, etc. to repair jets. They do not however carry spare engines which I have seen them take the support plane back to Nellis etc. to get a spare. That happens at times. Some of the time problems happen spur of the moment where they don't have time to repair the single seater and therefore the team will fly the two seater. I go to quite a few airshows a year and have seen the T-Birds many times. I can count on my left hand the number of times the T-Birds had all 6 single seaters in the air. It is nice to see T-Bird number 8 depart with the pods.

The jet's are 20+ years old, stuffs gonna break, and it'll be a few years before they get their newer F-16's.