1
00:00:17,892 --> 00:00:20,603
If you look at
the accident rate on this team,

2
00:00:20,687 --> 00:00:21,521
it's very, very high.

3
00:00:24,941 --> 00:00:28,778
It's not unheard of to get through a full
assignment without a major accident.

4
00:00:28,862 --> 00:00:31,114
But it's rare.

5
00:00:34,200 --> 00:00:37,120
As I've started
to go through my last season,

6
00:00:38,329 --> 00:00:40,582
I am very aware

7
00:00:41,332 --> 00:00:44,252
that the odds are stacking against me.

8
00:00:52,635 --> 00:00:55,346
It's my job to make sure that
it's not just me that doesn't die,

9
00:00:55,430 --> 00:00:57,348
but every one of these members
of the team.

10
00:01:00,268 --> 00:01:05,523
And the emotions that come with that
are enough to keep you awake at night.

11
00:01:06,733 --> 00:01:07,817
Hey, how you doing?

12
00:01:07,901 --> 00:01:10,445
-Doing well, sir.
-Sorry, man, I missed.

13
00:01:11,071 --> 00:01:11,905
Yeah, perfect.

14
00:01:11,988 --> 00:01:14,032
-Have a great day.
-Thank you so much.

15
00:01:14,115 --> 00:01:16,409
-Make some noise.
-Yeah. We're gonna.

16
00:01:20,038 --> 00:01:22,832
You are the most experienced,
extraordinary,

17
00:01:22,916 --> 00:01:25,251
handpicked airmen in the force.

18
00:01:26,336 --> 00:01:30,757
The Thunderbirds represent the best
of humanity, but it's more than that.

19
00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:35,386
The Thunderbirds represent excellence
as something greater than ourselves.

20
00:01:36,721 --> 00:01:39,140
If we get this right,
we will actually inspire.

21
00:01:40,433 --> 00:01:44,521
We'll ignite a unifying sense of purpose
within our country.

22
00:01:46,606 --> 00:01:49,359
But to do this and to do it right,
we can't just be good.

23
00:01:51,402 --> 00:01:53,905
We have to be extraordinary.

24
00:01:56,074 --> 00:01:57,909
This is our mission.

25
00:02:08,128 --> 00:02:10,839
Welcome to Show Center,
the air show podcast.

26
00:02:10,922 --> 00:02:12,757
One of our first episodes of 2023.

27
00:02:12,841 --> 00:02:15,552
I'm air show announcer, Matt Jolley,
joined by my colleagues,

28
00:02:15,635 --> 00:02:18,596
air show announcers
Rick Peterson and Rob Reider.

29
00:02:22,350 --> 00:02:24,769
One of our first episodes of 2023.

30
00:02:24,853 --> 00:02:26,062
Thunderbirds, check.

31
00:02:26,146 --> 00:02:27,856
We're talking about the Thunderbirds.

32
00:02:32,277 --> 00:02:34,612
Talk about the exceptionalism
of these aviators.

33
00:02:34,696 --> 00:02:35,947
Let's run 'em up!

34
00:02:36,030 --> 00:02:38,616
These pilots truly are
the best of the best of the best.

35
00:02:38,700 --> 00:02:39,951
And we're set.

36
00:02:40,034 --> 00:02:41,703
…of the rap game
Not bragging

37
00:02:41,786 --> 00:02:43,788
Lips bigger than Jagger
Not saggin'

38
00:02:43,872 --> 00:02:45,790
Spell it backwards
I'mma leave it at that

39
00:02:46,291 --> 00:02:48,251
That ain't got nothing to do with rap

40
00:02:48,751 --> 00:02:50,962
-Get up
-Just like that

41
00:02:51,045 --> 00:02:53,298
-Get up
-Just like that

42
00:02:53,381 --> 00:02:55,049
-Get up
-Just like that

43
00:02:55,133 --> 00:02:58,636
Thunderbirds!

44
00:03:00,763 --> 00:03:03,266
The Thunderbirds are
the US Air Force's display team,

45
00:03:03,349 --> 00:03:05,935
and they're demonstrating
the exceptionalism

46
00:03:06,019 --> 00:03:08,229
that our US Air Force operates at

47
00:03:08,313 --> 00:03:10,440
to air shows all across the world

48
00:03:11,024 --> 00:03:14,694
in hopes of inspiring
that next generation.

49
00:03:16,279 --> 00:03:18,239
-Get up
-Just like that

50
00:03:18,323 --> 00:03:20,742
They are America's top guns,

51
00:03:20,825 --> 00:03:23,661
executing the most extraordinary
combat maneuvers

52
00:03:24,162 --> 00:03:25,455
in formation.

53
00:03:26,039 --> 00:03:28,750
That's right, Chuck, man
That's what you gotta do

54
00:03:28,833 --> 00:03:32,545
The Thunderbirds are truly
the rock stars of this world.

55
00:03:32,629 --> 00:03:33,630
They're the headline act.

56
00:03:33,713 --> 00:03:37,592
How close does this number two
get to a number three?

57
00:03:37,675 --> 00:03:40,929
18 inches from my canopy to his wing.

58
00:03:41,012 --> 00:03:41,971
Full send.

59
00:03:43,097 --> 00:03:45,308
We'll do 62 shows this year.

60
00:03:45,391 --> 00:03:46,601
Break now.

61
00:03:47,894 --> 00:03:50,480
-It's meant to look nearly impossible.
-And roll.

62
00:03:50,563 --> 00:03:52,607
So it's time to leave you a preview

63
00:03:53,650 --> 00:03:56,361
When you zip that zipper,
a lot of responsibility comes with it.

64
00:03:56,444 --> 00:03:58,780
Because suddenly you're somebody,
you're a Thunderbird.

65
00:04:00,406 --> 00:04:02,158
These are spectacular athletes.

66
00:04:03,660 --> 00:04:04,786
These are exceptional humans.

67
00:04:04,869 --> 00:04:06,371
One, two, three, four!

68
00:04:06,454 --> 00:04:07,956
They're America's team.

69
00:04:38,069 --> 00:04:40,280
Welcome to Show Center,
the air show podcast.

70
00:04:40,363 --> 00:04:42,907
2023, January here,
we're rolling into the season,

71
00:04:42,991 --> 00:04:44,826
a lot of new folks on the Thunderbirds.

72
00:04:44,909 --> 00:04:46,953
They're turning over
three of these pilots,

73
00:04:47,036 --> 00:04:50,123
and it's like taking
the Etch-A-Sketch and just shaking it.

74
00:04:50,206 --> 00:04:52,709
Oh yeah,
and the big-time training has begun.

75
00:04:52,792 --> 00:04:54,669
They're flying two, three times a day now.

76
00:04:54,752 --> 00:04:57,005
Let's talk about the boss a bit,
Astro Elliot.

77
00:04:57,088 --> 00:04:59,799
One of the great bosses
of the Thunderbirds.

78
00:04:59,882 --> 00:05:01,926
Very effective in the last season.

79
00:05:02,010 --> 00:05:03,594
The variables are all there for this one.

80
00:05:03,678 --> 00:05:05,680
He has three months to figure this out.

81
00:05:05,763 --> 00:05:06,597
Hey!

82
00:05:08,308 --> 00:05:10,059
Papi chulo! Okay, okay.

83
00:05:12,353 --> 00:05:13,813
This the last one?

84
00:05:13,896 --> 00:05:17,066
All right, guys, welcome to Spaceport.

85
00:05:17,150 --> 00:05:19,610
If you take a look at the flight line,

86
00:05:19,694 --> 00:05:22,488
this is what
it was always meant to be, guys.

87
00:05:22,572 --> 00:05:26,284
We got zero traffic that's not
the US Air Force Thunderbirds.

88
00:05:26,367 --> 00:05:28,911
This is the ideal flying situation
for training this team

89
00:05:28,995 --> 00:05:30,413
to be the best it's ever been.

90
00:05:32,749 --> 00:05:34,042
Team 2023,

91
00:05:34,625 --> 00:05:35,960
six pilots,

92
00:05:36,044 --> 00:05:37,670
three veterans.

93
00:05:37,754 --> 00:05:41,758
Number five, Thunder, the lead solo.

94
00:05:41,841 --> 00:05:45,053
You look at his jet on the ground
and the number five is upside down.

95
00:05:45,636 --> 00:05:48,473
Why? Because he spends
most of his time upside down.

96
00:05:51,184 --> 00:05:53,019
Number four, Threat.

97
00:05:53,644 --> 00:05:56,814
She's the instructor,
she flies in the back of the diamond,

98
00:05:56,898 --> 00:05:59,108
keeping her eyes
on the newbies on the wings.

99
00:06:00,401 --> 00:06:01,319
Go diamond.

100
00:06:01,402 --> 00:06:03,237
Go diamond.

101
00:06:03,321 --> 00:06:05,782
Thunderbird number one, the boss.

102
00:06:05,865 --> 00:06:07,200
That's Astro.

103
00:06:07,283 --> 00:06:10,244
He's the guy in charge of everything
that goes on in the air

104
00:06:10,328 --> 00:06:13,956
and also on the ground
for all 135 members of the team.

105
00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:16,125
What he says goes.

106
00:06:19,670 --> 00:06:22,632
The miracle about the Thunderbirds
to me is the fact that

107
00:06:22,715 --> 00:06:25,510
we change team members every single year.

108
00:06:28,179 --> 00:06:30,848
Every year we swap out 50% of our pilots.

109
00:06:31,724 --> 00:06:35,353
You build a team from nothing.

110
00:06:36,479 --> 00:06:38,648
We have three new pilots
joining the team this year.

111
00:06:38,731 --> 00:06:40,942
They're gonna serve two years on the team.

112
00:06:41,025 --> 00:06:45,029
They are already the three best
combat pilots the Air Force has to offer.

113
00:06:45,530 --> 00:06:49,742
But air demonstration
is a completely different animal.

114
00:06:50,326 --> 00:06:51,661
Thunderbird 6 is gonna be Miami.

115
00:06:51,744 --> 00:06:53,788
He's the new solo on the team.

116
00:06:54,288 --> 00:06:56,707
As for a new guy, they tell me the rules.

117
00:06:57,458 --> 00:06:58,501
Don't hit the ground.

118
00:06:59,710 --> 00:07:01,879
Zeke is joining the team as Thunderbird 2.

119
00:07:01,963 --> 00:07:03,548
He'll be our left wingman.

120
00:07:03,631 --> 00:07:06,592
Feeling good,
but I'm also feeling stressed.

121
00:07:06,676 --> 00:07:10,555
I don't know how the training goes.
So it's just a trust in the process

122
00:07:10,638 --> 00:07:13,683
that this is all gonna fall into place,
kind of like a puzzle.

123
00:07:14,267 --> 00:07:15,643
Finally, we have Primo.

124
00:07:15,726 --> 00:07:18,312
Primo has an extensive background
on the F-16.

125
00:07:18,396 --> 00:07:19,647
Lots of combat time.

126
00:07:19,730 --> 00:07:22,358
He'll be joining the team this year
as Thunderbird 3.

127
00:07:22,442 --> 00:07:24,652
We wanna be the best we can be

128
00:07:24,735 --> 00:07:26,654
day one at the air show, which is…

129
00:07:26,737 --> 00:07:28,448
Like, it seems like it's tomorrow.

130
00:07:31,534 --> 00:07:33,911
All right, guys.
This is all I wanted to say to you.

131
00:07:33,995 --> 00:07:36,414
The next two months are gonna be no joke.

132
00:07:36,497 --> 00:07:38,499
We're gonna fly on weekends,
we'll do two-a-days.

133
00:07:39,208 --> 00:07:40,835
It's January 9th right now.

134
00:07:41,461 --> 00:07:44,005
COMACC cert is in exactly two months.

135
00:07:45,339 --> 00:07:46,632
It's closer than you think.

136
00:07:47,383 --> 00:07:48,342
It's a big deal.

137
00:07:49,260 --> 00:07:51,095
And this is why we're here.

138
00:07:52,513 --> 00:07:55,099
Okay, we're gonna do it right
with blind trust.

139
00:07:55,183 --> 00:07:56,017
Thunderbirds!

140
00:07:56,100 --> 00:07:57,143
Blind trust!

141
00:08:00,646 --> 00:08:05,443
There is a lot of pressure
riding on the certification process.

142
00:08:05,526 --> 00:08:08,154
It hinges on the team's ability to perform

143
00:08:08,237 --> 00:08:10,740
at the top,
in front of the American public.

144
00:08:10,823 --> 00:08:13,868
And ultimately,
that decision for certification

145
00:08:13,951 --> 00:08:15,870
rests in the hands
of the four-star general

146
00:08:15,953 --> 00:08:18,080
in charge of air combat command.

147
00:08:18,164 --> 00:08:19,707
And it's a yes or a no.

148
00:08:19,790 --> 00:08:24,378
Teams that say they're elite aren't elite
until they actually start performing.

149
00:08:24,462 --> 00:08:27,131
There are high standards
that are not negotiable.

150
00:08:27,632 --> 00:08:32,303
If we had a certification go poorly,
we're not gonna clear the team

151
00:08:32,386 --> 00:08:35,723
to go out the door and represent
the Air Force and the nation.

152
00:08:36,307 --> 00:08:37,683
And no one can fake it.

153
00:08:38,601 --> 00:08:41,646
That final certification
is fixed on the calendar,

154
00:08:41,729 --> 00:08:43,272
and that can be daunting.

155
00:08:44,148 --> 00:08:46,442
-Setting up for a high show.
-High show two.

156
00:08:46,526 --> 00:08:47,693
-Three.
-Four.

157
00:08:47,777 --> 00:08:49,153
-Five.
-Six.

158
00:08:49,237 --> 00:08:52,365
Diamond's gonna enter TFR
with a loop on takeoff from right to left

159
00:08:52,448 --> 00:08:55,117
and a left-hand turnout,
dropping in for a clover loopover.

160
00:08:55,701 --> 00:08:57,870
Combat pilots are used to flying combat.

161
00:08:57,954 --> 00:09:02,291
Well off the ground, in a fight, focused
on targeting, focused on the enemy.

162
00:09:02,959 --> 00:09:05,503
Flying aerobatics is just
not something we train for.

163
00:09:07,505 --> 00:09:11,425
You have to divorce yourself
from your survival instincts

164
00:09:11,509 --> 00:09:13,052
to fly this demonstration.

165
00:09:15,096 --> 00:09:17,807
It's 45 minutes of total chaos.

166
00:09:22,853 --> 00:09:24,146
When you watch the diamond,

167
00:09:24,230 --> 00:09:26,899
it's jets one, two, three and four.

168
00:09:27,441 --> 00:09:30,778
The diamond shows
the formation capabilities of the team.

169
00:09:32,613 --> 00:09:34,365
Diamond Pass in Review is

170
00:09:34,448 --> 00:09:37,159
the tightest formation
of flying that exists.

171
00:09:37,243 --> 00:09:40,830
18 inches apart at a high rate of speed.
It's nerves of steel.

172
00:09:43,374 --> 00:09:45,793
The slightest bobble
with either of my hands

173
00:09:45,876 --> 00:09:47,336
will cause a four-jet collision.

174
00:09:50,172 --> 00:09:52,675
Solo pilots, Thunderbirds 5 and 6,

175
00:09:52,758 --> 00:09:54,260
are their own act in itself.

176
00:09:54,760 --> 00:09:56,971
Two jets flying at a high rate of speed.

177
00:10:01,267 --> 00:10:05,438
Coming at each other with closing speeds
of nearly 1,000 miles an hour.

178
00:10:08,524 --> 00:10:12,153
You are microseconds of lag
from a life-threatening situation.

179
00:10:12,236 --> 00:10:15,406
Six jets flying 18 inches apart,
nearly at the speed of sound.

180
00:10:15,489 --> 00:10:18,326
They're doing the unbelievable.

181
00:10:23,456 --> 00:10:25,791
Once they've thrilled everyone
beyond belief,

182
00:10:26,292 --> 00:10:29,295
they blow everyone away
with the climax of the show,

183
00:10:30,296 --> 00:10:32,089
the high bomb burst.

184
00:10:33,966 --> 00:10:36,969
There's this quiet
that comes over the crowd,

185
00:10:37,053 --> 00:10:39,055
and every cell phone is up.

186
00:10:39,597 --> 00:10:43,434
The high bomb burst is actually
one of the most dangerous things we do.

187
00:10:44,101 --> 00:10:47,688
You see these jets,
they're rocketing up toward the heavens.

188
00:10:47,772 --> 00:10:50,941
-Then they break over the top.
-Let's make… ready now.

189
00:10:53,694 --> 00:10:56,489
We fly four different directions
across the sky.

190
00:10:59,533 --> 00:11:01,452
We pull down through the vertical.

191
00:11:01,535 --> 00:11:02,703
Two mile section.

192
00:11:05,873 --> 00:11:07,124
Two point four.

193
00:11:07,208 --> 00:11:08,417
Forty-five hundred.

194
00:11:09,001 --> 00:11:10,878
-Let's pull!
-Pull up.

195
00:11:14,298 --> 00:11:18,219
They cross
within milliseconds of one another.

196
00:11:20,721 --> 00:11:22,223
Showing me their talent.

197
00:11:22,932 --> 00:11:25,601
And finally, the rejoin.

198
00:11:26,435 --> 00:11:28,145
In order to make the rejoin,

199
00:11:28,229 --> 00:11:32,316
some of the pilots need to make
a high-velocity upside-down turn,

200
00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:36,070
subjecting themselves
to unbelievable G-forces.

201
00:11:40,783 --> 00:11:43,953
All three of the wingmen
have to anticipate the rejoin line

202
00:11:44,036 --> 00:11:46,372
and the ground
that is approaching rapidly.

203
00:11:47,248 --> 00:11:48,791
Just purely visually.

204
00:11:58,050 --> 00:12:03,681
…310, 320, 330, 340.

205
00:12:03,764 --> 00:12:04,765
If done properly,

206
00:12:06,642 --> 00:12:09,854
all of these jets meet at air show center.

207
00:12:14,942 --> 00:12:16,652
Show center.

208
00:12:21,198 --> 00:12:22,533
It's freaking awesome.

209
00:12:39,508 --> 00:12:43,179
This assignment will either
destroy your family or make you stronger.

210
00:12:43,262 --> 00:12:44,472
There's really no in-between.

211
00:12:45,848 --> 00:12:47,516
Three hundred days deployed.

212
00:12:48,100 --> 00:12:51,479
No weekends together
for two straight years.

213
00:12:51,562 --> 00:12:54,231
Guys, get your shoes
and then breakfast, okay?

214
00:12:54,315 --> 00:12:56,275
Okay, I'll wear the black shoes.

215
00:12:56,358 --> 00:12:58,235
There you go. Good decision.

216
00:12:58,319 --> 00:13:00,529
Are you staying there all night?

217
00:13:00,613 --> 00:13:01,447
Yes.

218
00:13:02,823 --> 00:13:04,158
Only for one more day.

219
00:13:05,576 --> 00:13:09,747
It's heartbreaking when the boys ask,
"Hey, Dad, are you staying tomorrow?"

220
00:13:10,247 --> 00:13:12,833
And I have to say,
"No, I'm gone for 25 days."

221
00:13:14,376 --> 00:13:16,337
Are you guys excited about school?

222
00:13:18,964 --> 00:13:20,007
Okay, very good.

223
00:13:22,927 --> 00:13:26,055
I didn't want him to be a Thunderbird.

224
00:13:26,138 --> 00:13:28,891
I remember when he came home and he said,

225
00:13:28,974 --> 00:13:31,602
"Hey, like, do you want to do this?"

226
00:13:31,685 --> 00:13:35,272
Then I looked at all the crashes
and accidents and casualties

227
00:13:35,356 --> 00:13:38,275
that had happened in Thunderbirds
and I remember calculating it,

228
00:13:38,359 --> 00:13:40,069
and I thought, "That's 10%."

229
00:13:41,028 --> 00:13:43,280
10% of Thunderbirds have died.

230
00:13:44,114 --> 00:13:45,866
"I don't want Justin to do that."
I said no.

231
00:13:47,284 --> 00:13:48,619
What's four fours?

232
00:13:48,702 --> 00:13:51,747
Four fours… equals 16.

233
00:13:51,831 --> 00:13:52,832
Whoa.

234
00:13:53,332 --> 00:13:55,376
-I know that.
-How do you know that?

235
00:13:55,459 --> 00:13:57,169
Because none of…

236
00:13:57,253 --> 00:14:01,257
But watching the show
really was like an art form.

237
00:14:01,340 --> 00:14:03,717
Instead of just combat flying,

238
00:14:04,343 --> 00:14:05,594
it's almost like music.

239
00:14:05,678 --> 00:14:09,765
You make this sound, it has no words,
you don't give it meaning,

240
00:14:09,849 --> 00:14:14,687
but every person in the audience,
they have their own story

241
00:14:14,770 --> 00:14:17,481
or response that they're feeling
as they watch.

242
00:14:17,565 --> 00:14:21,652
It was really amazing, what they did,
and then I said, "Okay, sure."

243
00:14:22,611 --> 00:14:24,029
"Go ahead."

244
00:14:24,113 --> 00:14:25,531
"Throw your name in the hat."

245
00:14:26,031 --> 00:14:27,408
Here we go. Yes!

246
00:14:28,367 --> 00:14:29,827
Oh, get out of here.

247
00:14:29,910 --> 00:14:32,746
-My turn. This is the strongest.
-All right.

248
00:14:32,830 --> 00:14:35,040
When you first join the Air Force,

249
00:14:36,041 --> 00:14:39,670
service before self
is a very easy value to get behind.

250
00:14:39,753 --> 00:14:41,046
Okay, here we go.

251
00:14:41,130 --> 00:14:41,964
You have kids,

252
00:14:42,756 --> 00:14:44,133
now that value changes.

253
00:14:44,758 --> 00:14:48,512
-The yellow ones definitely go farther.
-I know. Well, no…

254
00:14:48,596 --> 00:14:51,265
It's not just me going
and putting myself in danger.

255
00:14:51,348 --> 00:14:56,770
It's now doing that with a young family
that is starting to understand that risk.

256
00:14:56,854 --> 00:14:59,940
-Come give dad a hug. We gotta go.
-What do you mean?

257
00:15:00,524 --> 00:15:01,734
Dad's gotta go fly.

258
00:15:02,276 --> 00:15:03,527
All right, come here.

259
00:15:04,028 --> 00:15:05,321
Ah!

260
00:15:05,404 --> 00:15:06,906
All right, fine…

261
00:15:06,989 --> 00:15:10,409
It's really hard. It's hard on the kids.
I think it's hard on Justin.

262
00:15:13,787 --> 00:15:17,499
The most exciting things about being
a parent, right, he misses that.

263
00:15:19,335 --> 00:15:21,003
Don't smash me. I gotta go fly.

264
00:15:21,086 --> 00:15:24,465
Hey, all right, you guys have fun, okay?
I'll see you.

265
00:15:24,548 --> 00:15:25,382
Babe.

266
00:15:26,467 --> 00:15:27,635
All right.

267
00:15:28,761 --> 00:15:29,929
Love you a lot.

268
00:15:30,012 --> 00:15:31,472
I love you too. Don't die.

269
00:15:31,555 --> 00:15:32,389
All right.

270
00:15:33,349 --> 00:15:34,183
"Don't die."

271
00:15:35,100 --> 00:15:38,395
That's what she says.
That's her number one rule, her only rule.

272
00:15:38,979 --> 00:15:41,357
She really does get that the risk is real.

273
00:15:43,233 --> 00:15:45,402
But Victoria and I believe it's important

274
00:15:45,486 --> 00:15:48,572
for our kids to see us set objectives

275
00:15:48,656 --> 00:15:51,784
and go after things in the name of service
to something bigger than ourselves.

276
00:16:09,259 --> 00:16:10,803
Ah. I don't see 'em.

277
00:16:11,303 --> 00:16:13,472
They're there. Got them covered?

278
00:16:13,555 --> 00:16:14,598
Yeah.

279
00:16:15,099 --> 00:16:15,933
All right.

280
00:16:22,481 --> 00:16:25,818
On the delta loop, as they pull
four Gs, four times the force of gravity,

281
00:16:25,901 --> 00:16:29,446
they weigh four times their body weight
as they're going up into the air.

282
00:16:35,577 --> 00:16:38,706
Your heart rate and blood pressure
go up, your breathing increases.

283
00:16:38,789 --> 00:16:39,623
Yeah.

284
00:16:39,707 --> 00:16:42,501
And you have to do that,
maneuver after maneuver,

285
00:16:42,584 --> 00:16:44,378
for 45 straight minutes.

286
00:16:48,966 --> 00:16:51,135
When you talk about G forces,

287
00:16:51,218 --> 00:16:52,428
it's a multiple of gravity.

288
00:16:52,511 --> 00:16:55,764
So one G is Earth's gravity,
what we're sitting at now.

289
00:16:55,848 --> 00:16:59,018
So for a 200-pound person,
that person weighs 200 pounds.

290
00:16:59,601 --> 00:17:02,688
A lot of times in the demonstration,
seven to eight Gs are pulled,

291
00:17:02,771 --> 00:17:05,441
which means during that moment,
like, for those 10 to 15 seconds,

292
00:17:05,524 --> 00:17:08,027
that person can weigh
almost a ton, or 2,000 pounds.

293
00:17:09,570 --> 00:17:10,904
As much as a small elephant.

294
00:17:14,700 --> 00:17:17,453
About four Gs is where
your resting tolerance usually is.

295
00:17:17,536 --> 00:17:18,704
Once you get above that,

296
00:17:18,787 --> 00:17:20,914
your heart is no longer able
to pump blood to your head.

297
00:17:20,998 --> 00:17:24,918
So what ends up happening, five Gs,
six Gs, seven Gs, eight Gs…

298
00:17:25,002 --> 00:17:27,171
Now the blood is getting
lower and lower and lower.

299
00:17:27,254 --> 00:17:30,507
By the time you get to eight or nine Gs,
all the blood's draining out of your skull

300
00:17:30,591 --> 00:17:32,426
and it goes straight down to your feet.

301
00:17:35,387 --> 00:17:37,014
You can't stay conscious in that situation

302
00:17:37,097 --> 00:17:38,807
because the brain is
a very high-level organ.

303
00:17:38,891 --> 00:17:40,851
It requires a ton of oxygen and blood.

304
00:17:40,934 --> 00:17:43,270
So in that situation,
you start to experience some changes.

305
00:17:43,353 --> 00:17:45,481
First thing you see is
all the colors will go gray.

306
00:17:47,024 --> 00:17:48,776
Crank up the Gs, seven, eight, nine…

307
00:17:48,859 --> 00:17:51,403
First, the vision
outside the peripheral vision goes away.

308
00:17:51,487 --> 00:17:53,447
And then over time, it keeps moving in.

309
00:17:53,530 --> 00:17:57,076
Black, black, black, black, black, black,
until you're looking through a soda straw.

310
00:18:00,204 --> 00:18:02,122
If you don't do anything to fight back…

311
00:18:05,167 --> 00:18:06,502
everything goes black.

312
00:18:09,088 --> 00:18:12,174
And when you lose it,
your body goes slack.

313
00:18:12,257 --> 00:18:14,218
Your hands come off the controls.

314
00:18:15,344 --> 00:18:18,680
And when you're that close to the ground
going that fast…

315
00:18:19,765 --> 00:18:21,642
Warning! Warning!

316
00:18:22,893 --> 00:18:25,229
…if you come to, it's often too late.

317
00:18:41,703 --> 00:18:44,748
Regardless of how that went,
when we look at the tapes,

318
00:18:44,832 --> 00:18:46,792
remember this, we did it.

319
00:18:49,044 --> 00:18:50,504
Now we're gonna make it good.

320
00:18:51,505 --> 00:18:53,549
Okay, so, we'll get into it
with a standard debrief.

321
00:18:53,632 --> 00:18:56,635
So, we have a lot of work to do,
in all seriousness.

322
00:18:56,718 --> 00:18:59,304
Lots to take away from this one.
That's why we do this.

323
00:18:59,388 --> 00:19:02,057
And we're gonna pick apart
everything that went wrong.

324
00:19:02,141 --> 00:19:04,643
And it's gonna feel like
you're getting crushed.

325
00:19:05,352 --> 00:19:09,106
That final certification on March 10th,
it is not going to move.

326
00:19:09,189 --> 00:19:15,070
And it can put pressure on us as a team
to sometimes push limits and boundaries

327
00:19:15,154 --> 00:19:17,156
that we don't want to push.

328
00:19:17,239 --> 00:19:21,743
I think it's very important for me and
for our Diamond Instructor Pilot, Threat,

329
00:19:21,827 --> 00:19:26,123
to be in lockstep on how fast
to push those risk boundaries.

330
00:19:26,206 --> 00:19:29,585
With wind shear and turbulence,
if you do get sucked in,

331
00:19:29,668 --> 00:19:34,548
try and stay cool, calm and collected
and only gingerly apply that rudder,

332
00:19:34,631 --> 00:19:37,885
so that they're not seeing
a whole face full of jet coming their way.

333
00:19:37,968 --> 00:19:40,304
Growing up,
I always wanted to be a fighter pilot.

334
00:19:40,387 --> 00:19:42,472
It was like a longtime dream of mine.

335
00:19:42,556 --> 00:19:46,310
In 2nd grade, I came home like, "I wanna
be a fighter pilot in the Air Force."

336
00:19:46,393 --> 00:19:49,479
I don't know what that meant, I didn't
know what that meant in high school.

337
00:19:50,063 --> 00:19:52,024
And I don't think I really,
totally understood that

338
00:19:52,107 --> 00:19:53,984
until I got
to my first operation squadron.

339
00:19:54,067 --> 00:19:57,821
Every once in a while, I'll look down
and be like, holy shit. Sorry, holy crap.

340
00:19:57,905 --> 00:20:00,073
We have six airplanes so close.

341
00:20:00,157 --> 00:20:02,743
This is so cool that I get paid
for my job to do this.

342
00:20:07,414 --> 00:20:10,500
All right, what you're looking at is
three missile tips-- ish--

343
00:20:10,584 --> 00:20:11,710
above the canopy bow.

344
00:20:11,793 --> 00:20:14,963
And then that third static wick in
pointing at the crux of the tail.

345
00:20:15,047 --> 00:20:18,050
So it's deeper than you'd think it is.
And it's a little nebulous.

346
00:20:18,133 --> 00:20:19,676
Um, so a lot more movement…

347
00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:24,640
I'm also the training officer. So I'm in
charge of the training for the 2023 team.

348
00:20:24,723 --> 00:20:26,850
I'm kind of like
a lead-by-example kind of person.

349
00:20:26,934 --> 00:20:29,311
And if I am not good enough,
it's my fault.

350
00:20:29,394 --> 00:20:30,771
So I have to do the work.

351
00:20:30,854 --> 00:20:35,067
I didn't have any aviation background
before starting pilot training.

352
00:20:35,150 --> 00:20:39,196
So the natural skill wasn't there,
but I was determined.

353
00:20:39,279 --> 00:20:41,865
And so I'd study six to seven
days a week relentlessly,

354
00:20:41,949 --> 00:20:43,825
the same stuff
over and over and over again.

355
00:20:43,909 --> 00:20:46,995
Because if it's a bad flight,
it's only on me.

356
00:20:47,079 --> 00:20:50,207
So the contact point, then,
if you miss inside,

357
00:20:50,290 --> 00:20:52,918
and tight is your missile rail,
the boss is dead.

358
00:20:53,001 --> 00:20:53,835
Okay.

359
00:20:53,919 --> 00:20:58,715
Threat's just an incredible human being.
You want to learn from her.

360
00:20:58,799 --> 00:21:03,762
And it's nice to know you have somebody
who wants you to get better.

361
00:21:04,346 --> 00:21:07,891
Her goal is for 2023
to be even better than 2022.

362
00:21:07,975 --> 00:21:10,644
But it seems like that's unachievable.

363
00:21:12,354 --> 00:21:15,482
So I've been F-16s my whole career
in the Air Force.

364
00:21:16,733 --> 00:21:20,821
I was in Japan for four years.
I was traveling around, uh, the Pacific,

365
00:21:20,904 --> 00:21:23,740
putting on air shows
as a single-ship demo pilot.

366
00:21:24,950 --> 00:21:27,911
My vice wing commander
used to actually be Thunderbird 1.

367
00:21:27,995 --> 00:21:30,289
So he brought me into his office one day,
like, "Hey, Primo,

368
00:21:30,372 --> 00:21:33,041
ever thought of being a Thunderbird?"
I was like, "No,

369
00:21:33,125 --> 00:21:36,503
I don't wanna be a Thunderbird."
You know, the Thunderchickens.

370
00:21:36,586 --> 00:21:39,339
There's the Prima Donnas
that wear tight flight suits.

371
00:21:39,423 --> 00:21:41,133
But the more I got to talk to him,

372
00:21:41,216 --> 00:21:43,302
the more I got to learn
about the actual mission.

373
00:21:43,385 --> 00:21:46,221
And it's the hardest flying
I've ever done.

374
00:21:49,141 --> 00:21:50,851
That was my first spark of, like,

375
00:21:50,934 --> 00:21:55,772
I want to be a part of some sort of
team dynamic that is professional

376
00:21:55,856 --> 00:21:57,816
and is a beacon of excellence.

377
00:22:02,404 --> 00:22:03,947
Right now,

378
00:22:04,031 --> 00:22:08,535
it feels like I take one step forward…

379
00:22:08,618 --> 00:22:10,037
maybe two steps back.

380
00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:14,082
So hopefully, that's still moving forward.
I don't think mathematically it is.

381
00:22:14,166 --> 00:22:15,625
I think it's moving backwards.

382
00:22:25,344 --> 00:22:27,971
Blind trust
is the core motto of this team.

383
00:22:30,140 --> 00:22:33,894
Blind trust is the ability to trust
that the people you're flying with

384
00:22:33,977 --> 00:22:37,606
are gonna do their job, they'll do it
to the inch and so extraordinarily well

385
00:22:37,689 --> 00:22:40,484
that you just have to worry
about flying your job to the inch.

386
00:22:40,567 --> 00:22:42,486
Boss winds 3-2-0 at eight.

387
00:22:42,569 --> 00:22:47,032
You are cleared for takeoff runway 3-4.
It's showtime!

388
00:22:52,537 --> 00:22:57,417
If you're the right wingman, for example,
your body's turned 90 degrees this way

389
00:22:57,501 --> 00:23:01,046
because your plane of reference is
Thunderbird 1 on your right-hand side.

390
00:23:04,049 --> 00:23:06,885
And so you're frozen
in this position for 40 minutes.

391
00:23:06,968 --> 00:23:09,930
Lift that right bank,
get a little more fall.

392
00:23:10,013 --> 00:23:13,642
The wingmen don't know
where the ground and the sky are.

393
00:23:13,725 --> 00:23:16,186
They only know where the boss is.

394
00:23:16,269 --> 00:23:19,731
They trust him without reservation.

395
00:23:27,364 --> 00:23:31,368
If number three is out of position
and four is flying blindly,

396
00:23:31,451 --> 00:23:32,786
then four's gonna hit three.

397
00:23:32,869 --> 00:23:34,704
Diamond ready now.

398
00:23:36,498 --> 00:23:39,668
But we ask her to blindly trust
that three is gonna be in position.

399
00:23:43,296 --> 00:23:45,090
If you don't have that blind trust,

400
00:23:45,799 --> 00:23:48,176
the show will not work.

401
00:23:55,934 --> 00:23:59,438
We build that blind trust
through all the repetitions we do.

402
00:23:59,521 --> 00:24:01,648
It takes training season to earn it.

403
00:24:07,028 --> 00:24:10,782
The Diamond Pass and Review,
it is the barometer for the team.

404
00:24:10,866 --> 00:24:14,911
If you see the Diamond Pass and Review
fly by and it's asymmetric and spread out,

405
00:24:14,995 --> 00:24:16,496
that team doesn't trust each other.

406
00:24:17,080 --> 00:24:18,415
This Diamond Pass and Review

407
00:24:18,498 --> 00:24:20,876
looks like the easiest maneuver
in the show to the crowd.

408
00:24:20,959 --> 00:24:23,920
It's just the diamond flying by
in front of you from right to left.

409
00:24:24,004 --> 00:24:26,173
But to make this maneuver work,

410
00:24:26,256 --> 00:24:29,259
I actually have to aim to hit the ground
in front of the crowd.

411
00:24:30,302 --> 00:24:32,929
And I'll hold that velocity vector
without flinching

412
00:24:33,013 --> 00:24:35,515
with an aim point
that is going to hit the ground,

413
00:24:35,599 --> 00:24:39,102
and the only reason it doesn't is
because number two slides into position,

414
00:24:39,186 --> 00:24:43,148
creates enough lift under my left wing
that it actually rolls my jet slightly

415
00:24:43,231 --> 00:24:47,235
and corrects that vector up in front
of the crowd to tag exactly 100 feet.

416
00:24:50,363 --> 00:24:53,283
We cannot fly it
without complete trust in one another,

417
00:24:53,366 --> 00:24:55,076
because once I call pull set,

418
00:24:55,660 --> 00:24:58,371
either Zeke slides into position
or we hit the ground.

419
00:25:00,457 --> 00:25:02,292
And unfortunately, we've been there.

420
00:25:05,754 --> 00:25:08,298
In 1982,
a very important incident to the team,

421
00:25:08,381 --> 00:25:10,884
it's kind of in all of our hearts,
it's called the Diamond Crash.

422
00:25:14,679 --> 00:25:17,807
My parents live here in Hampton,
so I'm excited to be back in the area.

423
00:25:17,891 --> 00:25:19,518
They're looking forward
to seeing the show.

424
00:25:20,727 --> 00:25:23,563
Four Thunderbird jet fighters
slammed into the desert floor

425
00:25:23,647 --> 00:25:26,274
at speeds close to 400 miles per hour.

426
00:25:26,358 --> 00:25:30,237
An amateur photographer took this picture
seconds after the crash.

427
00:25:30,737 --> 00:25:34,115
The Thunderbirds were practicing
this spectacular formation.

428
00:25:34,616 --> 00:25:38,912
The planes did not collide.
They simply flew straight into the ground.

429
00:25:38,995 --> 00:25:42,624
Four men, including the Thunderbird
team commander, were killed.

430
00:25:43,583 --> 00:25:46,169
The commander leader crashed his aircraft,

431
00:25:46,253 --> 00:25:50,549
and the rest of the team members
stuck with him and crashed as well.

432
00:25:51,883 --> 00:25:56,304
We lost the commander of the Thunderbirds,
number 2, 3, and 4,

433
00:25:56,388 --> 00:25:58,557
that day, January 18th, '82.

434
00:26:02,686 --> 00:26:07,023
The pilots on this team put absolute trust
in me as the formation leader.

435
00:26:07,107 --> 00:26:10,402
A blind trust.
And that's the only way any of this works.

436
00:26:10,986 --> 00:26:14,406
But I have to earn that trust,
because if I make a mistake,

437
00:26:15,073 --> 00:26:16,324
we all pay the price.

438
00:26:18,118 --> 00:26:19,786
So we're not gonna rush it.

439
00:26:19,869 --> 00:26:22,664
I am… Right now I'm flying
the diamond purr differently,

440
00:26:22,747 --> 00:26:25,625
because I'm counting on your lift,
and it's not there right now.

441
00:26:25,709 --> 00:26:29,588
Once I get you in a bit closer,
I will start pull setting,

442
00:26:30,297 --> 00:26:34,175
basically to crash. I know
it sounds, like, morbid, but it's not.

443
00:26:34,259 --> 00:26:36,636
-And then you will… You will fix that.
-Mm-hmm.

444
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:40,223
So when you get in, it'll go rrrr!
And we'll… And we'll climb.

445
00:26:43,476 --> 00:26:44,394
So no pressure.

446
00:26:47,772 --> 00:26:50,150
Uh, I was born in Illinois.

447
00:26:50,233 --> 00:26:53,695
Uh, at a young age,
we moved down to Gainesville, Florida.

448
00:26:53,778 --> 00:26:56,698
My parents got divorced
when I was at a young age.

449
00:26:56,781 --> 00:27:01,161
My dad was addicted to drugs
and basically chose that life

450
00:27:01,661 --> 00:27:03,788
and that lifestyle instead of his family.

451
00:27:04,623 --> 00:27:07,375
I remember I was a freshman in high school

452
00:27:08,209 --> 00:27:11,921
and we checked my dad into rehab
on Christmas.

453
00:27:12,005 --> 00:27:14,883
And it was like,
"Man, this is… This is bad."

454
00:27:15,634 --> 00:27:19,179
And that, I think,
was the time that I was like, "Man, I…"

455
00:27:19,971 --> 00:27:21,973
"I do not want this for myself."

456
00:27:23,224 --> 00:27:27,604
So I chose a different path and I pursued
aviation, all thanks to my grandfather.

457
00:27:27,687 --> 00:27:29,564
He kind of instilled that in me.

458
00:27:34,569 --> 00:27:36,863
And the month prior to
my commission into the Air Force,

459
00:27:36,946 --> 00:27:39,324
he was hospitalized.
We didn't know if he was gonna make it.

460
00:27:39,407 --> 00:27:41,743
He was like, "I''m gonna be
at the University of Alabama,

461
00:27:41,826 --> 00:27:43,244
and I'm gonna be his first salute."

462
00:27:43,328 --> 00:27:46,706
And he was pretty sick. He made the trip
out to Columbus, Mississippi,

463
00:27:46,790 --> 00:27:48,708
and got to put wings on my chest.

464
00:27:48,792 --> 00:27:51,753
I remember him telling me,
he's like, "You're gonna do great."

465
00:27:51,836 --> 00:27:55,799
"Every time you fly, look out your right
wing. I'll be riding on your right wing."

466
00:27:57,008 --> 00:27:57,842
Um…

467
00:27:59,386 --> 00:28:01,388
I need a minute.

468
00:28:03,973 --> 00:28:06,893
He passed away. I remember
I couldn't make it back to the funeral.

469
00:28:07,936 --> 00:28:11,314
I'm like, "All right, I'll take a picture
on the right wing before I fly."

470
00:28:11,398 --> 00:28:14,401
So I climbed up, took a picture
on the right wing and was like,

471
00:28:14,484 --> 00:28:15,443
"I got a new wingman."

472
00:28:23,702 --> 00:28:26,746
Every time I climb up the ladder,
I look out my right wing and say,

473
00:28:26,830 --> 00:28:29,416
"Hey, Grandpa, like, hang on.
It's gonna be a hell of a ride,"

474
00:28:29,499 --> 00:28:30,750
every single day.

475
00:28:43,054 --> 00:28:45,056
All right, fix that spacing.

476
00:28:45,807 --> 00:28:48,393
Winds aren't bad. No pitch.

477
00:28:51,438 --> 00:28:54,190
As the ground-based evaluator
for the team,

478
00:28:54,691 --> 00:28:58,069
my role is to tell the team
how they're gonna look to the crowd.

479
00:28:59,154 --> 00:29:00,029
Decent roll.

480
00:29:01,322 --> 00:29:02,365
TT bobble.

481
00:29:02,449 --> 00:29:04,784
Nine right. Nice formation.

482
00:29:05,285 --> 00:29:08,538
Probably a slow first half.

483
00:29:09,831 --> 00:29:15,253
I'm looking for symmetry.
Are the solos crossing offset from center?

484
00:29:15,336 --> 00:29:16,171
Six high.

485
00:29:16,254 --> 00:29:18,506
I want them to be pristine.

486
00:29:18,590 --> 00:29:19,841
Ready now. Break ready now.

487
00:29:22,886 --> 00:29:25,138
Pretty decent. Pretty decent.

488
00:29:28,057 --> 00:29:30,894
As all of this continues,
we're gonna be watching it unfold here

489
00:29:30,977 --> 00:29:32,562
as they approach certification coming up.

490
00:29:32,645 --> 00:29:35,190
That's a big deal. It's not a given.

491
00:29:35,273 --> 00:29:37,692
You know, that looms really large.

492
00:29:37,776 --> 00:29:40,570
And I know that
in Astro's mind it's there,

493
00:29:40,653 --> 00:29:43,239
and in each of those pilots,
that's there too.

494
00:29:43,323 --> 00:29:45,742
"Please don't let it be me
that screws this up."

495
00:29:45,825 --> 00:29:47,118
Especially the newbies.

496
00:29:47,202 --> 00:29:50,413
I mean, Primo,
criminal justice is what he studied.

497
00:29:50,497 --> 00:29:54,417
I was trying to figure out
how these guys get into fighter jets.

498
00:29:54,501 --> 00:29:57,378
He's studying criminal justice
and had to fly a jet.

499
00:30:03,635 --> 00:30:07,055
The high bomb burst is one of the most
difficult maneuvers of any air show,

500
00:30:07,138 --> 00:30:09,265
and that's the one that we end it on.

501
00:30:09,849 --> 00:30:11,309
All right, here we go.

502
00:30:13,269 --> 00:30:19,651
7,000 in nose,
coming up on 30, right on into four.

503
00:30:19,734 --> 00:30:22,904
Standby to break. Let's break, ready now.

504
00:30:27,408 --> 00:30:28,827
Hold the line.

505
00:30:30,662 --> 00:30:31,621
Two out, action.

506
00:30:38,795 --> 00:30:40,004
Altitude, altitude.

507
00:30:40,088 --> 00:30:42,006
Because we fly so close to the ground,

508
00:30:42,090 --> 00:30:43,424
we turned off the safety features

509
00:30:43,508 --> 00:30:45,301
that would protect us
from hitting the ground.

510
00:30:45,385 --> 00:30:47,262
-Warning. Warning.
-Oh!

511
00:30:47,345 --> 00:30:50,098
Pull up. Passing, passing.
Warning, warning.

512
00:31:00,608 --> 00:31:01,442
One mile.

513
00:31:03,444 --> 00:31:06,281
Fix that spacing. Smoke was a mess.

514
00:31:06,990 --> 00:31:08,741
Join it up, diamond.

515
00:31:13,621 --> 00:31:16,958
In this maneuver, Primo is
not only gonna have to hold positive G,

516
00:31:17,041 --> 00:31:19,794
but he's also gonna have to kick in
the rudder, which he gets lateral G,

517
00:31:19,878 --> 00:31:22,380
so he's getting two different forces
on his body at the same time.

518
00:31:27,635 --> 00:31:28,845
Come on, stay in there.

519
00:31:33,725 --> 00:31:36,686
Why is it…
That rejoin line is too aggressive.

520
00:31:36,769 --> 00:31:39,564
310, 320, 330.

521
00:31:40,064 --> 00:31:42,692
Get on that line. Come on, Primo.

522
00:31:42,775 --> 00:31:43,943
Get on the line. Ah!

523
00:31:48,990 --> 00:31:50,325
Hmm. Overshot the line.

524
00:31:50,408 --> 00:31:51,242
Yeah.

525
00:31:52,035 --> 00:31:54,203
-I think we should try another.
-Maybe.

526
00:31:54,287 --> 00:31:55,997
So Primo actually stays in this time.

527
00:32:13,097 --> 00:32:15,600
Okay, so this rejoin
is where it gets way late.

528
00:32:19,354 --> 00:32:20,313
Holy shit.

529
00:32:21,356 --> 00:32:23,983
Yeah, that is not a great picture.

530
00:32:24,984 --> 00:32:28,279
Primo is struggling with the rejoin phase
of the high bomb burst,

531
00:32:28,363 --> 00:32:33,201
and that's that last phase
where he's conducting a 135-degree slice

532
00:32:33,284 --> 00:32:36,454
upside-down while trying to find me
and rejoin to my wing,

533
00:32:36,537 --> 00:32:37,830
all within a couple of seconds.

534
00:32:37,914 --> 00:32:39,916
Can you back it up to the start of that?

535
00:32:40,500 --> 00:32:42,752
I think you have too much G initially.

536
00:32:43,378 --> 00:32:47,340
Because you want to float it slightly here
and then increase.

537
00:32:48,091 --> 00:32:49,300
You kind of want it to be like…

538
00:32:50,051 --> 00:32:50,885
Shoom.

539
00:32:51,803 --> 00:32:53,930
You know, as a newbie in the demo,

540
00:32:54,013 --> 00:32:57,350
there's immense amount of pressure
to get this thing right.

541
00:32:57,433 --> 00:33:00,979
Training season
is such a finite amount of time.

542
00:33:01,521 --> 00:33:04,232
At the second rejoin, I get really low.

543
00:33:06,067 --> 00:33:08,695
I don't know if I'm, like, too far away

544
00:33:09,946 --> 00:33:10,905
on the outbound,

545
00:33:12,115 --> 00:33:15,284
but then I don't want to pull seven Gs.

546
00:33:18,663 --> 00:33:22,834
The reason the high bomb burst
is particularly, um…

547
00:33:27,964 --> 00:33:30,216
just a challenge for everybody, um,

548
00:33:30,800 --> 00:33:34,178
and is nostalgic for us is not
just because it's our primary maneuver,

549
00:33:34,262 --> 00:33:36,973
but because the high bomb burst
was our last fatal accident.

550
00:33:37,473 --> 00:33:40,309
Um, in 2018, um,

551
00:33:40,393 --> 00:33:44,814
we lost Major Cajun Del Bagno
in the high bomb burst

552
00:33:44,897 --> 00:33:46,441
and in that exact rejoin.

553
00:33:52,864 --> 00:33:54,032
Some breaking news.

554
00:33:54,115 --> 00:33:57,744
An Air Force Thunderbird pilot is dead
following a crash outside Las Vegas.

555
00:33:57,827 --> 00:34:00,997
An F-16 fighter jet has
crashed near Nellis Air Force Base.

556
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,916
An F-16 crashed during
a routine training flight.

557
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,879
It marks the third crash for
the Thunderbirds in less than two years.

558
00:34:07,962 --> 00:34:12,050
Nellis Air Force Base has
identified him as Major Stephen Del Bagno.

559
00:34:12,133 --> 00:34:15,219
The report says
that pilot Major Stephen Del Bagno

560
00:34:15,303 --> 00:34:18,598
didn't input any flight controls
during a short period

561
00:34:18,681 --> 00:34:20,767
as the plane barreled towards the ground.

562
00:34:46,292 --> 00:34:49,545
Everybody wants
their child to say "mom" or "dad" first.

563
00:34:50,129 --> 00:34:54,217
Stephen, he was still a little tyke
and really hadn't said his first words.

564
00:34:54,759 --> 00:34:59,430
And there's an airplane that flew over,
and he's pointing up in the sky.

565
00:35:00,098 --> 00:35:01,641
"Airplane, airplane, airplane."

566
00:35:01,724 --> 00:35:04,102
Really? You're gonna say "airplane."

567
00:35:04,185 --> 00:35:06,938
You can't say mom. You can't say dad.

568
00:35:07,021 --> 00:35:09,607
Airplane is a two syllable word.
Mom is one.

569
00:35:09,690 --> 00:35:11,275
Mom is one.

570
00:35:12,193 --> 00:35:14,237
Dad is one, but he said, "Airplane."

571
00:35:15,696 --> 00:35:18,491
That was where everything
really started. He was, like,

572
00:35:18,574 --> 00:35:21,327
what, two?
Two, three years old at that time.

573
00:35:24,664 --> 00:35:26,332
What up, Pops?

574
00:35:26,415 --> 00:35:28,876
It's just me calling to let you know
it's official-official now.

575
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:32,713
The entire, uh, Thunderbird team
called today to say that

576
00:35:32,797 --> 00:35:35,091
I'm going to be the next Thunderbird 4.

577
00:35:35,174 --> 00:35:37,677
Anyway, love you.
Hope you guys are having a good day.

578
00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:39,804
Talk to you more soon. Take care. Bye.

579
00:35:46,394 --> 00:35:48,771
Pretty much was a day like any other day.

580
00:35:49,272 --> 00:35:50,648
I had gone off to work.

581
00:35:51,691 --> 00:35:54,944
My IT manager came to my office and said,

582
00:35:55,027 --> 00:35:58,781
"Joe, Joe, Joe, there was an accident
at Nellis Air Force Base in an F-16."

583
00:35:59,407 --> 00:36:01,951
I go, "Okay, did they say 'Thunderbird'?"

584
00:36:02,034 --> 00:36:03,327
And he said, "No."

585
00:36:04,412 --> 00:36:08,207
I says, "Okay, then I'm feeling
pretty good about the fact that

586
00:36:08,291 --> 00:36:11,085
it's not a Thunderbird, so Stephen's okay,

587
00:36:11,169 --> 00:36:12,545
we're gonna be just fine."

588
00:36:16,007 --> 00:36:19,427
I get a call from Cindy. Um…

589
00:36:20,261 --> 00:36:23,222
"There's-there's two suits at the door.
What do I do?"

590
00:36:28,186 --> 00:36:31,314
Joe wasn't home,
but I had to bring them in the house.

591
00:36:32,064 --> 00:36:33,983
They had a hard enough job to do.

592
00:36:34,650 --> 00:36:39,113
The clergyman was great
because he held me and he let me cry.

593
00:36:40,448 --> 00:36:45,661
The officer did a great job
maintaining his composure.

594
00:36:45,745 --> 00:36:47,747
How they can do it is beyond me.

595
00:36:49,123 --> 00:36:53,127
Never in a million years did I think
Stephen would die in an airplane.

596
00:36:53,211 --> 00:36:56,881
I mean, he was so, so meticulous

597
00:36:56,964 --> 00:37:00,426
and so thorough
on everything with his flying.

598
00:37:00,927 --> 00:37:03,387
I mean,
I would've seen him stepping off a curb,

599
00:37:03,471 --> 00:37:07,350
tripping and hitting his head before I
would've thought he'd die in an airplane.

600
00:37:10,853 --> 00:37:12,438
In the investigation,

601
00:37:13,189 --> 00:37:16,776
it wasn't determined
that Stephen did anything wrong.

602
00:37:17,735 --> 00:37:19,779
It was the high bomb burst rejoin.

603
00:37:19,862 --> 00:37:23,491
The difference in the amount of Gs,
it knocked him out.

604
00:37:24,075 --> 00:37:27,828
And he was too close
to the ground to recover.

605
00:37:28,412 --> 00:37:30,498
And so his trajectory in was,

606
00:37:30,581 --> 00:37:32,959
I think they said that
it was a 90-degree angle.

607
00:37:37,004 --> 00:37:39,840
We-we knew there wasn't much of him left.

608
00:37:46,472 --> 00:37:48,599
It's the worst thing in the world.

609
00:37:52,603 --> 00:37:56,482
You know, you expect
you're gonna say goodbye to your parents,

610
00:37:56,565 --> 00:37:59,277
but you don't ever expect
to say goodbye to your child.

611
00:38:17,086 --> 00:38:19,588
Coming right now
is what's called the pitch.

612
00:38:20,172 --> 00:38:23,467
And that is the signal that the show's
over and they're coming in to land.

613
00:38:29,432 --> 00:38:31,100
Next thing we'll hear
is the landing codes.

614
00:38:31,183 --> 00:38:34,520
Landing codes will come in, uh,
one through six in that order.

615
00:38:35,146 --> 00:38:38,316
Um, and that just gives maintenance
the heads-up on what we need to work.

616
00:38:40,860 --> 00:38:44,864
Thunderbirds are back on deck.
One is code two.

617
00:38:44,947 --> 00:38:46,907
FLCS single fail will not clear.

618
00:38:49,118 --> 00:38:50,202
Good run.

619
00:38:54,623 --> 00:38:57,835
Welcome to the flight line, where
everything starts and everything ends

620
00:38:57,918 --> 00:39:00,588
for the demonstration
and all jets in the Air Force.

621
00:39:00,671 --> 00:39:02,256
That's where work happens.

622
00:39:03,632 --> 00:39:08,179
We have maintainers, jets, oil, gas,

623
00:39:08,804 --> 00:39:10,931
and a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

624
00:39:11,515 --> 00:39:15,061
We understand that we don't have
the most alluring job in the world.

625
00:39:15,853 --> 00:39:17,813
You're in the belly of the beast.

626
00:39:17,897 --> 00:39:21,567
It's brash, but when your name
goes on the side of the jet,

627
00:39:21,650 --> 00:39:24,445
and you're the dedicated crew chief,
that means something.

628
00:39:25,029 --> 00:39:26,447
It's not just six demo pilots.

629
00:39:26,530 --> 00:39:29,241
There's 130-some-odd people
in this squadron

630
00:39:29,325 --> 00:39:32,578
working tirelessly and effortlessly
to make the job happen.

631
00:39:35,664 --> 00:39:39,543
I've spent more time with an aircraft
than I have with my family and friends.

632
00:39:39,627 --> 00:39:41,087
You want the aircraft to be the best.

633
00:39:41,170 --> 00:39:44,465
You want it to be the best looking,
to be the best flying, the go-to jet.

634
00:39:45,049 --> 00:39:45,925
That's your baby.

635
00:39:53,599 --> 00:39:55,518
It's game time when it comes out here.

636
00:39:55,601 --> 00:39:59,188
One major mistake
could mean life or death.

637
00:40:01,357 --> 00:40:03,901
Although these jets are maintained
to the highest standards,

638
00:40:03,984 --> 00:40:06,112
sometimes things do go wrong.

639
00:40:21,585 --> 00:40:25,131
The ejection seat in an aircraft
is an incredibly awesome safety feature.

640
00:40:25,714 --> 00:40:30,553
You know, it allows us to get away from
an aircraft that is moving very, very fast

641
00:40:30,636 --> 00:40:32,513
and have a parachute to save our lives.

642
00:40:32,596 --> 00:40:35,224
But it's an incredibly violent way
to leave an airplane.

643
00:40:36,142 --> 00:40:39,770
Pulling a handle that is lighting
a rocket motor underneath you

644
00:40:39,854 --> 00:40:43,274
and can get upwards of 20 to 25 times
the force of gravity

645
00:40:43,357 --> 00:40:44,900
as it launches you out of that airplane…

646
00:40:52,700 --> 00:40:56,162
So with Miami,
he had an ejection a few years ago.

647
00:40:56,245 --> 00:40:58,080
He ended up losing
an entire inch of height.

648
00:40:58,747 --> 00:41:00,583
Deep breath in.

649
00:41:00,666 --> 00:41:03,294
His muscles are
all shorter than they should be.

650
00:41:03,377 --> 00:41:05,254
And over time, that will actually calcify

651
00:41:05,337 --> 00:41:08,215
and cause, like,
significant muscle knotting in his back.

652
00:41:08,299 --> 00:41:10,926
And all those compressive forces
continually make it worse.

653
00:41:11,010 --> 00:41:14,263
Because you guys are doing the Gs,
you're always under compression.

654
00:41:14,346 --> 00:41:16,599
So, just, honestly,
one of the simplest things you can do

655
00:41:16,682 --> 00:41:17,892
is, you're just gonna relax,

656
00:41:17,975 --> 00:41:20,519
just kind of gently
pull that leg down that's shorter.

657
00:41:21,937 --> 00:41:23,272
Any pain there at all?

658
00:41:24,231 --> 00:41:25,107
Uh…

659
00:41:25,691 --> 00:41:28,527
Other than me being not flexible at all.

660
00:41:30,738 --> 00:41:32,823
I know, I need to do more yoga too.

661
00:41:33,407 --> 00:41:37,244
Ejections have a tremendous
physical and mental impact on a pilot.

662
00:41:37,328 --> 00:41:40,498
Getting back into the jet
after one ejection is a miracle.

663
00:41:41,540 --> 00:41:43,542
But if a pilot has to eject twice,

664
00:41:44,043 --> 00:41:46,337
that will likely be
the end of their flying career.

665
00:41:49,423 --> 00:41:51,717
The first time I landed after that,

666
00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:53,844
my hands were, like,
shaking uncontrollably.

667
00:41:53,928 --> 00:41:57,056
It was definitely a hurdle
I had to get over.

668
00:41:57,139 --> 00:42:02,061
But one of the main people that
helped me out was Thunder, number five.

669
00:42:02,561 --> 00:42:05,689
He specifically was always there for me.

670
00:42:05,773 --> 00:42:08,275
I went to his room,
asked him if he needed groceries.

671
00:42:08,359 --> 00:42:11,612
Just talked to him because
it had been a very traumatic event.

672
00:42:13,489 --> 00:42:18,327
That was, like, my first introduction to
the type of people that are on this team.

673
00:42:19,036 --> 00:42:21,330
Honestly, though,
the first 180 degrees of turn

674
00:42:21,413 --> 00:42:24,917
looked real nice as far as
altitude control. So I started at 340.

675
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:29,046
Thunderbird 5
is the other instructor role on the team

676
00:42:29,129 --> 00:42:32,758
because they're in their second year
and they flew six last year.

677
00:42:32,841 --> 00:42:34,134
Ready, hit it!

678
00:42:34,927 --> 00:42:38,847
The way I like to instruct is more visual,
being able to use the GPX lines,

679
00:42:38,931 --> 00:42:40,891
to show where I'm at to make timing.

680
00:42:42,977 --> 00:42:46,772
We're always under a little bit of,
like, the "I'm gonna die" factor,

681
00:42:46,855 --> 00:42:49,942
but that keeps your adrenaline running
and really focused.

682
00:42:55,364 --> 00:42:56,282
Like this!

683
00:43:03,038 --> 00:43:06,041
Rule number one, don't hit the diamond.
Number two, don't hit the ground.

684
00:43:06,125 --> 00:43:07,960
Rule number three, don't hit me.

685
00:43:15,384 --> 00:43:18,554
Here's a C-130 Hercules.
We saw these drop jumpers today.

686
00:43:19,096 --> 00:43:19,930
It's huge.

687
00:43:21,390 --> 00:43:25,227
It's got the wheels in that little part.
I always liked that kind of design there.

688
00:43:30,065 --> 00:43:31,150
Well, this is it.

689
00:43:31,233 --> 00:43:33,569
This is pretty much the best
you possibly can get.

690
00:43:33,652 --> 00:43:35,821
You got airplanes flying over.

691
00:43:35,904 --> 00:43:38,532
Who's that guy?

692
00:43:42,494 --> 00:43:44,038
There's a new level of cool.

693
00:43:44,121 --> 00:43:44,955
Yeah.

694
00:43:47,082 --> 00:43:48,459
-Wow.
-Oh.

695
00:43:48,542 --> 00:43:51,337
-Wow.
-What a camera angle.

696
00:43:51,420 --> 00:43:52,296
Great photography.

697
00:43:53,130 --> 00:43:56,300
This house was full of airplanes.

698
00:43:56,383 --> 00:44:00,262
Out in that garage
was just a whole setup of models.

699
00:44:00,346 --> 00:44:01,513
Every spare second,

700
00:44:01,597 --> 00:44:04,600
it was, get the homework done as fast as
he could on the way home from school

701
00:44:04,683 --> 00:44:06,935
because he was going out there
to build airplanes.

702
00:44:07,019 --> 00:44:10,981
And as a little boy, Kevin also took him
down there all the time to NASA.

703
00:44:11,065 --> 00:44:15,694
So he grew up with that.
It was just, like, in the veins.

704
00:44:16,403 --> 00:44:17,988
"I'm gonna be an astronaut."

705
00:44:18,072 --> 00:44:20,282
As a four-year-old in preschool,

706
00:44:20,908 --> 00:44:26,288
his teacher asked him to draw a picture
there of something in space.

707
00:44:26,372 --> 00:44:28,999
Wow, this is really different.

708
00:44:29,083 --> 00:44:35,005
Four-year-olds, the sky is blue.
He knew that space was black.

709
00:44:36,173 --> 00:44:39,051
And that space shuttle
became a theme for him.

710
00:44:40,344 --> 00:44:42,513
But he just kind of never let it go.

711
00:44:51,647 --> 00:44:52,898
When I first met him,

712
00:44:52,981 --> 00:44:56,110
he told me that he intended
to become an astronaut.

713
00:44:56,652 --> 00:44:59,363
And I was thinking, "Good luck, buddy."

714
00:44:59,446 --> 00:45:01,615
Nice dreaming.

715
00:45:03,701 --> 00:45:07,621
NASA astronauts are mostly
Air Force or Navy fighter pilots,

716
00:45:07,705 --> 00:45:09,039
specifically test pilots.

717
00:45:09,123 --> 00:45:12,543
And so I knew that
if I wanted to go to space,

718
00:45:12,626 --> 00:45:14,503
this is what I had to do with my life.

719
00:45:14,586 --> 00:45:18,424
So I went to weapons school
and then went to test pilot school,

720
00:45:18,507 --> 00:45:22,886
graduated a year later
as one of only three people that I know of

721
00:45:22,970 --> 00:45:26,432
who graduated from both of
the elite flying courses in the Air Force.

722
00:45:29,476 --> 00:45:32,312
I was certain I knew
what I was gonna do with my life.

723
00:45:32,396 --> 00:45:34,815
-Your planes are back in line.
-All right.

724
00:45:35,774 --> 00:45:39,778
As it narrows down from
18,000 initial applicants to 1,000,

725
00:45:39,862 --> 00:45:42,114
got down-selected again to 120.

726
00:45:42,197 --> 00:45:45,826
Approaching my son's first birthday
in February, I got called back

727
00:45:45,909 --> 00:45:50,372
to the second round of interviews,
which was down to 40 to 50 at that point,

728
00:45:50,456 --> 00:45:54,042
and became an astronaut finalist.
And that was surreal.

729
00:45:54,126 --> 00:45:57,504
Like, I really, at that point thought,
wow, I've made it this far.

730
00:45:57,588 --> 00:46:00,299
There's a chance.
Like, I might just make it.

731
00:46:00,883 --> 00:46:05,345
Until I got a call from my friend, Brick,
the commander of the Thunderbirds.

732
00:46:05,929 --> 00:46:09,224
When it came to my replacement,
I had a lot of thoughts on that.

733
00:46:09,308 --> 00:46:12,478
And the most important factor is
who is Thunderbird 1?

734
00:46:12,561 --> 00:46:14,354
Who is leading the team?

735
00:46:14,438 --> 00:46:16,273
Because they will set the culture.

736
00:46:16,356 --> 00:46:21,278
They will set, kind of, the, uh…
The overall character of the squadron.

737
00:46:21,361 --> 00:46:23,614
It was very important
that we got this right.

738
00:46:25,616 --> 00:46:29,787
He said, "Hey, Astro, I want you to think
about applying to take this team."

739
00:46:30,704 --> 00:46:32,623
And I said, "Absolutely not."

740
00:46:34,666 --> 00:46:39,046
The NASA application had been launched.
I was close to starting interviews.

741
00:46:39,671 --> 00:46:42,800
I knew what my future held,
and it wasn't air demonstration.

742
00:47:05,364 --> 00:47:07,449
As a flight surgeon, my main job is, one,

743
00:47:07,533 --> 00:47:10,077
be able to fly, understand the pilots,
keep them safe.

744
00:47:11,161 --> 00:47:14,456
But one of my favorite jobs
that I get to do during the air shows,

745
00:47:14,540 --> 00:47:16,333
I run something called The Shine.

746
00:47:18,043 --> 00:47:21,588
Boss and the solos
can use our signals from a light gun

747
00:47:21,672 --> 00:47:24,216
to line up perfectly
on the line every time.

748
00:47:25,050 --> 00:47:28,178
I thought for sure that would totally…

749
00:47:28,762 --> 00:47:32,683
When you're going 600 miles an hour,
sometimes he'll only have a split second

750
00:47:32,766 --> 00:47:37,521
or an instant to look back over his
shoulder and find that one little light

751
00:47:37,604 --> 00:47:41,608
and go, hey, yeah, that's the one
I'm going for. Line up on the line.

752
00:47:49,283 --> 00:47:51,410
Pitchy entry, three.

753
00:47:54,288 --> 00:47:57,291
Nice conditions. Come on, Primo.
You got this, baby.

754
00:47:58,584 --> 00:48:03,964
At this point in the training season,
I'm starting to see some frustrations.

755
00:48:04,798 --> 00:48:08,176
You know, they have that one kind of
thorn-in-their-side maneuver

756
00:48:08,260 --> 00:48:10,888
that they just can't seem
to get over the hump on.

757
00:48:12,222 --> 00:48:14,600
All right, y'all,
let's make this one happen.

758
00:48:14,683 --> 00:48:17,853
Come on,
let's see some progress on this one.

759
00:48:19,938 --> 00:48:21,398
Let's make ready now.

760
00:48:22,774 --> 00:48:24,902
All right, I like it, I like it.

761
00:48:28,947 --> 00:48:29,781
And pull.

762
00:48:29,865 --> 00:48:31,199
Pull up. Pull up.

763
00:48:32,451 --> 00:48:33,452
That's pretty.

764
00:48:34,202 --> 00:48:35,621
Take the lead, come on.

765
00:48:37,122 --> 00:48:40,208
Yes, outstanding.

766
00:48:40,292 --> 00:48:44,087
330, 340, 350,

767
00:48:44,171 --> 00:48:46,757
360, 370.

768
00:48:46,840 --> 00:48:48,175
He's behind.

769
00:48:48,258 --> 00:48:49,343
Come on, catch up!

770
00:48:52,512 --> 00:48:53,931
His rejoin angle was off.

771
00:49:01,229 --> 00:49:03,523
It's the most
frustrating thing I've ever done.

772
00:49:06,276 --> 00:49:08,528
I just can't get the rejoin down.

773
00:49:08,612 --> 00:49:10,364
Show center.

774
00:49:13,533 --> 00:49:16,912
Don't worry about symmetrics.
Let's just get there timely.

775
00:49:17,412 --> 00:49:19,373
Fight, fight, fight.

776
00:49:20,499 --> 00:49:21,917
Come on, catch up.

777
00:49:25,504 --> 00:49:26,421
Uh…

778
00:49:27,255 --> 00:49:28,465
Wide.

779
00:49:28,548 --> 00:49:30,133
You have too much G.

780
00:49:30,217 --> 00:49:33,011
Instead of rejoining on him,
rejoin on where you think he'll be.

781
00:49:34,012 --> 00:49:37,474
Come on, stay in there.
Don't fall back, come on.

782
00:49:37,557 --> 00:49:39,226
What's going on here?

783
00:49:40,185 --> 00:49:41,937
The rejoin lines are mismatched.

784
00:49:42,020 --> 00:49:43,438
Whoa, whoa, whoa now.

785
00:49:43,522 --> 00:49:48,026
I keep over rolling on the top. And then
the rejoins are still trash. Three.

786
00:49:51,947 --> 00:49:53,865
Little low, little low. Come on.

787
00:49:53,949 --> 00:49:56,243
Show center. Slow.

788
00:49:57,160 --> 00:49:58,912
It's because you're 1,000 feet low,

789
00:49:58,996 --> 00:50:01,123
which really changes
your slice and G.

790
00:50:01,206 --> 00:50:03,125
It's a thing. There's always a thing.

791
00:50:03,208 --> 00:50:06,253
We just don't know which one it'll be
and who's gonna have it.

792
00:50:07,254 --> 00:50:09,381
This one is yours, baby. Go get it.

793
00:50:12,592 --> 00:50:14,011
Fight, fight, fight.

794
00:50:15,095 --> 00:50:16,847
Get strong. Do it.

795
00:50:18,348 --> 00:50:19,641
Left, left.

796
00:50:23,603 --> 00:50:24,438
Come on.

797
00:50:25,856 --> 00:50:26,690
He had it.

798
00:50:38,160 --> 00:50:40,454
So this week has been an eventful one.

799
00:50:41,038 --> 00:50:43,540
We had two safeties happen back-to-back,

800
00:50:44,041 --> 00:50:47,002
where the aircraft and people
are actually in jeopardy.

801
00:50:47,753 --> 00:50:49,463
Two.

802
00:50:49,546 --> 00:50:50,714
-Three.
-Four.

803
00:50:53,050 --> 00:50:55,093
Yeah, I'm feeling all of those bumps.

804
00:50:55,177 --> 00:50:57,512
Don't know if they'll show in the tape,
but I'm just like…

805
00:50:57,596 --> 00:50:58,805
So we're all stacked.

806
00:50:58,889 --> 00:51:01,975
We turn. It's one, two, three and four.

807
00:51:07,105 --> 00:51:09,941
So I'm, like, tucked up
very close underneath Boss.

808
00:51:10,025 --> 00:51:15,238
I felt unsafe being that close to Boss
with my current skill levels.

809
00:51:15,322 --> 00:51:19,076
So I had a really big ease into Primo.

810
00:51:19,159 --> 00:51:21,745
And set timer and down.

811
00:51:21,828 --> 00:51:23,580
Whoa… Oh, shit.

812
00:51:23,663 --> 00:51:27,793
And our wingtips were…
I don't want to know how close.

813
00:51:28,627 --> 00:51:33,340
Primo just had no option
but to eject himself out of the formation.

814
00:51:37,552 --> 00:51:41,431
And we just watched it over
and over and over again in the debrief.

815
00:51:42,015 --> 00:51:44,101
To the best of your ability, Zeke,

816
00:51:44,184 --> 00:51:46,061
try and stabilize your wings with Boss.

817
00:51:46,144 --> 00:51:49,564
But you see, even that little ease
that you had there, um,

818
00:51:49,648 --> 00:51:51,399
again, absorb what you can absorb.

819
00:51:51,483 --> 00:51:54,069
And then if you can't absorb it,
move, and…

820
00:51:54,152 --> 00:51:58,281
It felt personal that I put Primo
in such a dangerous position.

821
00:51:58,365 --> 00:52:02,911
It's something you go home
and think about, man, that was close.

822
00:52:02,994 --> 00:52:06,456
That could have been catastrophic
for all of us,

823
00:52:06,540 --> 00:52:08,917
which is not something
you want to think about

824
00:52:09,000 --> 00:52:10,418
going to work the next day.

825
00:52:12,003 --> 00:52:15,257
All right, everybody who's watching
the video, thank you for taking the time

826
00:52:15,340 --> 00:52:18,343
to-to take a look at
the new show sequence. We decided…

827
00:52:18,426 --> 00:52:21,346
When I showed up
to the team in August of 2018,

828
00:52:21,429 --> 00:52:24,349
we'd just had a series
of three Class A mishaps.

829
00:52:24,432 --> 00:52:27,435
We had one that had a fatality
associated with it.

830
00:52:29,187 --> 00:52:32,274
I was very interested
in the history of the team.

831
00:52:32,357 --> 00:52:35,485
I had a drawer that had
a bunch of old documents

832
00:52:35,569 --> 00:52:40,073
dating all the way back into the,
you know, early '90s, into the '80s.

833
00:52:40,157 --> 00:52:42,617
And one day
I just started reading through it.

834
00:52:44,703 --> 00:52:48,415
I slowly started to build a picture
of previous versions of the team.

835
00:52:48,498 --> 00:52:52,878
We had kind of drifted off in some areas
that we were unaware of.

836
00:52:52,961 --> 00:52:55,422
When accidents or near misses happened,

837
00:52:55,505 --> 00:52:57,757
the leadership was spring-loaded

838
00:52:57,841 --> 00:53:00,886
to just raise the altitudes
and spread the formations out.

839
00:53:02,220 --> 00:53:04,556
Sometimes it's very difficult

840
00:53:04,639 --> 00:53:07,642
to see culture creeping
in the wrong direction

841
00:53:07,726 --> 00:53:09,227
in an organization.

842
00:53:09,311 --> 00:53:10,937
Sometimes it's not.

843
00:53:11,938 --> 00:53:14,357
And for about the last 20 years,

844
00:53:14,441 --> 00:53:17,485
this is what the Diamond Pass in Review
looks like for the Thunderbirds.

845
00:53:17,569 --> 00:53:20,238
It's asymmetric.
It's out of position. It's wide.

846
00:53:20,322 --> 00:53:22,741
That's never what
this institution was meant to be.

847
00:53:28,496 --> 00:53:31,208
A layperson would look at it
and say, "Well, aircraft are safer

848
00:53:31,291 --> 00:53:33,960
when further away from each other,"
which makes sense.

849
00:53:34,044 --> 00:53:36,379
Aircraft are safer
when they're further from the ground.

850
00:53:36,463 --> 00:53:40,008
But when Brick took a step back,
he came to the theory,

851
00:53:40,675 --> 00:53:44,512
we can actually execute a better show

852
00:53:45,347 --> 00:53:47,349
by actually being closer to each other,

853
00:53:47,432 --> 00:53:49,893
not only better optically,
but better safer.

854
00:53:49,976 --> 00:53:51,978
It's not inherently obvious.

855
00:53:52,520 --> 00:53:56,399
He saw that the further we push,
the harder we push,

856
00:53:56,483 --> 00:53:59,486
and the more we aim for precision,
the safer we fly.

857
00:53:59,569 --> 00:54:02,489
Because at that level,
it's all you can focus on.

858
00:54:02,572 --> 00:54:06,785
And so I really, really focused
on making the demo more difficult to fly

859
00:54:06,868 --> 00:54:08,286
as opposed to easier to fly.

860
00:54:08,370 --> 00:54:10,872
The order, the methodology.

861
00:54:11,373 --> 00:54:15,293
We have to fly close, we have to fly low,
and we have to find a way to do it safely.

862
00:54:15,919 --> 00:54:17,796
I knew it wasn't gonna happen overnight.

863
00:54:17,879 --> 00:54:20,590
And so my concern was that once I left,

864
00:54:21,091 --> 00:54:23,802
there may be an effort
to try to undo some of these things.

865
00:54:23,885 --> 00:54:27,514
We needed somebody who was gonna take
that mantle and continue pressing forward.

866
00:54:27,597 --> 00:54:32,352
Somebody who's got the tactical sense
of, like, a weapons school graduate,

867
00:54:32,435 --> 00:54:36,147
the physics and aerodynamic sense
of a test pilot school graduate.

868
00:54:36,815 --> 00:54:38,275
Well, those people don't exist.

869
00:54:38,358 --> 00:54:39,651
Well, one existed.

870
00:54:41,361 --> 00:54:43,405
As that project grew in my own mind,

871
00:54:43,488 --> 00:54:46,449
I started to realize everything
the Air Force had given me.

872
00:54:46,533 --> 00:54:49,494
Sending me to weapons school
to be a pinnacle instructor,

873
00:54:49,577 --> 00:54:52,414
sending me to test pilot school
to understand the nuances of…

874
00:54:52,497 --> 00:54:54,124
Of precision flying.

875
00:54:54,708 --> 00:54:58,253
To the point that it began to feel selfish
to pursue my childhood dream

876
00:54:58,336 --> 00:55:02,632
when there was this potential
for enormous impact

877
00:55:03,133 --> 00:55:06,511
in reforming a team
that could inspire the entire country.

878
00:55:07,846 --> 00:55:10,098
It just felt like
it was time to give back.

879
00:55:10,807 --> 00:55:13,893
So I left the flight line,
went straight back to my office,

880
00:55:13,977 --> 00:55:17,772
and sat down and wrote the most difficult
email I've ever written,

881
00:55:17,856 --> 00:55:20,442
and said that
I had to withdraw my application

882
00:55:20,525 --> 00:55:23,820
because I had been selected to be
Thunderbird 1 for the US Air Force.

883
00:55:27,115 --> 00:55:28,491
Yeah, it was so close.

884
00:55:29,868 --> 00:55:32,871
It was so close that I was already
picturing how amazing it would be

885
00:55:32,954 --> 00:55:35,749
to-to get to realize this dream.

886
00:55:50,722 --> 00:55:53,099
Let's take a moment
and talk about the Daytona 500.

887
00:55:53,183 --> 00:55:56,269
We have an opportunity
coming up here for a lot of fans

888
00:55:56,353 --> 00:55:58,897
who are not air show fans
to see the team.

889
00:55:59,522 --> 00:56:01,483
Daytona's a big deal for us.

890
00:56:01,566 --> 00:56:04,819
The Thunderbirds have flown
the Daytona 500 flyover

891
00:56:04,903 --> 00:56:08,615
12 consecutive years in a row,
13 times total.

892
00:56:08,698 --> 00:56:10,617
It's technically mid-training season,

893
00:56:10,700 --> 00:56:12,452
so there's actually been
a lot of controversy

894
00:56:12,535 --> 00:56:14,662
on whether or not
we should even be doing it.

895
00:56:14,746 --> 00:56:19,834
Do we interrupt our training to go do
this massive national public event?

896
00:56:20,960 --> 00:56:24,589
There's a week of press.
It's huge for the team.

897
00:56:24,672 --> 00:56:27,342
So it is very positive on the one hand,

898
00:56:27,425 --> 00:56:29,761
but it interrupts
the middle of our training season.

899
00:56:30,595 --> 00:56:32,889
And all of it's before we're certified.

900
00:56:34,057 --> 00:56:36,893
This is a big deal for them
to do the flyover

901
00:56:36,976 --> 00:56:38,895
during the national anthem
of the Daytona 500.

902
00:56:38,978 --> 00:56:41,481
And before certification.
It's not an air show.

903
00:56:41,564 --> 00:56:45,819
And unlike an air show
where you have your local audience,

904
00:56:45,902 --> 00:56:47,570
the whole world

905
00:56:47,654 --> 00:56:49,781
-is watching the Daytona 500.
-Is watching.

906
00:56:49,864 --> 00:56:50,782
No pressure.

907
00:56:51,408 --> 00:56:56,162
And we're expected to hit
the national anthem at the "B" in "brave,"

908
00:56:56,246 --> 00:56:58,915
at exactly that microsecond.

909
00:56:58,998 --> 00:57:02,877
And we're supposed to split
the "C" and the "E" in "world center."

910
00:57:02,961 --> 00:57:05,922
We're expected to hit
within inches and microseconds

911
00:57:06,589 --> 00:57:08,508
for our first ever public appearance.

912
00:57:16,433 --> 00:57:18,852
Here to perform today's national anthem,

913
00:57:18,935 --> 00:57:23,064
please welcome platinum artist
and songwriter Breland.

914
00:57:28,236 --> 00:57:30,113
As soon as that guy's established,

915
00:57:30,196 --> 00:57:33,032
give Boss a warm fuzzy
and reiterate the TOT.

916
00:57:34,075 --> 00:57:38,997
O say can you see

917
00:57:39,080 --> 00:57:44,002
By the dawn's early light

918
00:57:44,752 --> 00:57:46,754
What so proud…

919
00:57:46,838 --> 00:57:48,089
Let's start it at 10.

920
00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:50,175
This is five seconds less 40.

921
00:57:50,258 --> 00:57:51,134
On time, boss.

922
00:57:51,217 --> 00:57:52,719
330 and holding.

923
00:57:52,802 --> 00:57:56,431
Whose broad stripes and bright stars

924
00:57:56,514 --> 00:57:59,517
TOT Bravo, one nine four eight four five.

925
00:58:00,018 --> 00:58:02,187
-Copy that.
-Little power back.

926
00:58:02,270 --> 00:58:03,480
300.

927
00:58:03,563 --> 00:58:08,026
And the rocket's red glare

928
00:58:08,693 --> 00:58:09,694
Five second slip.

929
00:58:09,777 --> 00:58:10,862
It'll turn a bit.

930
00:58:10,945 --> 00:58:13,406
Five nine one five new TOT. One minute.

931
00:58:13,490 --> 00:58:15,575
Push it up, Boss. Five seconds late.

932
00:58:15,658 --> 00:58:18,578
Easing forward just a bit, 340.

933
00:58:18,661 --> 00:58:20,997
O say, does…

934
00:58:21,664 --> 00:58:22,999
Smoke on, ready now.

935
00:58:23,875 --> 00:58:27,504
Banner yet wave

936
00:58:27,587 --> 00:58:28,796
He's off his splits.

937
00:58:30,924 --> 00:58:32,133
Push it up, Boss.

938
00:58:32,759 --> 00:58:33,760
Ten seconds late.

939
00:58:33,843 --> 00:58:37,263
Of the free

940
00:58:38,181 --> 00:58:40,391
We're gonna miss it. It's too late.

941
00:58:41,267 --> 00:58:45,730
Of the brave

942
00:58:55,240 --> 00:58:57,200
Let's hear it for Breland's performance…

943
00:58:57,283 --> 00:58:59,369
-Show center.
-…of our national anthem.

944
00:58:59,953 --> 00:59:05,333
Along with the United States Air Force
Thunderbirds for today's flyover.

945
00:59:09,087 --> 00:59:13,550
I missed the time when he started at 47
because I was trying to freaking add.

946
00:59:13,633 --> 00:59:14,968
-Nobody likes that.
-No.

947
00:59:15,051 --> 00:59:18,263
The organizers
don't like it and the teams don't like it.

948
00:59:18,346 --> 00:59:19,764
You cringe going,

949
00:59:19,847 --> 00:59:22,850
"Oh, dear God, the race'll be
over by the time they get here."

950
00:59:25,061 --> 00:59:28,565
The Thunderbirds
have been training to hit maneuvers

951
00:59:28,648 --> 00:59:29,857
with fractions of seconds.

952
00:59:30,817 --> 00:59:35,154
And today we missed the national anthem
by 10 seconds.

953
00:59:38,116 --> 00:59:39,659
We got some things to work on.

954
00:59:39,742 --> 00:59:43,204
Boss is pissed. The team is pissed.

955
00:59:44,372 --> 00:59:45,331
Yeah.

956
00:59:47,667 --> 00:59:52,964
You feel that burden
of the huge mistake for the flyover.

957
00:59:54,966 --> 00:59:56,509
You fail as a team,

958
00:59:56,593 --> 01:00:00,513
and it is tough to do when
certification is right around the corner.

959
01:00:01,222 --> 01:00:03,975
And, you know,
I still feel like I'm behind.

960
01:00:11,190 --> 01:00:14,235
Stand by the break.
Let's break. Ready now.

961
01:00:14,319 --> 01:00:15,653
Smoke on.

962
01:00:17,238 --> 01:00:18,197
And rejoin.

963
01:00:19,073 --> 01:00:21,075
Roll. Power.

964
01:00:22,577 --> 01:00:23,536
Three's gotcha.

965
01:00:27,165 --> 01:00:30,043
Mill. Roll. Pull.

966
01:00:30,543 --> 01:00:31,628
Boss up there.

967
01:00:33,755 --> 01:00:36,132
Rudder in. Forwards as required.

968
01:00:37,467 --> 01:00:38,509
And we're in.

969
01:00:49,687 --> 01:00:52,190
All right, well, you know
who we have on the show today?

970
01:00:52,273 --> 01:00:53,483
We have the new number 3.

971
01:00:53,566 --> 01:00:57,779
You're learning the ropes
as a member of the diamond.

972
01:00:57,862 --> 01:00:59,822
I mean,
what's going through your head right now?

973
01:00:59,906 --> 01:01:04,410
It's… I'll tell you,
demonstration flying is humbling.

974
01:01:05,536 --> 01:01:08,956
Imagination

975
01:01:09,999 --> 01:01:13,294
Where have you gone?

976
01:01:14,796 --> 01:01:16,756
Or has the train left the station?

977
01:01:16,839 --> 01:01:20,635
Here it's just strictly repetition.
You have to keep making the same mistake

978
01:01:21,844 --> 01:01:23,096
until it clicks.

979
01:01:23,179 --> 01:01:24,180
Traveling down.

980
01:01:27,600 --> 01:01:28,976
Wing tips facing.

981
01:01:29,060 --> 01:01:31,104
We're only as strong as our weakest link.

982
01:01:31,187 --> 01:01:32,522
Everybody's gonna struggle.

983
01:01:32,605 --> 01:01:35,775
But it's how do you handle
the difficult times.

984
01:01:36,984 --> 01:01:38,986
It's really hard to see progress

985
01:01:39,070 --> 01:01:41,364
when you're double turning
six times a week.

986
01:01:42,907 --> 01:01:45,743
You're just grinding,
trying to fly your best.

987
01:01:45,827 --> 01:01:49,747
A little bit early. And then being fast
also doesn't help. So…

988
01:01:53,167 --> 01:01:54,877
You're waiting for the breakthrough.

989
01:01:54,961 --> 01:01:56,671
Went through three or four planes

990
01:01:56,754 --> 01:01:58,297
before I learned to put the wheels down.

991
01:02:02,677 --> 01:02:06,431
Holy shit. He's looking at Boss.
He's, like, he's doing it. He's doing it.

992
01:02:06,514 --> 01:02:07,348
I like it.

993
01:02:08,349 --> 01:02:09,183
Pretty decent.

994
01:02:09,267 --> 01:02:11,310
Certification's coming,
it's a team effort.

995
01:02:11,394 --> 01:02:13,229
So is that adding pressure to this?

996
01:02:13,312 --> 01:02:14,814
It's a lot of pressure.

997
01:02:14,897 --> 01:02:17,525
Welcome back, everybody. Objectives were…

998
01:02:18,776 --> 01:02:22,029
Yeah, I think we did a little bit better
than first go.

999
01:02:22,113 --> 01:02:26,659
It never gets easy enough to be confident
about where you're at.

1000
01:02:26,743 --> 01:02:31,956
It's gonna be easy at this point to want
to rest on how hard we've worked so far.

1001
01:02:32,039 --> 01:02:33,458
But that's not what we're gonna do.

1002
01:02:33,541 --> 01:02:36,043
Because that's not
what the Thunderbirds do.

1003
01:02:36,127 --> 01:02:37,503
This brand is what it's all about.

1004
01:02:39,547 --> 01:02:43,259
We are always concerned
that we won't get across the finish line

1005
01:02:43,342 --> 01:02:45,094
by the time
we get to COMACC certification.

1006
01:02:54,437 --> 01:02:55,772
I'm dying right now.

1007
01:02:55,855 --> 01:02:57,690
There's a bit of a game going on here.

1008
01:02:58,775 --> 01:03:02,987
You try to grab the person next
to you's hand right at the salute pop.

1009
01:03:03,070 --> 01:03:05,364
Okay, let's, uh…
Let's play it through one time.

1010
01:03:09,118 --> 01:03:10,286
Missed!

1011
01:03:10,369 --> 01:03:13,372
Oh man. Zeke, though. This is amazing.

1012
01:03:14,957 --> 01:03:17,251
You're our 2023 Thunderbird.

1013
01:03:25,176 --> 01:03:26,677
Hey, Tamayo! Come here.

1014
01:03:29,263 --> 01:03:32,433
Can you hold that far side of the ISA?
Help him stay to stable.

1015
01:03:33,226 --> 01:03:39,524
This week's been pretty rough so far.
We had a, uh, right stab servo fail.

1016
01:03:42,068 --> 01:03:45,196
Tamayo, you wanna give me
some snippers or dykes or something?

1017
01:03:45,279 --> 01:03:49,116
So right now it's wind chill
probably about 10 to 15 degrees.

1018
01:03:49,200 --> 01:03:52,370
Tonight's gonna be a long night.
They could be here one, two a.m.

1019
01:03:54,497 --> 01:03:55,873
It got dark real quick.

1020
01:03:56,749 --> 01:03:58,376
And it got cold real quick.

1021
01:04:01,754 --> 01:04:03,214
You're tired, you're cold,

1022
01:04:04,715 --> 01:04:05,550
you're hungry.

1023
01:04:06,342 --> 01:04:08,261
You just want to go home and go to bed.

1024
01:04:09,011 --> 01:04:12,807
But if we want that jet to fly tomorrow,
it's gonna fly tomorrow.

1025
01:04:31,909 --> 01:04:32,910
280.

1026
01:04:33,411 --> 01:04:34,245
300.

1027
01:04:35,913 --> 01:04:36,998
330.

1028
01:04:38,499 --> 01:04:39,458
340.

1029
01:04:41,002 --> 01:04:41,836
350.

1030
01:04:43,462 --> 01:04:44,297
360.

1031
01:04:44,881 --> 01:04:49,302
So he's about, like, 130 slice back.

1032
01:04:50,094 --> 01:04:51,095
Yeah.

1033
01:04:51,178 --> 01:04:54,765
That's a function
of how far laterally offset you are.

1034
01:04:55,266 --> 01:04:57,393
'Cause now that you've seen Boss do that,

1035
01:04:57,894 --> 01:05:01,355
like, maneuver a few times,
you know where he's going, right?

1036
01:05:01,439 --> 01:05:03,316
-Yeah.
-That's why I always ask Boss, like,

1037
01:05:03,399 --> 01:05:04,859
"Hey, what line are you gonna be on?"

1038
01:05:04,942 --> 01:05:08,154
So I know what line he's taking, so that

1039
01:05:08,237 --> 01:05:11,032
when I'm rejoining here,
I can, like, see where he's going.

1040
01:05:13,075 --> 01:05:15,661
Yeah, we're a few days away
from certification,

1041
01:05:15,745 --> 01:05:17,496
and I feel like, you know,

1042
01:05:17,580 --> 01:05:21,042
I'm still not at the point
where I need to be for the high BB.

1043
01:05:21,542 --> 01:05:25,755
And you don't want to be the guy
that is the reason the team fails.

1044
01:05:25,838 --> 01:05:28,007
I just don't think I have enough altitude.

1045
01:05:28,633 --> 01:05:31,093
Don't think about it too much, you know?

1046
01:05:31,177 --> 01:05:33,971
-I'm not thinking about it.
-You're doing too much.

1047
01:05:34,722 --> 01:05:37,475
As long as you don't hit the ground,
it helps a little.

1048
01:05:37,558 --> 01:05:38,392
Or do.

1049
01:05:39,226 --> 01:05:40,895
It'd be a quick way to fix it.

1050
01:05:53,783 --> 01:05:55,576
It's all numbers.

1051
01:05:57,370 --> 01:05:59,080
We're at the end of winter training.

1052
01:05:59,163 --> 01:06:04,085
So tomorrow we have our certification from
the commander of Air Combat Command

1053
01:06:04,168 --> 01:06:08,255
who will decide whether we are good enough
to represent the United States Air Force.

1054
01:06:08,965 --> 01:06:12,426
All the training that we've put into this
comes together starting tomorrow.

1055
01:06:15,221 --> 01:06:16,973
Okay. Pull set.

1056
01:06:19,016 --> 01:06:21,060
There. Put that there.

1057
01:06:29,986 --> 01:06:31,320
You want to see ducky?

1058
01:06:31,404 --> 01:06:32,446
-Mm-hmm.
-Mm-hmm.

1059
01:06:32,530 --> 01:06:34,782
If I'm being really honest,

1060
01:06:34,865 --> 01:06:37,201
this time has brought us
closer in some ways,

1061
01:06:37,284 --> 01:06:39,328
but further apart in other ways too.

1062
01:06:40,913 --> 01:06:42,456
It is very exhausting.

1063
01:06:42,540 --> 01:06:45,584
But that is why service in the military

1064
01:06:45,668 --> 01:06:48,629
is truly a family service.

1065
01:06:55,594 --> 01:06:57,304
We have engine start in four minutes.

1066
01:06:57,388 --> 01:06:59,056
So eat what you have down there…

1067
01:06:59,140 --> 01:07:01,809
No, I made the one that has the…

1068
01:07:01,892 --> 01:07:03,519
Your burrito is the one that doesn't have…

1069
01:07:03,602 --> 01:07:05,771
Whatever it is,
engine start in four minutes…

1070
01:07:05,855 --> 01:07:07,356
Things fall apart a lot.

1071
01:07:08,107 --> 01:07:11,986
And we put one foot in front of another
and we get to the next point.

1072
01:07:12,069 --> 01:07:14,196
Revan, stop it!

1073
01:07:14,280 --> 01:07:17,158
-No, DeeDee, can you just…
-Boys, come down and eat.

1074
01:07:17,658 --> 01:07:19,452
Okay, go ahead and talk, but…

1075
01:07:19,535 --> 01:07:21,370
Give Dad a hug. Dada has to go.

1076
01:07:22,079 --> 01:07:23,039
Come on.

1077
01:07:23,122 --> 01:07:25,207
I think anyone in this position
would question,

1078
01:07:25,291 --> 01:07:28,377
am I doing damage here
that I can't recover from?

1079
01:07:28,461 --> 01:07:30,921
-That's okay. Dad…
-Your soldiers are gonna fight…

1080
01:07:31,005 --> 01:07:33,007
Dada will fight it off. Come here.

1081
01:07:33,090 --> 01:07:35,092
Dada loves you very much.

1082
01:07:35,176 --> 01:07:39,513
And I hope I'm right, when I say,
"No, we're gonna be just fine."

1083
01:08:10,169 --> 01:08:11,003
Ten.

1084
01:08:15,091 --> 01:08:17,676
Five, four, three point six…

1085
01:08:17,760 --> 01:08:19,095
-Launch us.
-…two,

1086
01:08:19,178 --> 01:08:20,262
one.

1087
01:08:20,346 --> 01:08:22,932
-Hack, Boss.
-All right, hack. Welcome everybody.

1088
01:08:23,015 --> 01:08:26,060
We are stepping at 9:40.
We'll march at 9:50.

1089
01:08:26,143 --> 01:08:28,979
We're on Delta 62 today
for COMACC certification.

1090
01:08:29,063 --> 01:08:30,439
We'll take off at 18:10.

1091
01:08:30,523 --> 01:08:33,192
Our objectives today are to put on
an outstanding high show

1092
01:08:33,275 --> 01:08:35,778
for our leadership
to show what this team is capable of.

1093
01:08:35,861 --> 01:08:39,115
We have one opportunity
to now go from being really, really good

1094
01:08:39,990 --> 01:08:42,618
to perfect,
have the best game of your life.

1095
01:08:45,079 --> 01:08:50,543
I've put so much work into this,
and you have one shot at it.

1096
01:08:51,794 --> 01:08:54,213
It's just a different amount of pressure.

1097
01:08:54,755 --> 01:08:56,465
The most important thing to all of us

1098
01:08:56,549 --> 01:08:59,468
is we wanna make this team
the best it can be.

1099
01:09:00,970 --> 01:09:04,765
Everyone just wants each individual
on the team to do their best.

1100
01:09:05,307 --> 01:09:08,561
Start one, ready now.
Canopy tower to ready now.

1101
01:09:13,149 --> 01:09:17,820
Well, today's the big day. It is
certification day for the Thunderbirds.

1102
01:09:17,903 --> 01:09:20,573
We've come down to that big moment,
you've checked all the boxes,

1103
01:09:20,656 --> 01:09:23,784
you're good to go on the road or not.

1104
01:09:26,829 --> 01:09:30,124
All eyes today are gonna be
on our buddy, Primo.

1105
01:09:32,501 --> 01:09:35,421
The past two to three months
of training season,

1106
01:09:35,504 --> 01:09:38,424
living through blood, sweat
and tears as a team,

1107
01:09:39,884 --> 01:09:41,385
comes down to today.

1108
01:09:44,388 --> 01:09:47,099
Standby, smoke, smoke everything now.

1109
01:09:47,183 --> 01:09:50,102
Thunderbirds, release everything now.
Burners now.

1110
01:10:04,742 --> 01:10:05,826
Little power back.

1111
01:10:06,744 --> 01:10:12,917
Diamond is approaching from the right.
For your 2023 Diamond Pass in Review.

1112
01:10:13,000 --> 01:10:16,545
It's a signature Thunderbird
maneuver. The optics are key.

1113
01:10:16,629 --> 01:10:19,298
I'm most concerned
about the safety aspects.

1114
01:10:19,381 --> 01:10:20,841
Smoke on ready now.

1115
01:10:25,679 --> 01:10:26,597
Pull set.

1116
01:10:36,607 --> 01:10:40,778
From your right, Major Katz,
and from your left, Major Tise.

1117
01:10:40,861 --> 01:10:46,242
Inbound for show center at a closing speed
of over 1,000 miles per hour.

1118
01:10:46,325 --> 01:10:47,952
They're working on a razor's edge.

1119
01:10:48,035 --> 01:10:50,579
Does it happen 100 feet left?
Does it happen 100 feet right?

1120
01:10:50,663 --> 01:10:52,748
The 100,000 people watching will notice.

1121
01:10:52,831 --> 01:10:53,874
Ready, set.

1122
01:10:54,959 --> 01:10:57,670
All set, diamond…

1123
01:11:11,892 --> 01:11:14,687
Look to your left
as the diamond approaches

1124
01:11:14,770 --> 01:11:17,731
for the high bomb burst.

1125
01:11:21,902 --> 01:11:23,904
This is the one, team. Go get it!

1126
01:11:26,073 --> 01:11:27,950
Easy forward.

1127
01:11:30,786 --> 01:11:31,745
Little power up.

1128
01:11:33,872 --> 01:11:38,627
They've gotta show up at the exact
same place at the exact same time.

1129
01:11:38,711 --> 01:11:41,505
Standby, about break.
Let's break ready now.

1130
01:11:46,010 --> 01:11:47,011
Two miles action.

1131
01:11:53,100 --> 01:11:55,394
Looking good, looking good. Saddle it.

1132
01:11:55,477 --> 01:11:56,687
One mile.

1133
01:11:58,939 --> 01:12:00,816
There you go. Great stuff.

1134
01:12:00,899 --> 01:12:03,152
All right, Primo, all eyes on you.

1135
01:12:04,069 --> 01:12:05,154
Show me your talent.

1136
01:12:07,239 --> 01:12:09,533
One's on top. Five, two, two, three.

1137
01:12:15,956 --> 01:12:17,875
Fight, fight, fight.

1138
01:12:19,585 --> 01:12:21,879
Finish strong, baby.
Get in there. Come on.

1139
01:12:23,047 --> 01:12:25,007
Come on, Primo. Get on that line.

1140
01:12:30,387 --> 01:12:32,389
Line's at 300. 310.

1141
01:12:32,473 --> 01:12:33,474
His line is off.

1142
01:12:34,058 --> 01:12:35,893
330, 340…

1143
01:12:35,976 --> 01:12:36,935
Close the gap.

1144
01:12:37,019 --> 01:12:41,148
350, 360, 370.

1145
01:12:42,608 --> 01:12:44,151
380.

1146
01:12:44,234 --> 01:12:45,944
Get there. Go on.

1147
01:12:59,416 --> 01:13:00,542
Show center.

1148
01:13:13,555 --> 01:13:15,724
-Hold the balance.
-You got this.

1149
01:13:17,309 --> 01:13:19,019
Yes! Awesome.

1150
01:13:38,580 --> 01:13:40,290
Three steps forward, one step back,

1151
01:13:40,374 --> 01:13:41,750
three steps forward, one step back.

1152
01:13:42,501 --> 01:13:45,421
Primo dealt with learning
the high BB rejoin.

1153
01:13:46,755 --> 01:13:48,590
Absolutely, I was proud of him.

1154
01:13:52,970 --> 01:13:53,846
I love Primo.

1155
01:14:09,945 --> 01:14:12,239
A three-floor elevator version
of how it went today,

1156
01:14:12,322 --> 01:14:14,366
and I think folks would say,

1157
01:14:14,450 --> 01:14:16,201
best we've ever done.

1158
01:14:16,785 --> 01:14:18,662
Really, really impressive show.

1159
01:14:19,329 --> 01:14:24,418
I think I've seen more Thunderbird tapes
than any human alive.

1160
01:14:24,501 --> 01:14:30,215
And so in 40 years, I've seen, uh,
the team at its best and at its worst.

1161
01:14:31,091 --> 01:14:34,511
You are the best version
of yourselves right now.

1162
01:14:35,304 --> 01:14:36,388
Never been better.

1163
01:14:37,389 --> 01:14:38,223
Sorry.

1164
01:14:41,018 --> 01:14:41,852
All good.

1165
01:14:42,811 --> 01:14:44,688
America needs more of you.

1166
01:14:46,023 --> 01:14:47,733
We're at the top of our game.

1167
01:14:48,275 --> 01:14:53,322
Go out and present yourself as you are,
and you will make more people like you.

1168
01:14:53,906 --> 01:14:58,202
Okay, with that, um, you guys are
certified for 23, and you'll do great.

1169
01:14:58,285 --> 01:14:59,161
You'll do great.

1170
01:14:59,995 --> 01:15:02,789
Team 23's certification
was the best I'd seen

1171
01:15:02,873 --> 01:15:05,459
during my time as the ACC commander.

1172
01:15:05,542 --> 01:15:09,338
A lot of the work that had gone in
not just months, but years prior,

1173
01:15:09,421 --> 01:15:10,547
came to fruition.

1174
01:15:11,215 --> 01:15:14,718
I'm proud that we were able
to connect the past with the present,

1175
01:15:14,801 --> 01:15:16,386
but also to tie it to the future.

1176
01:15:16,470 --> 01:15:18,972
I'm just one of the contributors
that's gonna take us

1177
01:15:19,056 --> 01:15:20,891
to where I want the team to be,

1178
01:15:20,974 --> 01:15:23,435
which is perfection,
which is an elite team,

1179
01:15:23,519 --> 01:15:26,313
which is the golden era
of the Thunderbirds is out there.

1180
01:15:26,396 --> 01:15:28,815
It's in front of us,
we've got to keep driving towards it.

1181
01:15:49,044 --> 01:15:50,754
Somehow he answered our call again.

1182
01:15:50,837 --> 01:15:51,672
Yes.

1183
01:15:51,755 --> 01:15:54,007
-Hi, Primo, how are you?
-Can't believe it.

1184
01:15:54,091 --> 01:15:57,135
We know the team was certified,
which must mean

1185
01:15:57,219 --> 01:15:59,388
you got it done
or they did it without you.

1186
01:16:01,640 --> 01:16:05,185
I'm fantastic,
and no, Rick, I didn't ground abort.

1187
01:16:05,269 --> 01:16:06,770
I flew the certification.

1188
01:16:06,853 --> 01:16:09,398
For the record,
I never doubted you for a minute.

1189
01:16:09,481 --> 01:16:11,233
Rob and Rick did.

1190
01:16:11,316 --> 01:16:13,777
But listen, Team Primo right here.

1191
01:16:16,488 --> 01:16:20,325
From Nellis Air Force Base
in fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada,

1192
01:16:20,409 --> 01:16:22,536
America's ambassadors in blue.

1193
01:16:22,619 --> 01:16:24,454
Thunderbirds!

1194
01:16:25,789 --> 01:16:30,752
Are you all ready for the Thunderbirds?

1195
01:16:30,836 --> 01:16:33,005
Every day I look at you

1196
01:16:34,381 --> 01:16:37,968
-Makes me cry to see you blue
-See you blue

1197
01:16:38,051 --> 01:16:40,971
Only thing for me to do

1198
01:16:44,141 --> 01:16:47,477
To make you believe all I want is…

1199
01:16:47,561 --> 01:16:51,106
We see a lot of these teams.
This team in particular…

1200
01:16:51,189 --> 01:16:54,901
The chemistry and the camaraderie
that has come together with this team

1201
01:16:54,985 --> 01:16:56,737
is just really, really special.

1202
01:16:56,820 --> 01:16:59,698
And it's carried right
into the performances.

1203
01:16:59,781 --> 01:17:01,491
That's right. That all translates.

1204
01:17:05,662 --> 01:17:08,707
Fight the good fight, yeah

1205
01:17:08,790 --> 01:17:11,877
Remember I'll be next to you

1206
01:17:11,960 --> 01:17:13,962
When you push on through

1207
01:17:17,591 --> 01:17:21,303
Across America, anywhere from
the Pacific Show in Huntington Beach

1208
01:17:21,386 --> 01:17:24,681
to the East Coast,
and all the crisscrossing that went on…

1209
01:17:24,765 --> 01:17:28,810
What I like about the Thunderbirds show
is the showmanship,

1210
01:17:28,894 --> 01:17:34,232
the inspiration to the youngsters
that they spend the time to connect with

1211
01:17:34,316 --> 01:17:35,734
at the fence line.

1212
01:17:35,817 --> 01:17:38,320
Take my hand and follow me

1213
01:17:38,403 --> 01:17:41,073
Oh, I, I wanna…

1214
01:17:41,156 --> 01:17:42,574
Dudes, that was awesome.

1215
01:17:44,117 --> 01:17:46,203
I'm confident that was
the best show we've ever flown.

1216
01:17:47,788 --> 01:17:50,123
They all love what they do.

1217
01:17:50,707 --> 01:17:54,002
But being on the road
250 plus days a year,

1218
01:17:54,086 --> 01:17:59,007
after the second year, they are ready
to come back to a more normal life.

1219
01:17:59,883 --> 01:18:01,593
Live a little

1220
01:18:02,302 --> 01:18:05,305
Fight the good fight, yeah

1221
01:18:05,389 --> 01:18:07,557
You know, the demonstration that you see

1222
01:18:07,641 --> 01:18:10,852
may look like six pilots
flying loops with smoke on.

1223
01:18:10,936 --> 01:18:16,108
The reality is, what it takes
is moving 130 people across the country

1224
01:18:16,191 --> 01:18:18,026
to two different cities every week.

1225
01:18:18,110 --> 01:18:21,822
I wanna give a huge round of applause
to my team for everything they've done.

1226
01:18:23,615 --> 01:18:25,867
I'll be next to you

1227
01:18:30,372 --> 01:18:32,541
When you push on through

1228
01:18:34,000 --> 01:18:36,253
You got to push on through

1229
01:18:37,879 --> 01:18:40,215
You got to push on through

1230
01:18:42,718 --> 01:18:46,471
Welcome, everybody. Team 23, last show.

1231
01:18:46,555 --> 01:18:50,726
This is crazy.
I put a picture up there for you

1232
01:18:51,393 --> 01:18:53,145
that I knew I'd use someday.

1233
01:18:53,228 --> 01:18:58,150
I took this picture
on Monday of training season,

1234
01:18:58,817 --> 01:19:01,903
the very first flight that we all
were in the same room together.

1235
01:19:01,987 --> 01:19:05,449
It's kind of amazing
to look back at that day

1236
01:19:06,032 --> 01:19:07,993
and then fast-forward a year

1237
01:19:08,076 --> 01:19:11,371
to how unbelievably good we are
at this demonstration right now.

1238
01:19:11,455 --> 01:19:15,417
So I want you all to just take a step back
and process what's about to happen.

1239
01:19:15,500 --> 01:19:18,670
Uh, you are the best

1240
01:19:19,212 --> 01:19:20,589
in the world

1241
01:19:21,339 --> 01:19:22,257
at what you do.

1242
01:19:23,675 --> 01:19:24,760
It's just amazing.

1243
01:19:27,512 --> 01:19:31,016
So, keep that in mind
and have fun with this one, all right?

1244
01:19:31,975 --> 01:19:34,311
Okay, let's get after it. You guys ready?

1245
01:19:34,853 --> 01:19:36,021
There it is.

1246
01:19:36,104 --> 01:19:37,230
Ready, Boss.

1247
01:19:37,314 --> 01:19:40,484
My God, just, moment destroyed. All right.

1248
01:19:42,235 --> 01:19:43,528
Well, this is it.

1249
01:19:43,612 --> 01:19:47,324
As I say goodbye to America's team
for the last time,

1250
01:19:47,824 --> 01:19:51,203
for me,
this is very much a time of reflection

1251
01:19:51,787 --> 01:19:53,455
and of gratitude.

1252
01:19:53,538 --> 01:20:00,170
In the United States, we are able to
create very real value out of inspiration,

1253
01:20:00,253 --> 01:20:02,088
out of ideas.

1254
01:20:02,172 --> 01:20:07,219
Our value, the Thunderbirds' value,
lies in the inspiration of all Americans.

1255
01:20:07,302 --> 01:20:10,472
If you're afraid
to put yourself out there,

1256
01:20:10,555 --> 01:20:14,184
to take risks in life,
you're gonna end up doing nothing.

1257
01:20:14,851 --> 01:20:16,812
And he loved what he was doing.

1258
01:20:17,562 --> 01:20:21,233
He impacted a lot of people's lives.

1259
01:20:22,442 --> 01:20:23,527
I still play golf,

1260
01:20:24,110 --> 01:20:27,656
and, uh,
I've traded my clubs for his clubs.

1261
01:20:28,782 --> 01:20:31,076
So every day I get to play with him,

1262
01:20:31,576 --> 01:20:35,205
and that's one of the ways
that I've kind of coped with it.

1263
01:20:35,789 --> 01:20:38,583
You know, as an individual,
we don't really do much.

1264
01:20:38,667 --> 01:20:43,171
But when we get the 130 members together,
that makes up the Thunderbirds.

1265
01:20:43,839 --> 01:20:47,926
We leave it all on the field,
and do it for nothing more than an idea,

1266
01:20:48,426 --> 01:20:51,054
but a very, very important idea.

1267
01:20:57,769 --> 01:21:00,564
Success as a squadron commander
is a very different thing than

1268
01:21:00,647 --> 01:21:01,731
how close did you fly,

1269
01:21:01,815 --> 01:21:04,526
how low did you get the formations
in front of the crowd.

1270
01:21:05,026 --> 01:21:07,946
Success for me
as Thunderbird 1 will mean that

1271
01:21:08,530 --> 01:21:11,241
the next version of the team
is better than ours.

1272
01:21:12,826 --> 01:21:14,119
Welcome to the Thunderbirds.

1273
01:21:14,202 --> 01:21:17,622
We're built around blind trust,
and throughout the training season,

1274
01:21:17,706 --> 01:21:20,208
we're gonna earn that blind trust
as a team.

1275
01:21:20,292 --> 01:21:22,210
We're only as strong as the weakest link.

1276
01:21:23,044 --> 01:21:27,048
It is an absolute miracle
when a team pushes beyond the status quo.

1277
01:21:27,132 --> 01:21:30,677
One pilot decides not to push
for inches anymore, and it's broken.

1278
01:21:30,760 --> 01:21:34,931
My path to getting here
is probably not what you would expect.

1279
01:21:35,015 --> 01:21:37,183
I'm a trailer park kid from Florida.

1280
01:21:37,267 --> 01:21:40,437
If they could just see themselves
in me at all…

1281
01:21:40,520 --> 01:21:44,274
You can overcome anything in life,
and I'm just living proof of that.

1282
01:21:47,152 --> 01:21:47,986
Yeah.

1283
01:21:48,069 --> 01:21:51,156
I always thought
that if you could shape this team right,

1284
01:21:51,239 --> 01:21:56,494
you would create a culture that inspires
everyone in this country and beyond

1285
01:21:56,578 --> 01:21:59,414
to do extraordinary things
for the right reasons.

1286
01:22:04,920 --> 01:22:07,797
You know, he built a team this year

1287
01:22:07,881 --> 01:22:10,675
that's flown the best demonstration
that's ever been seen.

1288
01:22:10,759 --> 01:22:14,346
I would follow him into battle.

1289
01:22:14,429 --> 01:22:18,808
Before I hand this team to Sheik
and the next generation of Thunderbirds,

1290
01:22:18,892 --> 01:22:21,144
let me reinforce for you all
one more time.

1291
01:22:21,227 --> 01:22:25,482
The Thunderbirds are nothing
if they are not extraordinary.

1292
01:22:37,369 --> 01:22:40,163
Okay, guys, so here's the game plan.

1293
01:22:40,246 --> 01:22:43,416
Declan, you're gonna stand
right behind your plane.

1294
01:22:43,500 --> 01:22:46,252
Okay, this is Thunderbird 3's position.

1295
01:22:46,336 --> 01:22:49,881
You're in stripes aligned.
Very safe takeoff position.

1296
01:22:49,965 --> 01:22:51,841
Revan, this is you.

1297
01:22:51,925 --> 01:22:54,135
You're behind your plane.
You're Thunderbird 2.

1298
01:22:54,219 --> 01:22:56,096
-Stand here.
-Relegated to the back.

1299
01:22:56,179 --> 01:22:58,264
You are the slot. You're Thunderbird 4.

1300
01:22:58,348 --> 01:23:00,934
When I called
and removed my application from NASA,

1301
01:23:01,017 --> 01:23:03,687
it was effectively
the end of a childhood dream, um,

1302
01:23:03,770 --> 01:23:08,233
one that had driven me to everything
I had achieved to that point in my life.

1303
01:23:08,316 --> 01:23:10,944
At that moment, it was all gone.

1304
01:23:12,195 --> 01:23:15,407
Do you think you're looking
for reassurance that it was worth it?

1305
01:23:20,120 --> 01:23:20,954
Maybe.

1306
01:23:21,830 --> 01:23:22,831
Um…

1307
01:23:24,541 --> 01:23:27,460
Yeah, it would be great to know
if I made the right decision.

1308
01:23:27,544 --> 01:23:29,379
I don't know that I ever will.

1309
01:23:29,462 --> 01:23:30,380
The, um…

1310
01:23:32,215 --> 01:23:35,635
This job has been the most rewarding job
I've ever done in my life, though.

1311
01:23:35,719 --> 01:23:37,178
And…

1312
01:23:37,262 --> 01:23:40,390
I actually cannot imagine my life
without this job.

1313
01:23:41,099 --> 01:23:44,644
And I am happy with that decision,

1314
01:23:44,728 --> 01:23:47,522
as hard as it is
to look at what could've been.

1315
01:23:47,605 --> 01:23:51,776
I think I'll always look at my friends
that made the astronaut board

1316
01:23:51,860 --> 01:23:55,739
and watch them go to the moon and Mars
and wonder if I could've been there.

1317
01:23:56,406 --> 01:23:59,242
Standby, smoke. Smoking ready now.

1318
01:23:59,325 --> 01:24:02,370
Thunderbirds, release brakes ready now.
Burners now.

1319
01:24:02,454 --> 01:24:04,873
Oh! Oh!

1320
01:24:04,956 --> 01:24:05,790
Oh, no!

1321
01:24:07,917 --> 01:24:11,588
You know, we raise our children
with a lot of different goals.

1322
01:24:11,671 --> 01:24:15,383
Service above self, so important, so hard.

1323
01:24:15,467 --> 01:24:18,344
I think that this next one's
gonna be perfect.

1324
01:24:18,428 --> 01:24:21,848
And I think that Revan and Declan,

1325
01:24:22,849 --> 01:24:26,519
even though they may not be processing
everything right now,

1326
01:24:27,228 --> 01:24:31,649
they will have a better understanding
of what this time was

1327
01:24:32,192 --> 01:24:34,194
and is about when they get older

1328
01:24:35,195 --> 01:24:36,988
and be a better person for it.

1329
01:24:38,823 --> 01:24:41,826
I think the only way to fix this
is for Mama to lead.

1330
01:24:41,910 --> 01:24:44,996
Burners ready now!

1331
01:24:47,332 --> 01:24:48,792
Oh no, I'm dead. Oh!

1332
01:24:48,875 --> 01:24:51,920
-Oh!
-That was the best formation of the day.

1333
01:24:52,003 --> 01:24:54,589
Of everything that we've built together,

1334
01:24:54,672 --> 01:24:58,510
I am most proud
of this team's giving posture.

1335
01:24:59,302 --> 01:25:01,346
I have a team of 130 people

1336
01:25:01,429 --> 01:25:03,348
who give more than they take.

1337
01:25:03,932 --> 01:25:05,391
I wish I could replicate it

1338
01:25:05,475 --> 01:25:07,602
through everything else
we do in this country right now.

1339
01:25:07,685 --> 01:25:09,896
-I forgot the first part.
-Standby, smoke.

1340
01:25:09,979 --> 01:25:12,482
Standby, smoke.
Smoking ready now. Smoking ready now.

1341
01:25:12,565 --> 01:25:16,444
Release brakes ready now.
Burners now. Yeah!

1342
01:25:16,528 --> 01:25:20,073
We got it. We're going.
Oh, that was the best one. Oh!

1343
01:25:20,156 --> 01:25:21,574
-Oh!
-Oh no!

1344
01:26:17,255 --> 01:26:19,549
I don't know how else to say this
other than thanks.

1345
01:26:19,632 --> 01:26:23,428
You deserve closure and
to close this chapter of your life out.

1346
01:26:23,511 --> 01:26:26,639
And you are gonna get that closure
in about two years,

1347
01:26:26,723 --> 01:26:28,641
because you're gonna be Thunderbird 3.

1348
01:26:28,725 --> 01:26:31,186
-Yeah!
-Oh!

1349
01:26:31,269 --> 01:26:32,729
Yes, dude!

1350
01:26:34,564 --> 01:26:35,815
Look at the team.