Thunderbirds

Thunderbirds is the United States Air Force Demonstration Squadron, also known like America's Ambassadors in Blue, fly on six F-16C/D Block 52. The Thunderbirds Squadron use 12 F-16, while nine are from the C-modification (6 participated in the air and rest are reserve) and three two-seated from the D-modification. In resent times the slot plane #4 is usually F-16D. The squadron home base is Nellis AFB, near Las Vegas.

In the squadron served 120 people - 12 officers, 4 civilians and 104 sergeants. The twelve officers have numbers with callsign Thunderbird. Thunderbird #1 is a leader and commander of the squadron. Pilots from #2 to #6 are demonstration pilots. #2 is the left wing, #3 is the right wing, #4 is the slot, # 5 is the lead solo and the #6 is the opposite solo.

#7 is an operative officer and #8 is a narrator and coordinator of the show. Those are fighter pilots in the squadron but only six of them participate in the airshow. All eight pilots fly on the planes with corresponding numbers: # 9 is the flight surgeon: #10 - the chief of the headquarters: #11 - the chief of support and #12 - public relations (PR) officer.

The candidates for pilots must have at least 1000 flying hours on a jet fighter and must be pilots of F-16 at the present. All candidates for members of Thunderbirds must have at least 3 years (but no more than 12 years) of military service. From all candidates are selected semifinalists who escort the squadron at the end of the season for better acquaintance and estimation on practice. At the end the best are selected. The candidates for pilots are examined on three F-16D. Exactly three demonstration pilots are changed every year. Those flights include close formations and some basic combat maneuvers. The commander of the squadron chooses three new pilots who are approved by the commander of the combat aviation of USAF. Every new member of the squadron passes 21-days-long training course which contributes to his better integration. The officers in the Thunderbirds serve 2 years while the rest of the crew serves 3 or 4 years. They train from November to March and in the end of February they are already ready for the show season. Nevertheless the first demonstration for every season is held in the end of March. Till that time every one pilot must have about 100 flights. December is a month off and one week during the season is also rest week. This means that every day from November to March every pilot has approximately two or three flights a day.

The ground staff teams of the Thunderbirds are:

1. Command - two senior sergeants who are responsible for the whole squadron. They are striving for providing good life and morale in the squadron.
2. Support - more than 70 people from the squadron working in 11 different specialties provide the technical status of the aircrafts. The support organization is divided on seven areas. After every 300 flying hours the aircraft is inspected closely five days long.
3. Showline - it consists of 22 high-qualified professionals in aircraft-supporting. Those are the people who take part in the ground show, i. e., they prepare the planes for take-off just before they fly in public. They are selected after the end of every season according to each one's professional qualification. Every one plane has its own support team with individual team commander. Team commanders and their assistants must fly with the aircrafts during the whole season providing non-stop readiness and good working order on particular demonstration place.
4. Providing team - provides supplying of technicians with spare parts and equipment needed.
5. Communication team - includes radio and video technicians. Video technicians work in a communication van located in a showcenter and record every single show for analysis after that and for the history. Radio technicians are the connection between the operative officer, the pilots and the control tower.
6. Administration - 8 people from the squadron who are responsible for information management, personnel, finances, documentation and correspondence for the team.
7. Management - 5 people from the crew who are responsible for accommodation and cargo load of the Thunderbirds and for organization of cargo planes.
8. Life-supporting crew - they are responsible for the pilots' equipment: helms, oxygen appliances, suites, parachutes and pyrotechnical cartridges of the catapult.
9. Public relations (PR) team - 8 people who responsible for public appearances of the Thunderbirds. They are specialists in the areas of graphic design, photography, journalistic and video production. The graphic designers prepare posters, stickers, fliers and other advertisement materials, the photographs of course take pictures, and the journalists are responsible for contacts with media and public. They call at least two local media before the beginning of each show.
10. Civilians - there are four of them: one assistant of show's coordinator, one secretary of the commander, one representative of the plane's manufacturer - Lockheed Martin, and one representative of the engine's manufacturer - Pratt and Whitney.

Usually at the squadron served between 10 and 15 women.

The show coordinator #8 and the rest of the ground staff come to the place where the show will be held a few days earlier to take up with its preparation. The planes themselves arrive two days before the date of the show. The day before show they fly to become acquainted with the terrain. Usually the show is held at Saturday and Sunday.

 

The Show

During the show pilots perform about 30 maneuvers. The flight show lasts about 40 minutes.

To perform the show, there must be a visibility at least 9200 meters (10 061 yards or 30 183 feet) from the showcenter. If the lower limit of clouds is between 450 meters (492 yards or 1476 feet) and 1060 meters (1159 yards or 3477 feet) they perform a show with limited number of figures, mostly in a horizontal plane, i. e., without loops and barrel rolls. That kind of show is called "flat". If the lower limit is between 1060 meters (1159 yards or 3477 feet) and 2440 meters (2668 yards or 8005 feet) they perform "lower" show barrel rolls but without loops. If the lower limit is above 2450 meters (2668 yards or 8005 feet) the Thunderbirds perform their full show.

If one of the pilots gets sick for the time of the show, the rest of pilots fly without him. If the commander is not capable of flying the show is postponed. The Thunderbirds have not stand-by pilots because it is very hard for a pilot to learn to fly in every single position of the formation. During the air show the Thunderbirds pilots use G-suites. The Thunderbirds do not perform over 88 shows in one year.

 

The Aircraft

The F-16 aircrafts of the Thunderbirds are equipped with special power aggregate which supplies restoring of electricity and hydraulics in case of engine stop or traction lost. This helps the malfunctioned plane to land safety. The aggregate uses hydrazine for fuel. Besides the roll of the cannon is removed and on its place is put the smoke tank. The smoke is released from a switch on the throttle (the engine control lever). For fuel for smoke is used oil on paraffin base which goes to exhaust pipe when it mixes with the jet and form the smoke. Another difference is presence of a chronometer in a pilot's compartment which gives the pilots an opportunity to measure every maneuver with accuracy and precision of seconds.