With the way things are today I'm surprised this isn't a top story on the news with a title of something like. "Reckless Blue Angel pilot terrifies onlookers"
You don't see anyone complaining do you? Such an awesome experience to be buzzed like that, so out of the everyday ordinary! All you naysayers... Blue Angels are a symbol of America, do you really want them gone? How about we stop spending TRILLIONS on wars and have some FUN!
Raymond I was stationed there for a few years. They have to practice (Pensacola NAS is their home base). I'd rather get woken up than see any of them crash.
When i was stationed in Pensacola in 1961-62 I remember being on that very same beach watching them fly by in F11s. Not a full air show, mostly low fly bys, some inverted. I think they were looking at the bathing suits.
I lived on the island for years (way up Via DeLuna Dr to the east. After a while you sorta start to hate the Blue Angels when they wake you up at 5am ish day after day....
Flat hatting has always been discouraged in the services. I believe, in this case it can be overlooked. Everyone seemed thrilled at seeing a Blue with a need for speed. Shock and awe. Navy will get at least one young man to apply for flight training most likely. Sierra Hotel. Go Navy...
for an aviation blog, there are some seriously stupid commenters here. nothing on that beach flew up because of any aircraft, good grief, get a hold of yourselves.
One of the things I like to do at the beach is fly kites, and some of mine are pretty expensive. As much as I love the Blue Angels (I'm former Navy) I would have been pretty pissed if they cost me a couple hundred bucks in kites.
This was nothing compared to the wake turbulence the 737 I was on encountered on approach to San Francisco airport. It turned out that a 757 was ahead of us -- well-known for creating significant wake turbulence. The controllers apparently did not maintain a sufficient gap between this 757 and ours. Our 737 rotated nearly 90 degrees counterclockwise as we neared the runway. The pilot max'd the engines and brought it back to horizontal -- than it rotated again. We lost altitude both times, and were very close to the runway. The pilot pegged the engines again and we recovered for a go-around.
That's as close as I have come to 'buying the farm' on a civilian aircraft. Want to know what the passengers do when they think they are about to crash? Yep, scream and grab each other. Many of the passengers also had to make a beeline to the restrooms after we landed.
I waiting until the pilots walked off -- white as a ghost. They confirmed that it was due to wake turbulence from a 757 ahead, without enough space.
YAWN, Blue Angels wasting tax payer money again. $50 million a year worth of tax payer money could be better spent elsewhere that is actually important or worthwhile.