My sis-in-law Nichole is one lucky gal! She is the nightly news anchor for CBS in Rockford, IL. With the airshow this weekend her station was given the chance to fly with the Blue Angels. It was either her or her co-anchor, and the co-anchor was happy to stay on the ground.
I made the 2 hour drive up there to tag along and take pictures. Nichole first met with the Angels crew chief for a preflight meeting and paper work. They also talked about some of the planes features and what exactly she could touch in flight (basicly nothing). They also discussed the breathing technique for staying concious during 7g's.
A few hours later She was strapped in and ready to go. My brother and I were about halfway down the runway during take off. They flew level with the ground until the end of the runway and then did the space shuttle take off. The went straight up out of sight! It was a cool experience for me, and I never left the ground!
I have only seen a few seconds of in flight video and its very clear how hard that plane threw her around. They don't show the 2 times she passed out or lost her lunch. I hope to get a copy of the full in flight video and if I do I will share.
Dan P

Video clip is here


http://www.wifr.com/

More pics.

Awesome!!! I'd love to lose my lunch too!!!!!!!!!!
She's definitely lucky!!!!!!!!

I was happy as can be just to be that close, but I give almost anything to go for a ride!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a bunch more pics, but I think the files are too big and the will not upload.

by the way........its called an unrestricted climb. And they sure are fun!

pics.

Glad to see those guys are back in the swing of things.

That is one lucky lady right there. I got to sit in the #1 plane back in the early '80's when they were at an airshow in Aurora. They were still flying A4's back then, but it was still pretty cool.

Jay

awesome....