Hey Hey Hey!! Fat Albert Airlines!!

I'll admit it.  I was wrong.  After pulling 7.7g's in the back of a F/A-18 Hornet with Lt. Cdr Kevin "Kojak" Davis in 2006, I figured that riding in a big, lanky C-130 would be a piece of cake.  I was wrong. 

The Blue Angels do a TON of airshows each year, and before each show, they offer rides to members of the local media.  I have been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to go on a media ride in Blue Angel #7 back in the fall of 2006 (more about that later) and now on Fat Albert.  They provide rides so people in radio, TV and print media can tell about their experiences and get young minds out to the airshows and hopefully, one day, strive to serve our country in a similar way. 

  In the flight briefing, Capt Edward Jorge told us 14 media folks to stay on our toes because we would experience everything from brief zero-g (weightlessness), to 2-3g's in sharp banking turns throughout the demonstration. A "g" refers to gravitational force. 1g is your normal weight. If you weigh 150 lbs, 2g's would make it feel like you weight 300 lbs. 3g's...450lbs, and so on.  When you experience g's, it forces the blood out of your head and when you get to 5g's & up, it can cause you to black out.  Since I experienced 7.7g's with Kojak, I couldn't help but to crack a wise smile as if to say "bring it on".  I can handle 2g's, no problem.  I probably should have kept my smile to myself because it was more work that I thought it would be.

So, we all get strapped in and we taxi to the end of runway 7 aboard NAS Pensacola. When Capt Jorge lets off the brakes, we could immediately feel the power of the airplane, and it was very impressive. When he reaches full power, Capt Jorge pulls back and takes us all up into the sky at a steep 45-degree angle and we get a brief taste of 2g's. It lasts only a few seconds until he pitches Fat Albert's nose over and then we get our first zero-g experience which was awesome!! I have always been fascinated with space flight, so to experience zero-g just for a few brief seconds was really cool. So, after we're airborne, we make a short commute over to Pensacola Bay and wait for the boss to say "showtime".  During that time, the crew members open the back cargo door and we have a great view of Pensacola, the 3 Mile Bridge and Gulf Breeze. (For pictures and video, visit www.facebook.com/1027wxbm)  There aren't many windows on Fat Albert, so having that back cargo door wide open was pretty cool.  After about 10 minutes of circling over Pensacola Bay, the show started, and Capt Jorge showed us and the crowd at Pensacola Beach what Fat Albert is capable of doing.  I really enjoyed the low pass maneuvers because in order to get in position for those low passes, we had to make some really sharp, fast turns.  During several turns, the wings were almost at a 90 degree angle to the ground, and I would look out the little round window across the cargo bay and see water and land going by at a mind-bending pace.  I couldn't believe how fast we were flying and how LOW we were flying!!  Fat Albert only performs for about 10 minutes during the actual airshow, and I'll admit that at the end of that 10 minute demonstration, I was ready to fly flat for a while.  I had my barf bag handy, and on several occasions, thought I may have to use it.  Thankfully, none of us 14 had to use our sick bag, but a few of us were pretty green by the time the wheel hit the runway!  To some, it was the zero-g effect (which we experienced four times) that made their stomach turn, but for me it was the extended 2-3g's.  There was quite a few times during the flight that we would feel 2-3g's for 15-20 seconds, and for some reason, that just didn't agree with my stomach.  I held it down though, so I feel good about that.  I sure would have been embarrassed to be the ONLY one to get sick!!  What an experience though.  I would do it again in a heartbeat.

 Anyone who lived in the Pensacola area in 2007 probably remembers when the #6 jet crashed at an airshow in South Carolina, killing the pilot.  The pilot of #6 that year was Kevin "Kojak" Davis, the same pilot that took me up on my media ride in 2006.  Actually, I was Kevin's last media ride in the #7 jet, as he was scheduled to move to the #6 the following year.  I was very sad to get the news that Kojak had died in the crash.  I hadn't met him until shortly before we took off, and I really expected him to be a cocky, arrogant "Maverick" kind of guy from Top Gun, and he was the exact opposite of that.  I was floored by his humility and by how friendly he was with me and my family that had come along that day.  You could tell he absolutely loved what he was doing.  Today, while our media group was filling out paperwork in a first-floor office, I was thinking about Kevin and how great it was to be able to meet him and fly with him.  As we were standing in that office waiting to go out to Fat Albert, I noticed a Trek bicycle with a custom Blue Angels paint job, tucked away in the corner of the office.  When I looked closer, I noticed a Blue Angels #6 and a "Kojak" decal on it, so I asked Andrew, one of the Blue Angels media relations workers if that was Kevin's bike, and he nodded "yes".  It's pretty cool that even though none of the current members of the Blue Angels team were around when Kevin passed, they keep something of his in the office to remind them of him.  RIP Kojak.  Thank you for serving our country.