Blue Angels getting in formation for Mountain Madness Air Shor

The U.S. Navy Blue Angels practiced their entire show Thursday morning in preparation for the weekend Mountain Madness air shows. The exercise was largely aimed at preparing the six performing pilots for local weather and atmospheric conditions.

The practice got under way with snappy interaction between the pilots and their crew chiefs and ground crew members. The No. 1 F/A-18 Hornet, piloted by Cmdr. Steve Foley, led a procession to the runway, with each pilot giving the "front man" conductor their own signature salutes.

The No. 3 pilot, Maj. Matt Shortal, cruised past the front man giving a wave, a hang-loose hand signal and three fingers.

Four jets launched side by side, forming into a tight diamond formation, followed by two jets that flew single and opposing passes throughout the demonstration.

"That's a little Vitamin G," said Blue Angels Public Affairs Officer Garrett Kasper as he watched the Hornets veer off into steep climbs.

A crowd of media and air-show volunteers watched, along with distracted motorists who pulled over on U.S. 2.

Kasper explained how the pilots work their way through maneuvers with Foley leading the way with his jet and his voice.

"They're listening to him as the boss is kind of singing them through the demo," he said. "They're keeping the beat with him, and it's good that the boss has rhythm."

After the practice session, Foley explained how he leads them through the show with sing-song voice commands.

"Everything I do in the cockpit leads the formation," said Foley, a highly decorated former Top Gun flight school graduate and training officer who flew 48 combat missions over Afghanistan in 2001. "I have specific cadences and inflections so that my wingmen know when I'm increasing throttle" or commencing maneuvers.

The Blue Angels outfit is built from pilots with staggered tours on the team. Every November, as the winter practice season begins, the team looks different. Now the Blue Angels are halfway through their summer performance season, and a strong chemistry has developed between the pilots and the 65 supporting ground crew members, said Foley, who also leads the team in flying experience with more than 5,300 flight hours.

Through practice and performances, the team has been flying tighter formations, to a point where jets in the diamond formation are, at times, within one or two feet of one another.

The pilots refer to the two-foot long "Hornet" painted on each others' aircraft, knowing that at certain times, they need to be flying even with the "HO" rather than the "RNET."

"They fly the paint," Foley said. "If they are in position, they are in their paint."

But Foley added that the tightness of the formation is often predicated on the severity of thermals and other weather conditions that are called "the texture" of the flying environment.

In the Flathead Valley this week, he said the low humidity and relatively cool temperatures provide for "a great demonstration environment."

Foley said the pilots and ground crew members have been looking forward to the Flathead show because a lot of them have never been to Montana before.

"It's my first visit to the great state of Montana," he said. "My wife and my 5-year-old are here so we have been doing some exploring."

Monte Eliason, the local Blue Angels liaison, said logistical efforts to accommodate the Blue Angels and other acts and displays have come together nicely.

But it hasn't been easy.

The Blue Angels come with a long list of requirements that have been fulfilled, Eliason said.

For example, air-show organizers had to establish an "aerobatic box" one mile wide and two miles long - a zone where only "essential" personnel and vehicles are allowed. And within that box, a "show line" had to be established just east of the main runway at Glacier Park International Airport.

Normally, the runway would serve as the show line, but crowds are allowed too close to the runway. For an alternative, organizers procured 1,750 gallons of flawed white paint, mixed it with water and had it sprayed by a truck over mowed grass adjacent to the runway. Used as a reference for pilots, the white stripe is 5,000 feet long and 40 feet wide.

"It's been a ton of work," Eliason said. "But it's fun working with these guys who are so professional and just very nice folks."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com