I live about two hours from Pensacola, Florida, and the Naval Air Stations there is the home base for the Blue Angels. The team flies practice demonstrations every Tuesday and Wednesday, and the practices are open to the public, and well-attended. They have bleachers for around a thousand people and plenty of space for chairs.
I've never been to a practice show, though, until this past Tuesday, when a photography groups I'm in made the jaunt.
The viewing area for the practice show is at the far right end of the runway and not at the actual show center, so the point of view is different. You don't see the ground activity for the boarding and startup, but you don't miss anything else; you just see it from way down at the end.
The famous photo pass is the tightest formation flown by any team in the world, with at little as 18 inches separation from the wingman's canopy to the leader's wingtip. The pass is simply a long circle begun behind the crowd, crossing into the showline at the right and passing in front of the crowd. As far right as the viewing area is for practice, they came practically right overhead, and I got this sequence.
(Full overcast, so not the best light for photography, although the overcast was high enough not to interfere with the show.)
1.
From behind and to the right. If straight ahead from your seat is 12:00 o'clock, this is about 4:30. It shows both how tightly they form up, and that they form up with each aircraft offset to the right (not symmetrical) to give a better perspective for the ground viewer.
2.
Passing ahead. Without that offset in the formation, #3 would seem to have a lot of space to the leader, #2 would be almost hidden, and #4 would be hidden the same way under #3.
3. OK, wingtips, there.....
4.
OVERLAPPING???!?!??! Srsly?!??
5. From behind, we see that we were tricked by the perspective. He actually had at
least a foot, foot and a half of clearance!
Heat Rising
