Battle Creek - Day One - On the Ramp with the Blue Angels and More!

This is a regular blog post. Looking for show notes? See below.

Spent yesterday at the Battle Creek Balloon Festival and Field of Flight Air Show. Too much fun! Beats the first day of last year any time!

Got a media flight with Michael Mancuso in the morning. Fantastic aerobatic experience. Even whacked my head on the canopy during the hard four-point roll. Didn't hurl. Happy about that. Can't wait to post that audio, but I need to edit it and give the proper attention. Different from the Brett Hunter ride in some ways. Did an aggressive ass-over-teakettle gyroscopic mindbender toward the end. Yeah, baby!

The Blue Angels arrived at 10:30 and cased the field for an hour or so. At 2:30, we got a private media show from the ramp. Well, as private as anything is that takes a 80 or so square miles of airspace to do. When the show was over, I got to interview LCDR Craig Olson, the Blues' opposing solo. Yeah, he has returned to replace LCDR Kevin Davis, who crashed at NAS Beaufort. I had decided not to bring up the crash, but one can't very well interview No. 6 this season without asking about it. Good interview. Will post it soon.

Also interviewed the F-16 pilot of the Viper East Demonstration Team. Really good discussion. Will post that, too. Back to the show tomorrow and Sunday! Can't wait!