Wings of Gold

The Navy’s Blue Angels return to Willow Grove:  TimeOFF talks to one of the Navy’s premier demonstration pilots in a candid conversation about the thrill of speed and the agony of loss.

By: Daniel Shearer
   Two crack pilots, among the Navy’s best, set a near collision course. Closing from opposite ends of the runway, they’re hoping to synchronize their approach to within a quarter second.

"The
The


"Knife Edge" maneuver, in which the two solo pilots of the Navy’s
Blue Angels pass 15 to 20 feet from each other traveling at a combined speed
of 920 mph.

Photos by U.S. Navy

   "Lemme know when you can take a mark," says Lt. Cmdr. Keith Hoskins over his radio. As the lead solo pilot for the Navy’s premiere aerobatic team, the Blue Angels, he’s talking to his counterpart, opposing solo Lt. Scott Kartvedt.
   They’re going nose to nose at 920 mph.
   "Take a mark," says Mr. Kartvedt, removing his hand from the throttle and placing it on his instrument panel stopwatch.
   "Stand-BYE-markit!" says Mr. Hoskins, pronouncing the words rhythmically. With the last word in the command, the pilots start their clocks. If all goes well, 38 seconds later, they’ll reach the exact center of the runway, sharply roll their aircraft 90 degrees, bank and cross paths, avoiding a fiery collision by a mere 15 to 20 feet.
   It’s a routine rehearsed thousands of times. Each of the team’s six demonstration pilots spend between 400 and 450 hours each year in the cockpit of a $28 million aircraft, the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18, known in the Navy as the Hornet. This year, they’ll fly 67 shows in 34 cities across North America, including two displays at the Willow Grove, Pa., Naval Air Station Open House and Air Festival Sept. 8-9.

"Solo


Solo pilot Lt. Scott Kartvedt signing autographs at a recent air show.

Photos by U.S. Navy

   "When we oppose each other," Mr. Kartvedt says, "we’re coming at each other from six miles apart. Now, his responsibility is to ensure that both of us get to the center point at the same time. I fly a constant 400 knots. He adjusts his airspeed so that we hit center point at the same time. My job is to ensure that we don’t hit each other as we’re coming in.
   "We learn the same techniques in combat training. The way that fleet aviators put their bombs on target on time is very similar to what we do to make all of our maneuvers take place at center point."
   Without doubt, the activity carries significant risk. In June last year, a naval aviator from a different squadron, VF-101, based in Oceana, Va., crashed an F-14 in a wooded area near Willow Grove in front of thousands of air show spectators. The pilot, Lt. William Dey of Hightstown, and his radio intercept officer, Lt. David Bergstrom of Annandale, Va., were killed while attempting a wave-off maneuver in which the pilot intended to demonstrate how the jet would approach a carrier, break off a landing attempt and return for another pass.
   No one on the ground was injured, according to Willow Grove Naval Air Station spokesperson Sherri Jones. A crash investigation later determined the pilot was flying too slowly to complete the maneuver.

"In


In close formation over Florida, the Blue Angels team close to a hair-raising 18 to 24 inches while flying 460 mph.

Photos by U.S. Navy

   "Naval aviation is a pretty small community," Mr. Kartvedt says. "I knew the pilot (Mr. Dey) professionally. I’ve lost several friends in the last three to four years. I look at it as optimistically as I can. The loss is tragic, but you hope that the cause of the accident will teach others to be safer.
   "I have actually been an investigator on two accidents where I knew pilots who have lost their lives. It’s a terrible thing. I dealt with it as anybody else would, crying. It’s tough, but you look for the answers to prevent loss of assets and life."
   The Blue Angels themselves suffered tragedy in October 1999, when a two-seat F-18 crashed during a training flight near Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Ga., killing the two pilots on board. The crash was the first Blue Angels fatality since 1985, when two planes collided during an air show in Niagara Falls, N.Y.
   "When we fly close to 3,000 missions a year, I would say our mishap record is immaculate," Mr. Kartvedt says. "I don’t consider it risking my life. To give you an example, some time back I met some NASCAR drivers. I got home, said to my wife, ‘I would love to race stock cars some day. I think it would be a very transferable skill, the hand-eye coordination that I have as a fighter pilot.’
   "She said, ‘Oh gosh, Scott, I could never have you do that. It would be far too dangerous.’ Maybe that gives you an idea of how not only my own family looks at it, but the naval aviator community as a whole. It’s a very safe job. It is, however, unforgiving of mistakes."

"The


The Blue Angels’ classic diamond formation.

Photos by U.S. Navy

   ASIDE FROM DARING HEAD-ON maneuvers, the Blue Angels are famous for precision formation flying, frequently maneuvering within 18 to 24 inches of other aircraft. Each show begins with a four-plane diamond formation rocketing down the runway in full afterburner, which dumps fuel into a secondary combustion chamber near the planes’ exhaust nozzles, nearly doubling thrust but consuming fuel at a prodigious rate. For a 35- to 45-minute show, each jet consumes roughly 1,000 gallons of fuel, costing nearly $1,500. The group burns 3.1 million gallons of fuel each year, part of its $13 million annual operating budget.
   The diamond performs a signature loop shortly after takeoff, followed several minutes later by the two solo pilots.
   "Our takeoff airspeed is roughly between 150 and 170 knots," Mr. Kartvedt says. "From 0-170 is probably 20 seconds or so. You know, I’ve never actually timed it, but in full afterburner with 32,000 pounds of thrust, it happens quick. The afterburner itself, when you kick it in, you actually almost pull a G (twice the normal pull of gravity). It pushes you back in the seat."

"A


A Blue Angels pilot executes a low-transition, high-performance climb.

Photos by U.S. Navy

   On takeoff, the lead solo pilot performs a "dirty roll," rotating his aircraft around its axis with his landing gear down. Mr. Kartvedt executes a "low-transition, high-performance climb."
   "I get the aircraft airborne, level off between 6 and 10 feet off the ground, and then at 285 knots I pull the stick back in my lap as hard as I can and climb out in the vertical up to about 4,000 feet."
   During Mr. Kartvedt’s climb, the tail of the aircraft looks almost touches the ground. As one of the solo pilots, he’s briefly subjected to nearly eight times the force of gravity during the show.
   "I think if we weren’t adrenaline junkies, there’d be something wrong with us," he says. "You get to the end of the runway and you’re getting ready to start the show, your heart-rate starts to increase.
   "We get asked if we ever get bored or complacent. It’s a beautiful aircraft, highly maneuverable, but if you become complacent in it, it’ll teach you that you’re wrong."

"The


The Blue Angels fly in formation over Mount Saint Helens in Washington.

Photos by U.S. Navy

   THE SEEDS FOR MR. KARTVEDT’S NAVY career took root during his senior high school year in El Cahon, Calif. He saw the high-flying Tom Cruise movie Top Gun no less than 11 times.
   "That’s the honest-to-God truth," he says. "My best friend is an F-15 pilot in the Air Force. We decided in high school that’s what we wanted to do. Eventually, both of us ended up flying fighters."
   He attended Pepperdine University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting. After graduating in 1990, he worked as a management consultant but decided to leave civilian life after a year.
   "I came home one day and said to my girlfriend, who is now my wife, ‘You know, I think I want to fly airplanes for the Navy.’ We pulled out the Yellow Pages, and I called the Navy recruiter in downtown Los Angeles."
   Less than three years later, he earned his "wings of gold" and joined a strike fighter squadron based in Florida. Then in 1995, he transferred to a squadron based in Atsugi, Japan, and deployed on the aircraft carrier USS Independence. He joined the Blue Angels in September 1999 as the narrator and is now in the first year of his two-year tenure as a demonstration pilot. To date, he has completed more than 2,210 tactical jet flight hours and 313 carrier landings.

"The


The lead solo pilot demonstrates his aircraft’s low-altitude maneuverability.

Photos by U.S. Navy

   "I don’t believe I’ve ever had any doubts where I’ve thought, ‘I’m not sure I wanna go flying,’ or gotten into an airplane and thought, ‘I’m scared to go flying,’ " he says. "There are certainly moments in carrier aviation where you’ll get a wake-up call, and by the grace of God go I, where I get the opportunity to fly again. If a pilot out there said they’d never had a circumstance where their heartbeat didn’t increase, I’d call them a liar.
   "I consider myself to be a recruiter. I work for the Navy to get people in the Navy and the Marine Corps. Our $13 million budget, that’s for 120 personnel, 11 F-18s and a C-130 (transport airplane). When you think about the spectator range that we reach across America, gosh, there’s gotta be between 50 and 100 million people who see us each year. For a $13 million budget, that’s a pretty good deal."
The 2001 Open House and Air Festival takes place at Naval Air Station, Joint Reserve Base, Willow Grove, Pa., Sept. 7-9, beginning with a twilight show and fireworks display Sept. 7, 7 p.m. The 90-minute show will include the Misty Blues All-Woman Skydiving Team, a War Birds Flight, a B-1B Bomber Demonstration and the Shockwave Jet Truck.

   Sept. 8-9: gates open at 9 a.m., with events from 10:05 a.m.-4:30 p.m. daily. Highlights include power aerobatic pilot Sean Tucker, a Marine Air Group Demonstration, an F-117 Stealth Fighter Flight, an F-15 Tactical Demonstration, with Blue Angels shows daily at 3 p.m. Schedule subject to change.

   Air base admission and parking are free, but for the best
view of the flight line, bleacher seating costs $5, general admission costs
$10. Adult VIP seating $40, children 6-12 $30, under 5 free. Bring lawn chairs,
sunscreen and plenty of fluids. For information, call (215) 443-6979. On the
Web: www.wgairshow.com