I met the Blue Angel pilot who crashed.

[trof]

Recognized him when I saw his photo on TV this morning.

Every May our Ancient Aviators group gets a special invitation to a Blues practice in Pensacola. It's a nice gesture of recognition from the Navy for a bunch of old, mostly military (and mostly Navy) pilots.

We get to sit in bleachers right on the flight line and watch the show. So close you need to wear ear protection when the Blues are taxiing out and back in. Afterwards we can walk out to the aircraft and meet the pilots, pose for photos, etc.

No matter how you feel about what they do, these guys are really the 'best of the best'.
I'll be very interested to find out what happened.

[Philosoraptor]

1. I feel bad for him and his family.

I'm sure he was a good guy.

[Beausoir]

2. He looked so terribly young. Best of the best is right.

I love the Blues and the T-Birds.

You are really lucky to be able to see such a show.

[TomInTib]

3. It is beautiful. I have a birds-eye view.

I live a couple of hundred feet above San Francisco Bay (Tiburon, North side of the Bay).

They fly in directly over my house on their approach to the Bay for Fleet Week and they practice all week.

We have parties on our parking deck every day during the event.

[brook]

4. I thought of you when I heard the news...

thinking that being of the 'brotherhood', you would be especially saddened. A young man, doing what he loved - there's some small comfort in that, no?