Tag Archives: Seattle WA

From Virg Hemphill – Take a Ride Along with the Blue Angels

Aviation Scout Virg Hemphill

No need to add much text to this one-of-a-kind video clip of the one-and-only Navy’s Blue Angels Exhibition Team at work.

From the slot position to the lead aircraft – and then from number one’s belly, you get views once unheard of.  Amazing videography, not to mention aerobatic precision.

These barrel rolls, loops, inverted climbing turns and “bursting bomb” maneuvers are breathtaking from the deck, but from onboard these sleek McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornets your view is really spectacular.  This video was taken just last month over Puget Sound as the Blues performed over Seattle Washington’s annual Boeing SeaFair Air Show 2019.

We’ve put a composite photo down below showing the different aircraft used by the “Blues” since they first began to thrill the crowds at the end of WWII.  The main video is only 6:19 long.

Don’t hesitate to enjoy this high-resolution video in full-screen mode.

Click the above and below group shots to see them in full resolution.

The 2019 Team Members pose for the official group portrait. Click on the photo to see their names at their web site.

Hilarious Talk by AF Maj. Brian Shul (Ret.): “LA Speed Check”

Virg Hemphill

Thanks again to our Aviation News Scout, Virg Hemphill  (L), for this memorable video. This short 5:07 minute talk from the stage by former First Aero SR-71 Blackbird pilot, Brian Shul, entitled “LA Speed Check” is a real laugh generating piece of jet pilot “hangar talk” – – –  one that brings laughs from pilot audiences each and every time. While the talk is meant for a pilot audience, that fact doesn’t very much diminish the laughs generated each time the Major share’s his short story with non-pilots . . . Without further ado, let’s have his words bring some humorous guffaws back into being.

Maj. Brian Shul stands in front of his SR-71 Blackbird in his regular space suit.  Shul was an  injured  POW in Vietnam.

One of our Advisors was also a famous Blackbird pilot, as well as a Commander of the First Aero Squadron: General Patrick J. Halloran.