Flyover for State

Submitted by TheDirtyD on

Since it hasn't been posted and I love airplanes I figure I'll do the honor. 

The flyover for the Michigan State game will be conducted by two modified F/A-18 Super Hornets, which are actually EA-18G Growlers. The Growlers are specialized for electronic warfare while simultaneously carrying weapons.

The squadron when not on a carrier is based at the Navel Air Station of Whidbey Island Located in Oak Harbor, WA 

 

Two EA-18G Growlers from Electronic Attack Squadron 131 (VAQ-131) will conduct the flyover before #MSUvsMICH. pic.twitter.com/5kayBx1Vcf

— Michigan Athletics (@UMichAthletics) October 14, 2015

LS And Play

October 16th, 2015 at 9:04 AM ^

Are those loud ones? Sorry for my lack of knowledge about planes, but I feel like in recent years the flyovers have been by planes that are much quieter than some in the past. I like loud. 

ats

October 16th, 2015 at 10:29 AM ^

The Super Hornet which is what the Growlers are based off of had their first flight in 1995.  While they stil carry the F/A-18 name and Hornet designation, that's mostly political (basically done to fund a brand new plane without funding a brand new plane).  While the Super Hornet is shaped somewhat like the regular hornet, it is significantly larger with a longer fuselage, larger wings, and new engines, etc.  The only US jet in service that's really newer is the F-22 and thats only by 2 years.

BlueFish

October 16th, 2015 at 9:17 AM ^

I heard one of these take off at an airshow once.  Holy f.ck.

However, the Blue Angels are F-18s and don't seem to be as loud.  But maybe that's because I'd seen one before and they followed the F-16 demo (muscle climb!).

I don't think flyovers use afterburners, but I wish they would.

ats

October 16th, 2015 at 10:22 AM ^

Yes they are quite loud.  Last weekend was fleetweek here in SF and the Blue Angels were in town like always.  Can always tell when they are either practicing or performing cause they make one phenomenal racket.  The main stage area is maybe 3/4 of a mile from where I live, just down the hill.  Can hear them just fine when they are doing their display passes, and, when they routing takes them over the neighborhood, they can certainly rattle the windows.  They used to do a pass down broadway at low altitude on practice which was amazing and I could actually see the pilots outside my window.

Quail2theVict0r

October 16th, 2015 at 9:04 AM ^

I'm excited it's some modern planes again. Nothing like having an F18 fly over. Those other civilian training jets were cool, but they just don't pack the sound punch that the F18's do. 

Spork

October 16th, 2015 at 9:19 AM ^

But I think the beef is that they are paid for by whichever branch of the armed forces actually peforms them. So...that's like taxpayers paying for sports entertainment. Similar arguments come up from time to time regarding public funding for pro sports stadiums. Politics...so that's all I'll say.

TheDirtyD

October 16th, 2015 at 9:24 AM ^

Well the thing is the squadron is changing over in planes and currently they are doing training runs in these planes. Most likely a training excerise will be introduced into the element perhaps not the entire thing but anytime a pilot can get behind the controls is benficial to him/her, even more so when you're flying something new.

Spork

October 16th, 2015 at 9:40 AM ^

My understanding is that flyovers do count as training hours, but are typically really short hops where the only thing that happens on the flight is the flyover.

via http://www.pantagraph.com/news/article_761b5e22-77a5-5e5e-a2f5-3d003fc23a52.html

"Military officials say the fly-bys boost recruiting efforts and give Americans an opportunity to see their aircraft in action. Officials also insist that flyovers don't cost taxpayers any additional money, because each flyover counts as a training flight and comes out of already existing training budgets and schedules.

"Baloney," said Winslow Wheeler, an analyst with the Center for Defense Information in Washington, D.C. "It's atrocious training. They're flying from Point A to Point B. They're doing a couple of sort of low-altitude passes over the events and they go home. That's what pilots call 'converting gas to noise.'"

I'm not necessarily taking this side, I just wanted to point out why some people have questions about flyovers. They are obviously pretty awesome to see live.

wahooverine

October 16th, 2015 at 11:04 AM ^

I think the marketing part alone of it makes it worth it. I don't know why they call it training other than for accounting purposes.  When I was a youth seeing an air show (plus the movie Top Gun) made me want to be a pilot.  Military's gotta recruit too.  I never ended up pursuing that myself, but I'm sure many pilots today were similary capivated by seeing a live military aircraft during their formative years.

Spork

October 16th, 2015 at 3:04 PM ^

I loved airshows as a kid. I also chose a different vocation, but I was thoroughly caught up in the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds to the extent that I had models of each hanging above my bed on a rearrangeable suspension.

I do wonder though how much impact is had by a 3 second flyover.

uncleFred

October 16th, 2015 at 3:28 PM ^

of tree top level attack passes at an air show remains one of my most memorable military aviation images, and I've seen many shows by the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels since they were flying F-100s and Tiger respectively. Seems like a pretty solid reciting tool to me. 

ats

October 16th, 2015 at 10:36 AM ^

Generally they are going to burn the gas regardless.  Sure a lot of the time they are just taking them up to do the flyover, but it still counts towards hours and hop.  Though there are also other time when they are doing actual testing or movements and they just add the flyover in as part of it.  IIRC, I'm pretty sure that's how we were able to get a B2 flyover once, it needed to be moved from point A to point B and UofM wasn't drastically outside of the flight path.