A Flight of a Lifetime: Thunderbird 8

Where does time go?

Looking at the calendar I realize it was 25 years ago this week that I had the flight of a lifetime aboard Thunderbird 8. Yep, a real F-16 flown by the USAF Aerial Demonstration Team, the Thunderbirds.

                                                      A "Thumbs Up" before take-off.


One of the benefits of being News Director of KGWN-TV in Cheyenne at the time was seeing the team fly every year as part of Cheyenne Frontier Days. Most years, they'd take up a member of the local media or VIP for a ride. July 1987 was my year.

In the front seat was Capt. Bert Nelson, show narrator at the time. Capt. Nelson's story was an interesting one. He originally was an enlisted member of the Air Force, serving as a crew chief in England. He was able to secure an appointment to the Air Force Academy, got his commission and ultimately his role with the Thunderbirds.

I showed up on a warm afternoon with my camera crew, flight suit and no small amount of nervousness. I'd flown in high-performance planes before but nothing like the F-16B. (Two seater version of the F-16) I was fitted out with a G-Suit, my helmet and a plastic bag tucked inside my shoulder harness just in case the high speed maneuvers we were about to do didn't agree with my tummy! I was also taught "Egress" procedures in the remote case we would have to bail out of the aircraft.

When I strapped in, I understood what they mean when fighter pilots say they don't strap into an aircraft as much as they strap it on. The F-16 was then, and remains a powerful fighter plane. The Thunderbirds you see fly in the air shows are fully combat ready, and if the need would arise could be stripped of their brilliant paint schemes, painted over and take to the skies to defend our nation.

Just before take-off came the "Focus" moment when I flipped a switch on the left console to arm my ejection seat. Right then I knew I was doing something very serious.

Soon as we rolled down the runway, I got a quick lesson in what "Positive Thrust to Weight Ratio" means. The F-16 can climb, straight up while accelerating. Here's the view from the back seat as we fired up the engine and took off.

 OK, I know the "Top Gun" music sounds a tad corny now, but this was done back in '87!

Normally a demonstration ride lasts about 20 minutes or so, but when Capt. Nelson figured out I wasn't going to get sick, and knew how to fly a plane he asked me if I minded staying up for a while. As show narrator he didn't often get the chance to really wring out the airplane, especially in the wide-open space we had over Wyoming and Colorado. It took me about 3 seconds to say "YES!" so we stayed up for over an hour. Capt. Nelson let me fly the aircraft through the whole suite of maneuvers, including snap rolls, high-speed/high "G" turns and the like. The control stick of the F-16 is on the right side of the console, much like a game controller. It doesn't actually move, but senses pressure and works like a normal stick in combination with the rudder pedals and throttle to fly like any other plane.

We pulled anywhere from 6-8 "G's" on several maneuvers, especially the tight turns and a couple of high-speed pull outs we need near the end of the flight. One "G" is the equivalent of your weight, the more "G's" the more you seem to weigh. The higher the "G" rating, your vision starts to tunnel out as well. The "G-Suit" by definition, is a  "flight garment worn by astronauts and jet pilots that presses on the lower body to maintain the blood supply to the brain during rapid vertical acceleration."

Don't confuse what the Thunderbirds do as "stunts." Everything they do is a combat maneuver and if you fly fighters for a living, you darn well be be good at them!

But words just don't describe the experience, so here's another video clip:

While I didn't lose my cookies on the flight, I was physically exhausted at the end of it. Testament to the great mental and physical shape fighter pilots have to be in.

The memory of this flight will last me a lifetime, and looking back it seems like it was just yesterday. You only get one opportunity to do something like this and I don't plan on ever forgetting it!

So the next time you see the Thunderbirds fly, know what a skilled and dedicated group of fliers they are. They'll be the first to tell you they're not the best at what they do. What they will tell you is they represent the best.

                                    Capt Bert Nelson, my wife Ronda, me and daughter Jennifer.

I'm not sure where Capt. Nelson is now but I bet it involves flying. I do know the Thunderbirds still fly today. If you haven't seen their show, make it a point to do so.

As a reporter I've had the opportunity for some other truly wonderful aviation experiences including takeoffs and landing aboard the Aircraft Carriers Kennedy, Constellation and Ranger plus some hops with the Wyoming Air National Guard as they trained for both low-level tactical airlift drops and their missions as slurry bombers. Most recently I've worked with Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum and EAA producing videos about the WWII B-17 Bomber, "Aluminum Overcast."

All great stuff. But ...at the top of the heap, is that one day 25 years ago where I got to fly an F-16.

Thanks again to the United States Air Force for this extraordinary opportunity!

How do you watch TV?

I'm dating myself a bit here, but does anyone remember when TV was black and white with no remote control? You really didn't need one because you only got one or two channels. We had the first TV on our street when I was a kid and every day after school all the neighborhood kids came over after school to watch Mighty Mouse which came on at 4pm when the station signed on for the day!

And remember when stations "signed off," usually with a picture of the flag and the National Anthem playing?

Fast foward to 2012 and whew, not only do we have hundreds and hundreds of channel choices, but a growing number of ways to watch those channels. 24/7.

The dam broke with cable. Goodbye rabbit ears. For years when you moved into a house, the first order of business was to get the phone and cable hooked up. With cell phones, land line phones are disappearing and it's been decades since cable was the one and only choice.

Hook up? Hook up to what?

Cable is still around, but in the 90's satellite TV came on the scene providing cable much-needed competition and technology like the DVR which allows us to watch TV when we want and even skip through commercials.

The commercial skipping part is becoming a bit of an issue with broadcasters. I understand as I used to be in broadcasting and you make your money through advertising. If people aren't watching ads, advertisers aren't buying spots. That said, I also used to work for DISH Network. There's quite a spat involving Charlie Ergen and DISH Network with the broadcasters and even Congress is getting involved. (As if they have nothing better to do) The best part about skipping commercials is during election years. Just when you think both parties have sunk to new lows, they sink even lower. Election years are great skips years.

Charlie and DISH don't make me skip through commercials, they simply give me the choice to do so. About the only shows we watch live are sports and news. Everything else is hours or days later. And yes, we skip through commercials because you can watch an hour-long show in about 40 minutes. It's important to remember that broadcasters transmit over public airwaves, which we own. So it seems fair we should have the choice as to how we use our airwaves too.

Programmers are also getting into spats with cable and satellite providers. In this tough economy, programmer providers like satellite and able are doing their best to keep our monthly costs down because we are going elsewhere for TV. More on that in a moment but the bottom line truly is becoming the bottom line.

Major programmers "bundle" their programming. I won't get into names but let's say a major sports programmer with a monster channel also wants many of their other lesser-watched channels as part of the deal. So you know, cable and satellite providers pay a lot of money to carry major networks. That impacts how much they charge us. The issue is being held hostage in that if they don't carry and pay for the lesser-watched channels, they don't get the big one that attracts customers. Both DISH Network and DirecTV are involved in transmission agreement disputes with some pretty big names.

But now we take another leap forward as to how and where we watch TV.  We don't subscribe to HBO for example. Just not enough shows of interest at our house to warrant paying for it monthly. But in the case of some shows, Entourage the latest example, we simply waited for it to come out on iTunes. Who cares if we see a series now, or 6 months from now? Long as we get to see it.

Where do we watch those series or movies? On our computers, iPads and PDA's. The networks themselves offer most of their series on their own websites, (no commercial skipping) and you'd be surprised at the number of off-air free digital channels that are available. Plus outlets like Blockbuster and Netflix and yes, even bootleg on-line program offerings. We can also remotely access the satellite receivers at our house, long as they're connected to the Internet and watch programming from anywhere on an iPad for example, anywhere we happen to be. (Airports are a fave)

It's all getting very complicated and one thing is for sure, we as consumers are no longer beholden to just one source for our video entertainment. Free off-air, cable, satellite, Internet, iTunes, AppleTV and the list goes on and so does the type of screen we watch on.

Keep in mind, it's not the size of the screen that matters, just how close you are to the screen you're watching. I just watched a movie on my iPad with BOSE Headphones. Awesome. Less than an arm's length away it was like being in front of the big screen at home.

One of the toughest nuts to crack for consumers is the ability to just get only the channels we want without having to pay for a few hundred extras we don't watch. It's called "a la carte" programming and everyone in the industry has fought it tooth and nail, forcing us to pay for 200 channels when we only watch about 10 of them.

A la carte programming is here, well, almost. Consumers always find a way, and now technology exists to help us do just that. It's all going to get more complicated before it gets simple. Not as simple as that 12 inch B&W Crosley we once had, but in this high tech age, close enough.

Adding to the fun is the growing number of viewers who post on Social Media about shows while watching those shows. Watching TV is a multi-screen and multi-thumb experience.

Ultimately what's cool is many of the shows we watched like Bonanza and The Andy Griffith Show back in the day, are still playing all these years later. In today's hectic and digital world sometimes it's nice to pay a visit to Mayberry.

So ...how do you watch TV. Where? When? How?

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations

Frontier Airlines-So long and farewell.

I'm writing this on a Sunday evening in Atlanta at a hotel near the airport. I'm supposed to be on Frontier Flight 305 with my wife and two grand children.

We have long ago since stopped using Frontier as our main airline to Atlanta, the folks on the ground here are, well, incompetent and service on Frontier has slowly sunk to new levels each an every flight.

Our flight was cancelled due to mechanical problems. OK, that happens. How the airline handles the problem is what's important. First of all, Frontier has our contact information, they're supposed to call with any issues. They didn't call. Secondly, the flight showed "on time" on the info boards. After a LONG wait at check-in we were told what happened.

As far as flying out on a later flight on Frontier, we would have had to wait TWO DAYS to get seats. So we asked to be put on another flight, which ended up being on USAir for Sunday at 7am, connecting through Charlotte NC then on to Denver. At least we get there. Proof also the shortest distance between two points isn't a straight line, especially if Frontier Airlines is part of the original plan.

So we head over to USAir to double check the reservation and seat assignments, which I'm glad we did as Frontier gave us the wrong ticket coupons to use on US Air. So, back to Frontier's gate, getting the right coupons and finally, we hope after a few hours sleep with two young grand kids, we can make it home tomorrow.

Frontier, simply put, blew it. Absolutely the worst handling of a situation and thus, they lose long time customers. Frontier Airlines claims to be Denver's "hometown" airline, but they ain't my airline.

Shame on you Frontier. Poor management has resulted in even poorer employees on the front lines and of course it's we customers who take it in the shorts.

There are other choices, and we will indeed be using those choices. As for a new animal on the tail of your planes, may I suggest a horse's rear-end?

(We just got an e-mail from Frontier. Out flight has been cancelled!)

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations

Buckhead Pizza: Failed Expectations

The worst thing any business can do is not meet the expectations it sets for its customers. Case in point: A recent visit to Buckhead Pizza north of Atlanta.

We took our two grand kids for a night out because this is what the restaurant advertised:

Live music! Face Painting! Balloons! Kids make their own pizza! The key here being from "5:00-7:00pm" We arrived at about 4:45 so the kids could eat their pizza then enjoy the fun.

We waited and waited and waited. We asked the wait staff about the face painting. "She's stuck in traffic" was the response. She ended up arriving about 6:15 and while she did a good job, she was LATE. As for the kids making pizza, they did get to spread sauce, cheese and sausage on a pizza but at best it came back to our table warmed up, not cooked.

Like the face painter, the musician showed up late too. He was terrific, but the restaurant advertised him being there at 5:00pm, not after 6. Even our dessert was late. We ordered a brownie to share and it took 25 minutes after ordering. The excuse being it had been frozen and they'd forgotten to thaw them out. But during the 25 minute wait, not a peep until we asked WTF?

Oh yeah. NO balloons.

The worst thing any business can do is to set expectations, then not meet them.

In the case of Buckhead Pizza, it's a classic case of just that.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations

(Solar) Independence Day

It's been a little over 6 months since we installed our SunRun Solar System working with REC Solar. We don't have any particular "Green" agenda, nor do we like the government ever mandating how we keep the lights on at our house.

While the politicians in Washington yack about grandiose solar systems and wind farms, the fact is like politics, the solar energy solution is local, local, local.

First of all every bit of the experience has exceeded expectations from initial meeting with the sales person to installation and the huge amounts of power were generating. Plus the emission we're not spewing into the air. We've also reached the point where we've generated more power than we've used, so at the end of the year we'll get a credit back from the power company.

Approval from our HOA took less than 24 hours.

Best of all, we didn't have to lay out any money at all. We decided on the leasing option, the monthly cost being about half of what we paid for energy. A win right out of the gate. And should we ever decide to sell our house, we'll pay off the lease and be able to market the house saying "Free Electricity."

During the current heat wave of multiple days of 100+ degree temperatures we're running our AC and fans without fear of a monster electric bill.

Here's what our system has done by the numbers:

1. Total power generated: 4,804 kWh.
2. Net energy used: -275 kWh
3. Carbon Dioxide NOT spewed into the atmosphere: 5,284 pounds.
4. Nitrogen Oxide NOT spewed into the atmosphere: 16.45 pounds.
5. Sulfur Dioxide NOT spewed into the atmosphere: 4.8 pounds.

We are lucky in that the part of our roof that has the 24 solar power panels on it faces due south and has no obstructions to we generate power from first light through dusk. But systems can be configured to make solar a winner where you live. Companies like SunRun and REC Solar are also looking into the concept of "Solar Gardens" where a group of homeowners for instance, can share a solar system.

Like everything else, the Free Enterprise system works just fine, including with solar power.

Brian Olson
Owner/Consultant
Conversation Starters Public Relations