October is one of the driest months in Metro Atlanta, and October 2024 is no exception!

Heading into the weekend, there is a very good chance for clear skies during the Atlanta Air Show in Peachtree City October 26 and 27.

How Does Weather Impact the Atlanta Air Show? Is it Rain or Shine?

“Weather is a determining factor, in terms of cloud ceiling,” says Chris Dirato, Public Relations Officer of the Atlanta Air Show.

“The ceiling is the cloud deck. So there is a bright, sunshiny day show, a middle-cloud deck show, and a low show, or what’s known as a “flat show”.

“The event is rain or shine -- check the website and/or Facebook page for real time information,” Dirato says.

Q & A with Major Bryce Turner, US Air Force Thunderbirds Pilot

During a planning event, I had the opportunity to talk with Major Bryce Turner of the US Air Force Thunderbirds about the steps he took to become a fighter pilot. In addition, we talked about how the different cloud levels affect the air show, and we discussed how he prepares for the added forces on his body when performing aerial loops, rolls, and formations.

Q: How long have you been a fighter pilot?

“I’ve been flying the F-16 for 11 years.”

Q: How do you get started?

“You can get started via school, so you can either go through the Air Force Academy -- that’s where half our pilots come from.”

“Or you can go through ROTC at a university.”

“Or, if you’ve gone through college and then decided later on that you wanted to be a pilot or an officer in the Air Force, you can go to Officer Training School, OTS.”

“So those are the three methods to get your commission.”

“Once you get your commission, they will assign you what job you will go do.”

“For myself, I went to pilot training at Vance -- it was about 1 to 1.5 years of pilot training just to get my wings to get qualified to be a pilot.”

“From there, depending on how well you finish in your class, they will select you for what aircraft you will go to next.”

“I was fortunate enough to get my number one pick, so I got the F-16. I went to Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals -- that was about 3 months out in Texas -- and then I went to Luke Air Force Base in Arizona where I trained for a year to get my F-16 qualification.”

“About three years after joining the Air Force, I was ready to be a combat F-16 pilot.”

Q: You are Thunderbird 8. Do you get to choose which plane you are? Or is that assigned?

“It is effectively assigned. We will apply to be on the team -- I applied to be a demo pilot, for 2024 there were two positions open, Thunderbird 3 and Thunderbird 8, and I got picked up for number 8.”

“The really neat thing is, all the officers on the team are a 2-year assignment, except Number 8. So while I am the advanced pilot and narrator for this year, next year I am actually going to flow into Thunderbird 3 and I will be the right wing pilot.”

Q: How many Gs do you pull in there?

“In the F-16, we can pull 9 Gs.”

Q: And that’s 9 times the force of gravity.

“Correct -- so us standing here right now, we’re at 1 G. When I’m pulling all the way back on the stick, I can go up to 9.”

Q: What does 9 Gs feel like, and how do you avoid g-loc (g-induced loss of consciousness)?

“So 9 Gs is tough, you’re just getting pressed into the back of your seat. All of the blood in your head wants to go to your feet. In order to stay awake -- you’ve got to keep the blood in the brain, because that is where the oxygen is, flowing through the blood.”

“So what we do is what we call the ‘anti-G straining maneuver’.”

“Everything from my abs down to my feet, I’m making them nice and tense, nice and locked, because I want to squeeze my blood vessels to keep the blood up.”

“I’m wearing a G-suit -- so as I pull Gs, that inflates, it’s pushing against all the capillaries and it’s keeping the blood up.”

“And then I’m doing these quick air exchanges -- every 3 seconds, really quick air is coming out, air is coming back in, so that I can keep that oxygen in my brain, and I don’t black out.”

Q: When is it that you’re feeling that 9 G force?

“We’re flying in 3 dimensions, so to go left and right, I’m using my feet. I have a joy stick or control stick on my right where I will roll the air craft, and then I will pull back -- and that is forcing the jet around.”

“And you will see that at the air show where Major Downey will do the max turn. Right in front of your face, he will light the afterburner, he’ll pull the 90 degrees, and he’ll pull a 360 degree turn all the way around, pulling the max G.”

“And then he’ll do it in the vertical as well, in front of you. We call it the Max Turn Half Cuban. "

Q: When it comes to meteorological conditions -- what would be the easiest and the hardest weather conditions to fly into?

“While sun would be great, because there would be no clouds and we could do loops and we can fly high -- sometimes will create uneven heating on the ground, the concrete will have a different air mass above it than the grass. So when they are flying in formation as they transition, they may actually get a little bit of turbulence, so they are fighting when they go through that.”

“Depending on the clouds, it can create a smoother air.”

“For us, we have one primary show, we call it the “high show”. Our other shows are variations on that. So depending on where the clouds are will determine which show we can fly.”

“As long as we have clouds above about 7,000 feet, we can fly the full “high show”. We’ll do loops, we’ll do rolls, we’ll do everything else.”

“If the clouds come down but they are at least around 4,000 feet, we can get rolls in, but we can’t do the loops. So instead of the loops, we’ll do 360 degree turns.”

“If the clouds come very low -- call it 1500 feet -- we’ll do what’s called a “flat show”. We can’t do rolls, and so instead of rolls, now we’re just doing flat passes.”

“We’re at least getting the jets right in front of the crowd so they can see them, but we’re not exactly doing all the rolls and loops that we would love to do on a bright sunny day.”

Q: Why wouldn’t you be able to do the rolls on a cloudy day?

“For the rolls, all of the pilots are flying off BOSS -- if we started rolling into the clouds, and they lost sight of BOSS, there are a lot of airplanes flying next to each other, that could be a very dangerous situation. So we like to keep it safe -- if we can’t do a roll, we’ll just do a pass. Hopefully, the weather is high enough that we can do a loop and give you the full experience.”

Q: What does BOSS stand for?

“BOSS stands for Thunderbird One, our commander and leader. We affectionally call him BOSS, since he is in charge of the team.”

Q: So he’s got visual flight rules (VFR) going on with you guys?

“So we only fly VFR when we do our show.”

Q: I would imagine -- precipitation, the show is out?

“Not necessarily -- we’re actually flying fast enough that the rain is flicking off our jets.”

“It’s really the visibility -- we need 5 miles of visibility. So even if it’s a light rain shower but we have 5 miles of visibility, we can actually fly.”

Q: So fog cannot be more than 5 miles, drizzle cannot obscure. But what about thunderstorms? What is the safety precaution with that?

“If there is any lightning within 5 nautical miles, that is a show-stopper for us because we can’t work on the jets, we can’t be near them. Typically, it’s already become a factor for the air show crowd because you want them to be safe as well. So if you see a thunderstorm coming that is going to be a factor, we’ll have them either leave or seek shelter, hopefully wait for the system to pass.”

“If there is hail -- hail is very damaging to our aircraft. If we see that on the radar, we will put all of our jets in the hangar to protect them.”

“Lastly, winds above 50 knots (58 mph) -- we don’t want to get these things airborne or flying around, so we will put them in the hangar as well.”

Q: And 50 knots would be a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. Have you ever flown through a hailstorm? Have you ever encountered anything like that?

“I have not flown through a hailstorm, thankfully. The controllers are great, they will alert us to any severe weather along our flight path, and typically, we will divert around it.”

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