Blue Angels pilot Ryan Chamberlain from IL
CHICAGO (WLS) -- "You get one opportunity a lifetime to fly in a Blue Angel F/A-18, so I encourage you to push yourself to the maximum extent that you possibly can," Pilot Ryan Chamberlain said during a briefing before the Chicago Air and Water Show.
Chamberlain, who is from Bloomington, Illinois, is briefing participants at the Gary Jet Center. Next comes the flight suit, then it's off to the tarmac.
"You ready?" Chamberlain asks.
"Let's do it!" ABC7 reporter Terrell Brown replies.
And they're off.
Once above the clouds, the FA-18 soars above rural Indiana some 75 miles away.
"It feels like we're just cruising here. But we're literally doing about 715 MPH. That's about 12 miles a minute," Brown said.
The FA-18 maneuvers through high-speed aerobatics - such as the Aileron Roll, which is a 360-degree turn in just over a second - that will awe during the Chicago Air and Water Show. They fly low altitude, too: upside down.
"I can actually see cars on the road down below," Brown said.
The toughest part of the flight is enduring sustained high G-forces. That force of gravity is a crushing weight on the body. The pilots are used to it, but at more than 7Gs, this is often when riders pass out.
"Just so you know, I did it! 7.4Gs, baby! Yes!" Brown said.
The 56th Annual Chicago Air and Water Show will be held August 16 and 17 along the lakefront from Fullerton to Oak Street. North Avenue Beach will serve as show center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. Show headliners include the U.S. Navy Blue Angels and the U.S. Army Parachute Team Golden Knights.
For more information on the Air and Water Show, visit www.chicagoairandwatershow.us.
