Flying With The Blue Angels: Meet Fat Albert
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How would you like to fly with the Blue Angels?
This plane is named Fat Albert. When you think Blue Angels, this isn’t the first plane you’d think of, but it’s definitely a crowd favorite.
Fat Albert is a big C-130, the same kind of plane you see fly out of Maxwell Air Force Base.
It’s main job is to transport the entire crew and all the equipment everywhere the Blue Angels go. But it also flies in the show.
“Not much has changed. We added some new seats to make it more comfortable, added a little more paint, and we lightened the controls a little bit so there’s a little more feel in them. But other than that it’s still a fleet C-130 and can be taken anywhere in the world and utilized for it’s primary mission,” said Maj. Dusty Cook, Fat Albert’s pilot.
Before they would let us on the plane we had to go through several safety briefings.
We were joined by some members of the military who earned a seat on the ride.
As you might imagine, we were all very excited.
Immediately on takeoff you feel up to 3 times the earth’s grabity as the plane climbs straight in to the sky.
Everyone is strapped down tight, including the flight crew.
But they get to have a little fun, like opening the back of the plane while we were flying.
But the best part is when the pilot puts us in a zero gravity environment. Everything just floats, including some of the people.
Fat Albert, affectionately known called Bert, puts in some crazy turns and you feel each and every one of them. Our pilot, Major Dusty Cook, says that it’s a crowd favorite.
“Everybody loves Bert just because it’s a big airplane, it’s not too loud, and the attention span, really the kids when we go on it’s only about an 8 minute performance. That’s perfect for the kids and children,” said Maj. Cook.
This is the blue angels 69th year performing at Air Shows.
