 Day two of the Warriors over the Wasatch air show just about ready to get underway. I'm Dan Hawkins. Good morning. I'm Matt Gephardt from KSL Channel 5. It's great to be here. We'll be hosting this thing for you today. What a privilege. What a fun day it's going to be. We had a lot of fun yesterday. The Thunderbirds, the Headliner act and this great event returning to Hill Air Force Base after a four year hiatus. And really comes during the Air Force's celebration of our 75th anniversary. The theme being Innovate, Accelerate and Thrive. The Air Force at 75. And so we did have some problems. People getting on base yesterday. We want to let you know. Nives, pocket knives, those kinds of things seem to be a little bit of a problem. Yeah. Team Hill proud and happy to have you as our guest. We'll do everything to make your visit safe and enjoyable. Every effort will be made to minimize delays in entering and leaving the events. Please make sure you check the prohibited items. They're graphic here. We ask for your cooperation in keeping dangerous items outside of the installation. All bags will be quickly inspected and all individuals are subject to search prior to entering the base and the Air Force gates. Adhering to this list of prohibited and permitted items will help ensure you have a hassle free and safe experience here at the air show. Yeah. So make sure you plan your trip out here. A lot of people out at the air show yesterday. And so we want to give you a quick video on how to get out here to the air show. Excited. We get phone calls and emails daily. Expect heavy traffic around the base. If you don't have to be on the roads near Hill Air Force Base or on I-15, then stay away. But if you're coming to the show, just be prepared for some traffic. The best way to go? Ride frontrunner to the Clearfield Station. A shuttle takes you to the flight line. Well, UTA's the answer. As far as getting to the air show, we've got a $5 special all day pass. You'll find that deal on the UTA GoRide app. And we're going to have trains every 30 minutes. So we're increasing the frequency and we're increasing the frequency of the shuttles. So every 15 minutes for the shuttles. So, Wi-Fi at the traffic, Wi-Fi at the congestion. Trains will run 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. We're not going to make anybody wait very long. We'll get people back here to the Clearfield Station from the entrance to the base. And it'll be really a seamless thing. You can also park at the Clearfield Station, Northridge High School, or Weber State University, Davis Campus, and take a shuttle. You'll hop on a shuttle and you get right to the air show gate. So limited walking and you'll be right there. If you plan to drive on base, that opens at 8 a.m. The public can enter via Westgate or Roy gate, but they cannot enter in Southgate. Also, do not park on the side of the road or interstate to watch the show. Parking on the side of the road is probably not a good idea with the influx of traffic that we're expecting. Do not come late. You want to be here for the whole day. So again, we hope you consider taking the frontrunner trains and shuttle buses. Great job by the Utah Transit Authority running yesterday and obviously today to find out more information on this service. Please make sure you log in to the link at the bottom of our screen. We have a great weekend lined up for you. The Air Force Thunderbirds, the F-35 demo team, a P-51 Mustang, and tons of aerial and ground displays will be on hand. There will be static ground displays of numerous military and civilian aircraft to include the C-17 Globemaster III, the C-5 Galaxy, the Channel 5 news chopper, and more. We do some acrobatics with that. In addition to those fantastic displays and events, the Warriors over Wasech Air Show will also bring you STEM City. STEM City will be an exciting display of hands-on booths to encourage children and educate parents on opportunities in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math. Yeah, so lots to see and do and now we are absolutely delighted to bring in Colonel Jeff Holland, the new commander of the 75th Air Base Wing. And he is really the mayor, if you will, of Hill Air Force Base, responsible for 50-plus tenant units including the Ogden Air Logistics Complex, the 388th Fighter Wing, which flies all the F-35s you see, and tons of other units located here at Hill. How are you, sir? Well, Dan and Matt, I'm excited to be here. Day two is going to be fantastic just like day one. Welcome to Utah. Tell us a little bit about yourself. You're new to command here, relatively new to command. Yeah, new to command. So this is day five for me here at Hill. We are very excited to be here. I went to college in Colorado. My wife's from Colorado, so we just flip sides with the Rockies or avid skiers. So I already have passes for Snow Base and the Epic Pass. I can't wait for the winner, but we're enjoying the summer as we get it now. Yeah, and I can't think of a better way in all reality to take command. You get such an opportunity here to meet the community. How has that been and why is this air show so important to the community? Yeah, this is a great way to meet a lot of the community and get them all out at once. So this air show is really about volunteers and the way that we interact with the community. So we have 1,500 airmen from Team Hill, but we also have 200 volunteers, law enforcement, fire, medical, emergency, special services all from the area. And it really helps show how important the relationship between our communities are, both the base and the local communities. What does it take to coordinate with the local community? What does it take to put a show like this on? So this really is the culmination of about 18 months of really hard work. So I mean at two days, 18 months to get there. And so it takes a lot of effort, a lot of talent, and it actually takes a lot of money. And so it's really the partnerships and the sponsorships that go with the Utah Air Show Foundation that really make this possible. And so again, that tie between the base and the community, it's a great way for us to show how much we appreciate the community's support every day. Okay, so and I know you've only been here a few days, so you haven't had a chance to get spoiled by watching the F-35s fly outside your window every day. But what was your favorite thing yesterday as you got around and met people and saw all the acts? We're still aviation enthusiasts at heart. What was the fun of yesterday for you? So really the fun for me is seeing the excitement in the crowd. And so I was out there talking to folks. We saw people from California, Idaho, Wyoming, had some folks in Arizona, and they're all excited to be here. And so everyone who made it to the show yesterday had a great show and we're excited to have them. Yeah, so great stuff and great speaking of. I was like, when you live in Layton, that's what they say. It's a sound of freedom every couple of minutes out here. It's great. Yeah, so it's really glad that you stopped by. I know you're a very busy man, so we definitely appreciate it and, you know, good luck on your command tour here at Hill. Oh, thanks Dan. Appreciate it. Welcome to you, Tusser. Thanks, Matt. Alright, so our next guest is going to be Mr. Aaron Clark and he is the director of the Hill Museum. But let's go ahead and take a look and see what the museum is all about. I think this airplane is really cool. From these planes, these are bombs. History passes down. Was this one a bad guy one? Teaching Brylee and her brothers and cousins what came before them. It was used in the 1950s. And held these mammoth machines. I just like how it's made. Came to be. I just think it's really cool to see it like up close. The word engaging is what we're always looking for to get students interested in STEM. Alison Sturgeon, STEM program manager at Hill Air Force Base explains how science, technology, engineering and math is a huge focus for the Hill Aerospace Museum. And I think it's really cool. Families can check out STEM City at the air show. A huge hands-on display of booths and activities at the base and museum. 35 different companies or organizations come bring STEM exhibits and our highlight is the NASA rover. So we're going to have a full-scale model of perseverance as well as wind tunnels and tornado simulators, robotics, all kinds of activities. Seeing these planes in action or on display is, I think it's really cool as Brylee would say. But learning the technology and engineering behind them. This is where a lot of people started. Inspiring. If someone like me wanted to be a person who wanted to build airplanes and stuff, I could know how they worked and how they flew and how the engine worked. It helps if they have a why. Why should I learn math? Why should I learn science? And if they can come and see those things in action, I think it's really beneficial. Passing down history. It was the first we'll never made. Well, bringing up the future. Lauren Steinbrecher, KSL 5 News. Welcome, Mr. Aaron Clark, the director of the Aerospace Museum. Let's jump right into it. What is it about Utah that this is the place for an aerospace museum and an air force base? Well, yeah. It all kind of started right before World War II began. The government was looking for a place to put bases to support the pending war, right? And so they looked at this place and it provided the perfect location for an airfield. First and foremost, we're on a plateau that's right by the Weber Canyon. And so aircraft used to fly below the weather and they fly through that canyon into this area. So it provided a perfect kind of route to this area. Not only that, we have a railroad in August that can help transport supplies. And in addition to that, we had a fantastic workforce that surrounded this area that could support any type of mission that was here. Coupled with that, we had a lot of state leaders who advocated and they got several thousand acres and said to the government, hey, we have these several thousand acres we'd like to give you for cheap if you build an airfield here. So that's kind of how all transpired at the beginning of World War II. Well, you're the consumer reporter, so that's right up your alley. That is right up my alley. So can you speak a little bit to Hill's impact on national defense really over the last 75 years, in the Air Force, it's 75th anniversary year, but Hill has played a major role. Yeah, it's really cool to think about how diverse the missions of Hill Air Force Base have been over the past 80 years. I mean, we ship munitions across the globe to our, the commanders. We do tests and training, the Utah Test and Training Range. We do a lot of things, but I think what's most important, and we really want to focus on for the same fifth anniversary of the Air Force is the primary mission of Hill Air Force Base for over the past 75 years has been depot maintenance. Do you guys know what that is? If you don't mind me asking. Well, they work on a lot of airplanes and put them back in service. Yeah, we fix weapons systems. So from aircraft to software to components to landing gear. The primary mission of Hill Air Force Base for over the past 80 years has been fixing weapons systems, and that's what we do here. And those weapons systems go to support war fighters across the world. I know you were in conjunction in Tawil. There's a depot out there that I know deals with a lot of munitions. Do you guys work with them or are you sort of because you're separate branches? Their army, I believe. Their army, yeah. So this depends on the mission. Actually, half the Hill Air Force Base used to be a munitions depot at the onset of World War II. And then after the war, we combined into one because the Air Force was growing. And that's what happened there. He was called the Ogden Arsenal. Oh, wow. Yeah. Was it as loud in here in Ogden as it was or here in Leighton as it was out there? Was it what? Sorry. Was it as loud as loud planes flyovers? Was it as loud blowing up stuff? They weren't blowing up stuff. They were making bombs. Oh, I see. Thankfully. They weren't too close to the white line. No, that's where they go. That's most. So where can people go to learn more? I mean, this is some pretty fascinating stuff. I mean, you can't sleep on Hill History. No. That's why we have a museum here called the Hill Air Force Base Museum because the mission of Hill Air Force Base has been so impactful and so diverse over the past 80 years. They can come to the Hill Aerospace Museum and see over 84 aircraft and a bunch of other items that depict the impact of Hill Air Force Base in Utah aviation. Oh, yeah. Speak just when you said they were blowing things up. From across the globe. So yeah, the museum is free. We're open, you know, Tuesday through Saturday. Come and learn more about Utah aviation and Hill Air Force Base history. It is a cool museum. I've been there. So you do a great job. I like it. And what are the hours? Yeah, we're open from nine to four Tuesday through Saturday. Okay. So thanks for joining us, giving us a little snippet. But hey, we want to leave the crowd wanting more so they got to come to the museum. To the museum. Check it out. All right. So that's going to wrap up our pre-show. But you can see on the screen, the excitement has already started here at the Warriors over the Wasatch Air and Space Show day two. So check out the air show website. You can check out Hill Air Force Base Facebook. Tons of acts on the KSL live TV app and watch the live stream all day long. And that, when you start talking about some pyrotechnics and the planes flying, now it's starting to feel like an air show. I mean, it is really kicking off here. This is fun. I mean, as you just kind of watch what's going on behind us here is look at this guy coming in here. I'm just an incredible... I'm stunned. I'm out of words. Look at the way he just... I thought he was coming in. That was crazy. I mean, the aerobatics of all of this is really something to see. This is my first air show, if I'm being totally honest with you, where I've seen this stuff in real life. And I can't believe I've missed it until now because this is truly incredible being out here. Yeah. And so, again, the acts starting to go up. And pretty, I guess not shockingly, the crowd has started to vile in. And the cameras and the eyes are already skyward. So, lots to see. And we've got a full lineup, tons of great guests for you here today. Dan Hawkins alongside Matt Gephardt from KSL5, the NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City. And we are now absolutely delighted to bring in our next guest, Mr. Kevin Ireland from the Utah Air Show Foundation. And Kevin has played a significant role for over a decade in planning the air shows out here at Hill. Very familiar, obviously, with the ins and outs, how the air shows benefit, not only the local community from an economic perspective, but the recruiting aspect of air shows as well. So, day two, Kevin, we had you on yesterday. Obviously, I know putting on the actual event can be stressful. So, how are you feeling? Not too bad. Although, I didn't eat anything until about seven o'clock last night. But it's all good. It was a great day. We had a huge crowd, much larger than we were anticipating and we were anticipating a lot of folks. I was just thrilled. And everybody we spoke to just loved it and had a great time. It's got to be a bit of a relief, right? I mean, if it's anything like doing television news, you work all day, and then you get those couple of minutes on air. These are your two days to shine. You're shining, man. This is awesome. Thanks, man. I really appreciate that. You know, we had some great tickets yesterday. The governor was out. Just had a great time. Senator Mike Lee was out. We just had several folks out visiting and everybody just really enjoyed it. And the crowds were just cheering all day. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. I just imagined you talked about the crowd was larger than you anticipated. And I'm looking out outside our broadcast position. I'm like, that seems really fool already. I just imagined that guy out at the gate with a clicker, right? And is that guy tired? Yes. He's got to be tired. The turnstiles gear. Yeah, yeah. I wish we could click him in. There's just too many people that's too fast. But we have ways to measure it and we've been measuring it every hour or so. We take photos and look at the grid and that's kind of how we get our destination and where we're at and what we're doing. So it's been awesome. So is there any guesstimates you'd like to share on day one attendance? My feel was about 300 yesterday. My goodness. That's incredible. I mean, that transitions into this is not... This is not an Air Force event. It's an Air Force event, but this really is a community event. Oh, absolutely. It's all about the community. It's the Air Force saying, come in and let us show you what we do. And it's for the community. You're exactly right. And that's what we wanted. And we knew after the COVID spell that there was going to be a lot of interest and it was gigantic. We're expecting the same thing today. Yeah. So we've mentioned the visitors from out of state coming a long ways just to come to this air show. What kind of impact does having this show here at Hill have on the surrounding communities economically? Well, it's gigantic as we talked yesterday. I mean, you know, we fill hotels. People come and stay here for three or four days. They go down to visit the Big Five after they do the air show that's free. So it impacts the state greatly over a week or so because they're buying food. They're visiting the dinosaur park or lagoon and as well as the big national parks. And they come out to the air show as well. I have people in California that call and say, what are your dates? Because we plan our vacation around your dates. Wow. Well, when KSL asked me to do this, asked if I was available to do this, my first answer was yes, please. And then my second thing I said was, listen, I'd like it a lot. But here's what I know about airplanes. That one's red and noisy. As somebody who can speak with a certain amount of authority, what can folks who come out today or are watching here expect to see? Yeah, we have all things to see from World War II aircraft all the way up to the modern F-35s. We have P-51s, F-18s, F-15s, L-39s, all military aircraft at some place in time as well as what we call affectionately flip floppers. And those are the guys you were just seeing. So Bill Stein and Rob Holland, our local guy, Brad Werson from Logan. They're the ones that go up and do all the fun stuff over and do the flat spin. So we have everything for everybody. And let's not forget about the fire truck or the jet truck, excuse me, which you'll see here shortly this morning with a little teaser which will really light up your morning. Yeah, if I remember correctly, we were considering changing our broadcast location. And one of our cameraman actually said, I was fighting the fight-or-flight syndrome on whether I should bail out of my broadcast position. But like a good airman, he stayed. That's how it should be. Great job, Sergeant Harris. But, you know, with all the airplanes, yesterday I saw the Yak-55, I guess they called it the Yak-1-10. I was curious, is there just one pilot in there, or are there actually two? Yes, Jeff Borman designed that airplane with the buddy of his. You know, the theory is it was at a bar on a napkin, but I won't quote to that. But they came up with this idea. Jeff used to fly the Jack Lynx biplane. It was called the Sasquatch. And it was a prop plane that they had mounted a jet to. And he said, well, why don't we take two planes and put them together with two props and a jet underneath it. And they built it and made it work. And it is the most incredible airplane you've ever seen in the sky. The paint schemes are completely different. Yet they're stuck together. When he's coming at you, it's just a normal prop sound. And then he kicks it on the jet and does one of these. And you're like, that's impossible. But that's what it is. And those are the things we love about air shows. It was so cool. It was like the Yak 55. Oh, let's just call it the Yak 110. You know, 55 times two, it makes a lot of sense. It also fits on a bar napkin. What is it about Hill? What is it about this show in Hill Air Force Base in particular that brings out 300, you say, approximately yesterday? No, it's a couple of things. And here comes the truck that we talked about. It's a couple of things. We're centrally located in the West. So we could pull from an eight state area because we're easy to get to. And then secondly, we've built this up over the years and people have come to expect a bigger and better show. And we hire the best pilots we can get and we've built a reputation. And that's really what makes the draw. People know what we're going to have. They want to come see the best. And it's easy to get here. Yeah, and speaking of Shockwave, there it goes. And just so you know, that's three jet engines, 36,000 pounds of horse power. Yeah, yeah. We'll get some wings on that thing. Let's go. Trust me, you would take off if you put wings on it. That thing is something else. Chris is a great driver and has a great time with it. Yeah, and then apparently the world record of like 376. Yeah, his dad's been in the business for many, many years. Oh, man. You've been doing this for a while now. What are some of your favorite acts? Oh, I have several. I mean, it goes every year. It changes a little bit because the acts change. Yeah, right. You know, I do like the Yak-110. Bill Stein, Rob Hollander, very good friends. I love the F-35. It's just such an incredible aircraft that we get to see. Quiet, we're trying to do TV. Quiet. And then, and then God makes you smile and laugh. So, I mean, I just love it all. The history lesson of it is, I mean, there's a, there's a whole show. There's all kinds of cool new aircraft doing stuff and what have you. But there's a history lesson just sitting on the tarmac here. Oh, no question. No question. You get to see everything, like I said, from train, L-39s. You know, we have the Vampire, which is a Canadian fighter plane. We have somebody that's flying here, Jerry Conley, great guy. You know, then we got the F-18 sitting right out here that we all saw in the movie a couple of weeks ago. So, it's just a great cross. If you don't like airplanes, there's still a ton of other things to do. We've got Stem City. We've got food. We've got entertainment. It's just a great day. And it's all free. Yeah. And you mentioned Stem City. And we're going to talk to Allison Surgeon here. There's a ton to do when you're not looking at the sky. Absolutely. And that's the idea, is to build an event, a production, that you can come and enjoy everything. It's not just about the planes. Yeah. And it's a, it's a, it's a little bit. It is. It's a deep breath. That's not foggy. It's a fog. It's a poke fog. But, but, you know, isn't that the beauty of this air show? And I'm sure this is why you do it. I mean, I would think it's the bringing the community to share this. It's the kids. You know, the Air Force is all, they do air shows one for one reason and it's for recruiting. And we all know that. But it's also to let the veterans that are out here in history and come in as they say and show them what happens out here at Hill Air Force Base. Are there touching moments? You mentioned the kids. You mentioned veterans as you've been doing this as long as you have. Are there touching moments? Every air show, every air show. We had, we had brand new recruits put their hand up and say they wanted to join the Air Force yesterday. That could be better than that. Because that's what this is about. So, yeah. Yeah. And so I guess, I guess the last thing for you is really like, I think you better enjoy today because I feel like you're going to be very busy tomorrow. Yeah, very much so. And we crank it back up for the next two years and 24, look out, here we come. Because I think a lot of people don't know air shows really go on that two year cycle. You can't just put an air show together. Not one of this size. There's some smaller venues that can do an every year show. But this size, it takes two years to plan and put all this together. Welcome back. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Good seeing you, Matt. So Kevin Ireland, the Utah Air Show Foundation director, a huge, huge reason why this air show exists. And Teefin Hill, really, thanks for his partnership. So, lots to see as Matt, you get a great look at the crowd already starting to file in. We got the heat up here at the booth, some pyrotechnics. Yes, we do. We've had some airplanes in the air. It's rocking and rolling already. I mean, I don't know how long it's been since you've been at Hill, but how you feel? I'm feeling great. I'm currently looking at this thing, which, as I afore mentioned, I wish I was more of an aviator. I feel I recognize that one from Sonic the Hedgehog. But I mean, when these planes are able to do the maneuvers, they're able to pull in the air. It's a lot different than the 727. Most of us have the experience of going in, you know? Yeah. And so, we're really lucky to talk to Kevin Ireland and him and his team do a lot of work with the Hill team to put this air show together. And so now, we talked about Stim City. So joining us now, Miss Allison Sturgeon, an electrical engineer who's worked here at Hill for several years in support of outreach for K-12 Stim programs. And you've really supported thousands, really, of events with tens of thousands of volunteer hours. Just amazing to reach thousands of students over the area. So Allison, welcome back. You were with us yesterday, day two. How was the crowd at Stim City yesterday? Oh, the crowd was great. Huge. Just what we expected. And this morning, it started even earlier. So we're in great shape. The joke, the insult of children is, oh, you're not a rocket scientist. You guys are rocket scientists. That's what you guys are doing out here. Well, there are some that are. I won't claim that, but there are some, yes. What is it about science, technology, engineering, and math that goes hand in hand with a branch of the military? Okay. Well, the Air Force is very technological. And everything that we do, as you can imagine, what it takes for those planes to fly, it's pretty remarkable. The brand new F-35 that we get to work on right here, we had the first squadron, which is all very exciting, has hundreds and hundreds of people working on it continually with the software, which is a huge part of that plane. Right. They're computers. Yeah, they are. Computer with wings is what we nickname it. So we have hundreds of people doing software, and then of course there's always lots of electronics. And me being an electrical engineer, I love that part of it. So just the capability of that plane and everything that we do. We work on satellites and, like you said, rockets and all the planes here. And even what you consider an old plane, we're constantly updating it. And there's great software on all of those things. So we need lots of kids to hopefully get excited about STEM and see what a great career a STEM career could be. And yesterday we had Brigadier General Richard Gibbs, the commander at the Air Logistics Complex, Don Jessen as well from the ALC. And they talked about, Don in specific, talked about how they're always looking to bring on, you know, STEM specific type jobs like, you know, software engineer, those kind of jobs that you talked about. And so can you kind of talk about how what you do here at Hill Air Force Base kind of feeds into what the mission here at Hill demands, you know, and ultimately what the Air Force needs to fly, fight and win. Yeah, so we're the early recruiting piece, I guess, so to speak. But we're just trying to get as many kids as we can interested because there's just a natural decline in how many kids actually go into a STEM career. But we work really hard to let them know the fun part of it and then what they can do for the Air Force or even for our contractors that support the Air Force, all of that's important. And so we're trying to support science fairs and robotics teams going in to give career presentations, hands-on STEM demos, getting, we do lots of tours bringing students here. We have a very large program called Star Base where we bring students in at fifth grade, which is a really pivotal year where they're going to start kind of deciding what they're going to do once they get to junior high and high school. So bring them in, they get five full school days to be on base. They get all kinds of hands-on activities. We give them a tour. And then they get to meet, you know, see what a real engineer and scientist looks like that we're not that strange. And they can see that it really could be a great career. And we have another program called Legacy that is an actual true STEM pipeline. So we start students at age 11. They come back every year and we keep them all the way through college graduation in a STEM career. And they get to work on base for eight weeks, get real world experience, real hands-on experience. And we're just, they're really excited to come back year after year. In fact, we had 100% of our students from last year come back this year. So that just tells us that I guess what we're doing is working. If I'm a middle schooler or a high schooler and I want to be you one day, what class do I pay extra attention in? Physics? Calculus? Electrical engineering? I don't know if they have electrical engineering classes. Well, there are a lot of schools now that do have some engineering classes. The opportunity is now compared to when I went to school or just off the charts. There's so many concurrent enrollment classes so that students can take and get college credit. But yeah, get those math classes, physics, chemistry, any of that stuff that you can get under your belt. There's lots of computer science classes now as well in high school. And what I love is I tell them, go take it, try it, you might like it. But don't say no before you've tried it because you don't know what you don't know. And so it's really important to at least get the flavor of what it is before you say no. Yeah, so I'm curious, you mentioned the fifth graders and they come out to the base and spend really a whole week out here. But what are the skill sets that they're really amazed? Is there some aha moments during those weeks? I'm just curious, my son's a seventh grader and it was kind of a similar experience. I remember him coming home every day and he just had these aha moments. You could see all of a sudden what I'm interested in. So I'm just curious, what are some things through your programs that you can see the light go on? Yes, well one thing that's really fun is we talk about the three principles that noon physics and they get to actually do it and see force equals mass times acceleration. It's not just this little thing on the board, they actually put it into practice and they get to shoot balls of different mass and see do kinds of experiments on their acceleration and we shoot rockets and they get to do robotics. I'd say those are probably some of the favorites. And then another one is they do an egg and instead of the traditional egg drop we actually put it on a space shuttle and they're flying it they have to do a crash landing and they get all these constraints and things that they can try to build something to keep their egg from breaking. And we go through the engineering design process there's eight steps of the engineering design process that they go through to design this constraint for their egg and that's definitely one of the favorite ones. The crashing part sounds easy enough. Yes, that part is. You mentioned there's fewer kids you've seen a decline in maybe engineering STEM type skills in our interest in it. Is there anything that leads you to the expire tonight? Oh, yes, definitely. A lot of the programs that I've worked on for years found a way to be virtual. So I do a lot of work with junior achievement for one thing that's very active in Utah and May on the fly really quickly came up with a virtual career fair and in reality now that reaches the entire state of Utah where before their fair would only pretty much hit the wasatch front so it's been wonderful that we there are a lot of good things that have come out but we've found ways to do things virtually that now can reach the entire state rather than just local so there have been some great things come out of it. Will you say entire state? One of the things I've noticed in my job with things like being able to zoom interviews is now all of a sudden if the experts in DC I don't need to hop on an airplane to fly to DC are you now a national program? Well, not really Not yet. If I was more than one person doing my job I'm always telling my supervisor I could keep ten people busy with what I could do and what I want to do but it is just pretty much me getting everything organized so if we can just try to keep what we've got going but it would be great if we could do that but I do interface with the Air Force STEM program located out of Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio so we're very integrated we get resources from them we learn from each other with the 40 other bases that are doing something similar and so in that way we are definitely a national program. So last question before we let you go how can people learn more about some of your programs if they want to get involved? Well, tell your teachers because we go out and support teachers mostly. So if the teachers contact the public affairs at Hill Air Force Base they can get that information to me and we can come out and support your schools. That's probably our biggest thing that we do. Awesome and so we have STEM City happening all day long so you guys will be here all day long so if you're coming out to the air show take the kiddos you got some AC I've been told and where are you located? We are on the north end of the flight line in fire station one it's got big bay doors it's easy to spot we've got a few exhibits outside as well but don't forget to come see the Mars Rover for sure. All right, well Allison thank you so much for your time and we really appreciate what you do for the community and here at Hill. Well thank you. All right so let's go ahead and take a look at what you might be able to see at STEM City if you stop by today. Okay, I think we're just going to keep it. Oh here we go. These are bombs. History passes down. Was this one a bad guy one? Teaching Briley and her brothers and cousins what came before them. It was used in the 1950s and how these mammoth machines I just like how it's made. I just think it's really cool to see it like up close. The word engaging is what we're always looking for to get students interested in STEM. Allison Sturgeon STEM program manager at Hill Air Force Space explains how science, technology, engineering and math is a huge focus for the Hill Aerospace Museum. And I think it's really cool. Families can check out STEM City at the air show a huge hands-on display of booths and activities at the base and museum. 35 different companies or organizations come bring STEM exhibits and our highlight is the NASA rover so we're going to have a full scale model of perseverance as well as wind tunnels and tornado simulators robotics all kinds of activities. Seeing these planes in action or on display is I think it's really cool as Briley would say but learning the technology and engineering behind them this is where a lot of people started inspiring someone like me wanted to be like a person who wanted to like build airplanes and stuff they, um, I could like know how they worked and how they flew and how the engine worked. It helps if they have a why why should I learn math, why should I learn science and if they can come and see those things in action I think it's really beneficial. Passing down history it was the first one ever made. Well bringing up the future of Florence Steinbrecher KSL 5 News Alright now this is pretty cool. New to STEM Cities lineup this year is NASA's Roving with Perseverance exhibit features full size model of the agency's Mars Perseverance rover and history making ingenuity helicopter Perseverance is currently collecting and storing Martian rock samples for a potential return to earth for further analysis here to talk more about that is Mr. Brian Clement with NASA a NASA engineer Thanks. Welcome to Utah. Thank you. Tell me a little bit about your exhibit. So we have the Mars Perseverance rover model in the exhibit and we also have a model of the ingenuity helicopter and so the Perseverance rover is currently as you said collecting samples on Mars in a place we call Jezero crater and we're collecting those samples for eventual potential return to here on earth so that we can see the full suite of our scientific capabilities and really understand what's in those samples from a perspective of habitability, signs of life and understanding the history of our solar system and Mars specifically. Well so I gotta ask I mean that sounds really cool but I'm curious tell us a little bit about yourself and how you ended up you know working on things about Mars. Right. Driving around the car on Mars. Yeah. That's the best job I've ever had. Yes. I mean it seems pretty cool. It is. I feel really lucky first of all. So by training I am an environmental microbiologist and I work in the space called planetary protection. So my full title is the Mars sample return program planetary protection systems engineer. There'll be a test on that later. There's one thing the government's good at. It's long titles. Yeah and so you know where my expertise comes in is that when we go out to other planets we want to make sure that our spacecraft are clean and we don't deliver the things we're trying to detect. It would make no sense to detect earth life on another planet. So we want to protect our science capabilities and when we return samples we also want to make sure that we're safely containing everything. Absolutely certain that what is in there is what we're analyzing. So what came from Mars is what we're analyzing. That sounds complicated. How do you do that? I would think anything on the outside I would think as a layman would burn off as I go through the atmosphere having seen enough movies about things burning off in the atmosphere but it sounds complicated. The Mars sample return program that Perseverance is really the first step in. So Perseverance is the first step in what we call the Mars sample return campaign and Perseverance is sampling a Jezero crater in the delta where we think you know right now we're in the delta where we think we have some really interesting samples to collect and those samples up to 30 of them will come back in tubes like this will bring like 30 of these tubes back in this very complicated scheme where we put the samples into orbit we collect them in orbit around Mars bring them back to Earth and then the large spacecraft that brings them back to Earth will drop off a small spacecraft that will come through the atmosphere and experience the high heat of reentry but the samples themselves will be in a container within a container inside that spacecraft so they'll be well protected. That doesn't sound complicated. No, not at all. Am I allowed to touch this? So I don't know if we're able to get back to that two shot here but so this tube how does this go into the surface of Mars I presume or the atmosphere? So what that is is a tube that gets installed in the drill bit and the drill bit is a coring drill bit and so you see how it's open on one end there and that allows the core to enter the tube as the drill bit is proceeding down into the rock that it's drilling into. So this looks there and then it drills down and just somehow it'll seal off on the bottom so the sample size is only is that big? Yeah, it's roughly the size of a Sharpie marker. What are you able to do with that? We're able to do a lot. So when we bring the samples back to Earth we're really going to be able to apply the full suite of our scientific capabilities and as science has progressed since the last time we brought back samples from a distant place which was first done on the Moon. We've advanced science where you only need a few grains of rock really to make tremendous discoveries and so the miniature size of the samples is actually a benefit because we can get a diverse set of samples and bring them all the way back to Earth. I'll hand this back to you we have a full shot on you. There's a what have you discovered so far? What do you hope? Better question. Predict the future. Use your crystal ball. I know you're a scientist. You're not supposed to guess but use your crystal ball. When this one comes back what are we going to learn do you think? I think we'll learn a tremendous amount about the organic material that we've been detecting. Organics are essentially the building box of life and we know that we've seen organics come back on meteorites from Mars so when Mars gets hit with something it throws things into space and some of those arrive here on Earth as meteorites and so we've seen the organics now we want to get a sample that comes from a place that we know so we carefully created and collected these samples we'll learn a lot about what really makes up those organics in their natural habitat on Mars. I wanted to switch gears because I saw in the intro for you that it talks about the Ingenuity helicopter I want to know a little bit more how did it make history? Ingenuity made history by being the first spacecraft to perform power flight on another planet and Ingenuity had a tremendous technology demonstration mission it was really designed to demonstrate a capability teach us about how to perform power flight and it's become just a sensation in terms of providing information to us. We recently collected a series of pictures that help inform us for future Mars missions because we're able to take pictures of the parachute and the back shell or the part of the capsule that the Perseverance rover landed or came through the atmosphere and yourself you can go online and look at those pictures they're tremendous it just changes everything being able to fly over something take a picture you can guide the rover you can learn something about something you don't want to approach too closely with the rover it's a really novel and game changing capability I think for the future. So bringing it back to the air show here at Hill Air Force Base going on for the rest of the day if I come out you have demonstrations that we really hope to experience. Oh they come by and they can take a look at the rover most people that come by and look at the rover they see it for the first time they go it's so big and yeah 2,200 pounds it's a big vehicle put it 2,200 put that in terms of my minivan it that's about depending on the minivan about one-third of your minivan one-third to one-half of your minivan in size takes a lot of work to land something big on Mars and then we've also got the Ingenuity helicopter model so you can see that too and understand wow how small it is how light it is and then how big the blades are because Mars atmosphere is only one percent of ours so there's just not that much to work with there right you really got to beat the ground beat the air oh well we really appreciate you stopping by so you guys will be at Stim City all day long all day long people can come by we've got a ton of NASA stickers out there to give out a bunch of us that can answer a bunch of questions and sharing everybody's excitement and you mentioned a website but where can people go to find out a little bit more about these projects yeah you can find all of the information I'm talking about at mars.nasa.gov and remember that all the pictures we take come down and they're in the public record so you can spend days and days looking at all the neat things that we've done out there alright well Brian Clement from NASA talking about Mars Perseverance Rover we appreciate your time so pretty cool stuff right I'm geeking out here a little bit so as you can see here the crowd is absolutely filling in here at Hill Air Force Base it's cool it's breezy it's a lovely day out here if you were out here yesterday you were sweltering today it's going to get sweltering but it's not quite that sweltering just yet it's lovely on the tarmac here as we've seen a couple of really kind of amazing demonstrations at this point of what airplanes unlike the commercial ones we're all used to flying on can actually do yeah so tons to see and do get out to Stem City this event is free to the public I think we really haven't mentioned that but I think that's important to know it keeps them banged for your buck listen as a Utah Utah's favorite four letter word free we love free yeah come on out it's an amazing show and speaking of things that airplanes can do they're not supposed to do sir I look like a major jink probably with your last name if you would please sir it's Impellezeria I go by Primo so that's probably easy we'll go with Primo alright let's go with Primo so the Thunderbirds based out of Nellis Air Force based in Nevada the headline act here at the Warriors over the Wasatch air show the Thunderbirds perform for people all around the world displaying the pride precision and professionalism of the United States Air Force at air shows flyovers they're really exciting and inspiring crowds and showcasing the elite skills that every pilot has to possess and obviously demonstrate the incredible capabilities of the Air Force's multi-role fighter the F-16 fighting Falcon so Primo number eight tell us what you do for the Thunderbirds yeah Dan so I'm the advanced pilot and narrator which is honestly the greatest position ever on the team but I'm biased so but what I do so I'm the advanced pilot what that means is usually the team deploys on a Thursday I will deploy with my crew chief on Wednesday so he'll be flying with me in the back seat we will arrive and between myself and him I do all the air show coordination all the air shows set up and I get the air field ready for the teams arrival on Thursday and then during the actual show I'm the hype man so you get to hear me on the mic so I'm the narrator from the show I get to control people's emotions with the show and it's awesome and then outside of that the best part of the job is I get to do the hometown hero flights so myself in Thunderbirds 7 who you talked to yesterday we get to do those flights which are absolutely incredible so I believe you guys flew a couple Olympians the other day is that correct we did so Justin and Ashley Justin Schoenfeld and Ashley Caldwell we actually met them on Indy and they're the gold medalists out in China for the last Winter Olympics aerial freestyle skiing event and they killed it they're just incredible human beings what they do on a day to day basis kind of mirrors what we do you know both professional both high performing people and we had a blast high stress I would imagine too what is it like to fly one of these airplanes it's greatest feeling in the world I grew up always wanting to fly you know my dad was in the Air Force for about 10 years he flew C-130s and then he's been in aviation his whole life too he just retired from Delta so I've been around aviation which got me into wanting to be in the military wanting to fly the military is honestly the best flying you could do in the world and then flying the F-16 right behind us again biased but the greatest fighter jet the Air Force has the offer we fly the block C-2s so it's a Pratt windy motor big engine big engine 29,000 pounds of thrust so you can see how small the F-16 ends with that big motor we can pretty much accelerate going straight up if you guys are NASCAR fans or indie fans that's more thrust than the entire Daytona 500 combined and one of those F-16s just one just one so a little stronger than my minivan just a little bit couple more horsepower so can you tell us a little bit about the show itself and what folks who either are going to watch our line or hopefully are coming on out to the base to see in person what are they going to see today and can you tell us a little bit about what's behind it yeah so we fly C-330 today so please come on out we're excited to see everybody yesterday we had an incredible turn out but the last time we were here was in 2018 and a lot has changed since 2018 so 2020 we took that year obviously all the airshows were cancelled for COVID we were doing the America strong mission so flying over all the hospitals giving back to the hard working men and women of the hospitals but we took that year and redesigned our entire show so between working with our team members working with some people in Disney we mirrored the show off of if you think about a Disney kind of firework display we kind of mirrored it off that so the show has a purpose there's a theme to the show it tells a story between the whole about 36 minutes between the music the narration and the actual maneuvers so if you haven't seen us since 2018 you're in for a surprise we added a couple more sneak passes so keep your head on the swivel all I saw was just the buzz in the crowd yesterday I can't remember it was one of the two passes but it was like a noticeable the entire crowd just changed its demeanor it was really awesome to see oh yeah you know the show starts off with a bang so we start off you know high intensity music with the clover loop opener then we bring people down a little bit we have some false finales and then we end it with the big old grand finale so we're super excited to be here very cool obviously it takes a team to pull off your mission talk a little bit about the makeup of the team some of the unique aspects of your team absolutely so we have about 140 of the greatest enlisted members in your united states air force 140 all pilots or nope so we have 12 officers on the team 1 through 8 are pilots and then 7 through 12 are what we call support officers and within those 12 officers they're in charge of the 140 enlisted members on the team and the team spans between 28 different AFSC so 28 different career fields make up the Thunderbirds so you can think of us essentially as a mini wing at Nellis Air Force Base with number one being the commander leader of the team and obviously you know one of the big buzzes right now in the air force and it's really you know to accelerate change but we talk about multi capable airmen you guys are like the epitome of the multi capable airmen it seems we are so everybody on the team nobody does just one job everybody does everybody else's job and you have to do that when we're deploying so this year we're at 32 separate show sites we have 69 shows it's our 69th year of the Thunderbirds so picking up and moving the team of 70 people every week each individual person has to do more than just their job description and you know the air force talks about the ace concept and the Thunderbirds epitomize the ace concept within the air force and really military as a whole what's the coolest thing about flying what is the coolest thing about flying a Thunderbird you know I grew up I remember going to the air shows as a kid so I'm from Cincinnati Ohio the Dayton air shows big air show every other year to either be the Thunderbirds blue angels just on and off it's awesome being able to represent not only this brand you know the Thunderbirds but also this brand so being able to be the ambassador in blue represent America being able to showcase the pride precision and professionalism not only the air force not only the Thunderbirds but the United States as a whole it's just awesome being an ambassador yeah air forces ambassadors in blue but I gotta imagine being in such a elite organization and obviously you know the best of the best from around the air force you guys got some like secret cool handshakes or you know I see the party it looks like when the planes take it off that's right you can generally see the passion that you guys all have for what you do and it's beautiful but like seriously you got a secret handshake like can you can you give us a little demo or something we have fun so every pilot if you see him taxiing out every pilot develops we call it the gang sign so every pilot develops their gang sign with their crew chief so each pilot has a DCC and an ADCC that are in charge of you know essentially you see how good those just look out there it's the hard work of the maintainers on a day to day basis and yeah I got one so mine starts out the eight loads so you know starts out like that and then I chop everything and then so I used to be in Japan so I was the pack FF 16 demo pilot out in Japan so I gotta give a bow to all my you know all my Japanese fans and just traveled around the Pacific and then you know to the Delta burst so me and Matt have some life goals today we're gonna come up with like a secret PA handshake I don't know we're gonna learn to fly up under breath we'll figure that out but you know we'll close out on this you know obviously air shows you know inspire the next generation of airmen and guardians it's an air and space show but you know how important is that for the Air Force that mission for you guys you know our mission recruit retain inspire the inspiration piece is really why we do what we do you know we like to you'll hear Thunderbird one say this all the time and the team is stands for a beacon of excellence and the name of service is something greater than yourself and that's what we try to present everywhere we go throughout the country and really the world and if we could just get you know if just one person in this crowd inspires to be greater or to get back to service something greater than themselves than themselves then you know we've accomplished our mission it only takes one person and then that one person will do something great and then people see it it's infectious well Primo we certainly appreciate your time I know you're a busy man you got a lot to prepare for big headline at the Thunderbird you see some more aircraft in the sky looks like an F-22 and an A-10 but let's learn a little bit more I know it's not the F-16 but let's look at this F-22 package as you take a look at the F-22 flying across the skies a beautiful day the wind is starting to die down it's actually pretty nice out here that how cool a job does Primo have like really I mean he doesn't get to sit here and talk in a microphone it's okay I mean but really cool you can see the love of aviation that these guys have and they're just so good you see the A-10 Thunderbolt 2 I think they call that the army's best friend it's a position to ground to support but let's go ahead and pitch to the Airbus and learn more eventually it also became a great dogfight aircraft in fact the highest scoring ace in the European theater was Francis Gabi Gubreski from Oil City, Pennsylvania of the many aircraft that he flew he did get aerial victories in the P-47 Thunderbolt Roman numeral 1 so in the tradition Fairchild Republic Long Island, New York they renamed the aircraft and gave it a Roman numeral 2 based on the great history we see that in a number of aircraft including the F-35 a lightning Roman numeral 2 paying tribute to the piston powered propellant driven aircraft of World War 2 and an air show body by the name of Buzz Lynch as the F-22 gives you a little profile of photo op and north up against the Wasatch Mountains up into the blue is the weather days that we long for each and every weekend now in its environment low to your left it is the HN Thunderbolt 2 single pilot environment the pilot sits in what they call a titanium bathtub flying low is its environment a lucky shot from an enemy rifleman on the ground could ruin the pilot's day close the pilot his avionics all of his vital equipment in that titanium bathtub to protect the pilot one of the vertical rudders could be shot away and get the pilot home one of the engines could be destroyed and shot away and shut down and the other engine will get the pilot home in fact an actual story in the combat arena did take ahead from a ground based artillery shot out the rudder and one of the engines that pilot went to manual reversion and flew the airplane back to the base in the Middle East with one engine and one rudder the aircraft was repaired several days later was back out in combat that pilot had a call sign given to the pilot at the squadron when they all started out as young lieutenants call sign was KC turned out to that meant killer chick yes it was a female pilot she has since retired from the air force she is out on the speaking tour now telling about the exploits and the 810 Thunderbolt 2 a great testament to the designers builders 810 vs. A9 competition was hands down going to be the winner of the 810 for many different reasons including the fact that the airplane sits high off the ground when you're loading those hardpoints underneath the belly and the wings of the 810 Thunderbolt 2 the installers can stand up underneath the wing they can bring up the bombs and rockets and attach them to the bottom of the wing on a scissors device they don't have to lay on their back in an uncomfortable position to attach those that was even part of the reason the 810 won the competition over the A9 so both aircraft now have touched down to this testament to the men and women of this facility here in Ogden who keep them flying the folks on the ground and the folks in the air each and every day to all of you dedicated professionals to all you great professionals, military people and civilian people ladies and gentlemen at this show will you join me in giving them a big round of applause for keeping our nation safe keeping our pilots safe in a very professional way and understand this we love you thank you so much now we took you into the world of training with the Watson brothers flying their twin yellow Thunder aircraft in the air let's go again now to a commonwealth country the united kingdom you know towards the end of world war 2 jets were being introduced the jet engine came out it was quite unreliable quite often they exploded on an aircraft they burned a lot of fuel they were unreliable but it was going to be the beginning of the jet era so while the enemy had jets that devastated our allies in world war 2 the united states before the end of the war although it is only written in certain places did have the Lockheed P-80 shooting star involved in world war 2 in Italy it has been written by robert door in a book called fighting hitlers jets an armed P-80 shooting star was on a mission and it was kind of written by robert door that it was a clandestine series of missions but the british were very busy as well they were developing their first jet and i've got to give credit to the british they hit a home run it will tell you about that airplane about pilot who is flying that airplane he is a civilian we look at the a-10 thunderbolt 2 sitting high up the ground with the twin rudders twin engines on the back and the v-tail f-22 alright low into your left jerry connelly is on the takeoff roll he is sponsored by u of x great solutions for your 2020 transponder needs ultimate aviation gulf coast avionics and concord batteries now low into your left look at the unusual design if you remember the p-38 lightning of world war 2 fame it had a boxed tail and you'll see that same type of tailcoat tail design that is what are you trying to say tail design on this airplane now it is a pure jet of the many things the british thought about and they thought about a lot of things if they used balsa wood and press plywood for the nose cone remember strategic metals were very much sought after during world war 2 so they used wood where they could now the tail cone is aerodynamic they wanted this to be a fast early jet so they shaped it in the shape of an egg which mother nature has made a perfect streamline object that's just the truth so it is egg shape now it could be a trainer it could be a solo aircraft could be a two place could be an attack aircraft could be an aircraft carrier aircraft and a high altitude reconnaissance aircraft in fact it was all those things so let's go back to the fact that it was 1945 when they started to fly the aircraft and the war was ending but they knew we were going into the jet age so several things they did well I told you about the unreliable jet engine this one has a goblin engine and it has 3500 pounds of thrust what racers do when they race cars is to have a very short exhaust stack and that keeps the horse power from being bled by exhaust pipes so the tail comb of the jet engine is extremely short now you look at the box tail and you say okay now the jet blast from that jet engine which is quite severe is going to buff at that tail here's what the British did they raised the tail they gave it an angle from its angle point back to that box so that the jet blast did not touch any of the components of that box tail that was another ingenious method so they kept the horse they kept the thrust up they didn't waste thrust with the long tailpipe they had the structure in the back they had aerodynamics it was light in weight because they used wood wherever they could just as they did with their de Havilland mosquito aircraft right over our left shoulder there is the design I want to tell you about introduction of the East Fortress U Florida a United States Air Force veteran an aerospace engineer 42 years of flying experience typed in this jet and many other jet fighters and you know about his sponsors and you know this goes back to the early days of jets okay Jerry jet Conley hi and to your right more about the aircraft even though its design goes back to after World War 2 1945 there is a jet class of racing at the Reno National Championship air races held in Reno the second week of September every year and in the jet class an aircraft like this one not this one won the gold couple years of years so it is still in competition with aircraft like the Iskra like the L 29 like the L 39 and other straight wing jet aircraft brought home the gold now let's go on the high altitude aircraft putting another set of larger wings on this aircraft they broke a record in terms of altitude for aerial recon in 1948 they flew one of these aircraft with the high altitude wings up and recorded a 4,000 feet of altitude that was an amazing thing to do they have a number of firsts with this aircraft it was all right we're back here at broadcast central Dan Hawkins alongside Matt Gappard from KSL 5 and we are absolutely delighted now to be joined by Major Kristen Colesign Beowulf the commander and the F 35A lightning demonstration pilot ma'am how are you good good so yesterday picture perfect conditions to fly and in front of a fabulous home crowd what did you think of the crowd yesterday that was awesome just to walk through the people and see all the support to recognize us and our uniforms point out hey that's our F 35 team just the support when we land and get out of the airplane everybody is excited to finally see us and get a front row seat for our performance so it was awesome to see you today we've talked a lot this morning about STEM and the importance of STEM to the Air Force and I know that you're an engineering graduate can you tell us a little bit about your background and how STEM has played a major part in getting you to where you're at in this point of your Air Force life sure I was always interested in math and science as a kid so being a chemical engineer in college I actually enjoyed pursuing but the message we like to share is whatever your kid is showing interest in as a young person just foster that and get them excited about that whether it's STEM, whether it's the arts whatever you can be any degree and be a pilot in the Air Force which is something cool that we try to tell people but absolutely having that engineering background has helped just think critically and be a pilot in the Air Force so I loved it what is it like the F-35 this is the newest the best of the best the greatest the Air Force has at this point is that correct what is it like to fly it I mean it's super lucky right so we talked about it yesterday I fly these airplanes these two out here we'll probably have less than 300 hours on them total I mean they came off the factory line less than two years ago and they're years newer than my car so you get in and they're all just pick and span really clean you know work phenomenally so I feel lucky to fly the newest one but it means like the tactics and when we take these things to combat they perform like you tip the spear you know they're night one this is who we're going to call on so it's amazing yesterday we talked with Colonel Andrew Lee he's the 388th the fighter wing commander and one of the things that he talked about and I think we might have touched on it yesterday but we didn't really talk about it a lot he said you know that you're an instructor pilot when you're not in show season so you know for those that see you in the sky and they think that's all you do can you kind of maybe talk a little bit about what you actually do operationally for the Air Force? Yeah so we're obviously out here at air shows and we travel around and that's our full-time job on the demo team but it's a very very small piece of what goes on at Hill Air Force Base we've got 78 tails and about 100 pilots out here that are practicing combat skills and you know even deployed today as we speak we've got a squadron gone so when we come back from a show kind of regroup or have some time off we'll teach young kids how to be flight leads or instructors and take them out there maybe on their first flight out here in Utah just to you know try to bring a piece of that mission to the combat mission when we're not doing air shows so it's a huge machine but they do it really well you hear a lot about G's as a civilian right they talk to us a lot about G's and the G forces this one can do 9 G's that's right without putting me in it please what does that feel like that due to you what kind of stress does that put you under yeah I'm not going to lie like 9 G's sucks no matter no matter what airplane you're in it feels a little bit different we're wearing all the gear to try to help combat that but you know it kind of becomes second nature once you've been in cockpits for 11 years now so the training is great but 9 G's is 9 G's and it's terrible you've got that 5 pound helmet on that now weighs 45 pounds you can't move your arms you've got all the stress on your upper shoulders and you've got that back but we're professionals and staying awake in the airplane but yeah you probably would enjoy if you don't enjoy 3 G's on a roller coaster you know I think people might not it kind of came up slightly yesterday too but like what is your post performance routine because I imagine it's kind of like professional athletes they played a game last night and they got to prepare because you got to perform again as you did yesterday so what do you do after performance knowing like on a 2 day air show that you got to fly again today yeah it's a marathon not a sprint right so we perform usually a rehearsal in 2 show days in a row sometimes we're about to go to Oshkosh which is over a week long and it's just fly every day you know fly your butt off so I mean you definitely try to stay hydrated eat well, work out if you can but our post flight routine is just we get to say hi to the people and then we go back and talk to the maintainers of hey how did the jet do talk to my safety pilot like how do the maneuvers look like we watch ground video to see like what you guys are seeing at show center might be very different than what I think I'm showing you guys so it's a lot of debrief and then just rest the relaxation to get ready for the next day yeah talk a bit about your team what kind of team does it take to put on the demo yeah obviously everybody sees 15 minutes the airplane they think oh that's awesome the pilot's amazing but it's really I have a team of 15 guys and girls behind me that make this airplane fly right so 10 of those are maintainers a variety of crew we have represented all by Hill Air Force Base active duty airmen so we've got crew chiefs who take care of the airplane like they think a basic car mechanic but now we're working on fighter engines we've got adionics that does all the computers and software and systems on the airplane and we've got weapons people who load bombs actually onto actual real airplanes and then we have air crew flight equipment that takes care of all that survival gear that I talked about my G suit my helmet and that sort of stuff so it takes hours of work beforehand you're here sometimes hours after I fly just to make sure that airplane is safe so they're a huge piece of the mission you know they're out there doing their our job is recruiting right getting people excited to fill my shoes one day so they're out there you know selling swag today for six hours just talking to the crowd so they're a huge piece of the mission we couldn't do without them yeah you talk about that the interaction with the crowd obviously showing the demonstration of the aircraft is one aspect and making sure the American population knows that we are ready to fly, bite, win but recruiting the next generation of airmen and guardians is also a really important aspect of what you guys do yeah I mean that is our mission recruit, retain, inspire the next generation to fill my shoes and we're dealing with you know different generations react differently and are inspired by different things so for us to get out there and be relatable so we try to hire you know a very diverse group of maintainers and airmen on the team just to say hey here's my story it's not the same as her story it's not the same as his story but you can do any of these things in the Air Force it doesn't have to be just be a pilot you know we've got all these mechanics chefs lawyers doctors you name it so that's our goal is to go out there and spread that to the people not just the airplane flying so as I've as a civilian hanging around in the last 20 years and being on various tarmacs and stuff one of the things that is striking about military is and the Air Force in particular and the aircraft is the precision of it all you must be precise in the air of course for obvious reasons but the precision of the crew to get you ready I remember I went on a tour as a Boy Scout back in the days and you know they were literally talking about no no these rivets won't do because they stick out in their strag and that causes and when you're going that fast and you're doing with that much precision you can't have anything in precise talk about that if you would please yeah obviously there's the pilot side right and everything's very scripted very altitude airspeed exact and we debriefed it to a nitpick it were you at show center how did this maneuver look but then the maintenance side as well they have you know millimeters of precision that they have to adhere to even things you know I go out there and I say no this looks great we're like absolutely not your fault not playing that today it's not safe so just to hear from their side you know their subject matter experts on the actual airplane you know I'm trying to handle emergencies that happen to an extent bring the airplane home safely but the way these guys can take apart a motor take it out of the airplane put it back in and unscrew a thousand rivets like that is just you know we're all precise in our very individual career fields and that's what makes the military special I think working with you know experts in every single career field and I think that could be a misnomer right we like we've talked about stem and like oh it's important if I want to be an F-35 pilot but like you know the teams like the Thunderbirds and like the F-35 demo team I think the fact that stem is such a big factor and even what are enlisted career field to I mean and obviously there's a lot more enlisted in the military than officers but can you maybe just you know from a broad perspective talk about you know the really important role that our airmen and NCOs play in making because you can't do what you do without them absolutely like I said there's one pilot team and there's 15 other people right and we take them on the road and they're doing all the legwork in the back shop so having those guys that we put a lot of burden on them more than we used to you know we used to have very specific career fields and maintenance broken out and that was all they did versus now we're taking like whole concept airmen we're teaching them almost everything on the airplane to be able to fix and do on the road so there's a lot on their shoulders and they are very good at you know by the manuals and doing everything to a T to make sure that's safe but they are way more experts on the engineering side than I am on the airplane even being an engineer myself so we rely on those skills to keep me safe in the air and honestly the whole fleet especially we're talking like combat systems that's very different than what we're doing to keep those pilots alive when they're going to war. What's the coolest thing about the F-35A? Man, I love it's just the latest and greatest fighter you know you've got laugh like a one foot by two foot touch screen that's the only display in the airplane yeah I need to test it now I feel outdated so one for gas prices and for coolness factor it's just the latest and greatest airplane and I think the cool part is you know about 11 partner nations right now have this airplane and so to go talk to the Italians Australians the Brits and say we're flying the same airplane we can talk the same tactics the same sensors and fly the same formations next to each other to know that they're training to the same things we're that much more lethal as a force to say hey we're all the same team here guys and we're flying the same airplane and that's pretty cool. Yeah I'd find those same weapon systems and the interoperability it brings to our combined partners around the world I mean absolutely critical to today's national you know security environment it's as dynamic as it's ever been and obviously the F-35 got probably one of the most visible symbols of that interoperability yeah absolutely so really cool stuff we know you're busy we know you got a lot of things on your plate so for the second day in a row you stop by so we really appreciate that so much but you know we'll leave you you know with this you know if there's a young person watching this and they want to grow up and be you one day what do they need to do? I just tell you know parents or kids just get in a cockpit you know get airborne get some air under your feet and see how you like it you know every flight's different I didn't have a lot of flight time growing up but I was exposed to that by dad being in the Air Force so get some flight time it's really expensive but there are scholarships out there to be able to do it whether you're interested in general aviation, military aviation there's so many paths these days and it's an amazing you know opportunity to get into whether it's an actual career or just a hobby yeah the Air Force Recruiting Service has programs like Aim High Flight Academy I mean just a lot of different ways now Civil Air Patrol is a great one to get flight hours so yeah that's a great point you probably learned on like a Cessna or something right this is slightly different I did like two flights in a Cessna that was strict military pilot training so hit the ground running a little different yeah all right so let's take a look and learn a little bit more about Major Kristen Bale Wolfson F-35 Demonstration Team