Dyess B-1 flies over Rose Bowl

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Aaron Hochman-Zimmerman
  • 7th Bomb Wing Protocol
In college football, where aerial attack is concerned, they never thought of the B-1; now they’ll never forget it.

The 28th Bomb Squadron’s pre-game flyover strikingly opened a Rose Bowl that will, likewise, not soon be forgotten.

The flyby itself was staged from Boeing facilities in Long Beach, Calif. The crew took off and began holding in the twilight over the San Gabriel Mountains with a view of the lighted Rose Bowl Stadium 10 miles to the south.

“On radar, the parking lot was jammed with cars. I didn’t see a spot anywhere,” joked Lt. Col. Roy Walker, the crew’s offensive systems officer.

When it was time to leave the marshal, the crew flew down the side of the San Gabriel’s ridgeline, down into the valley where the stadium sits.

Captain Kimerly Purdon, a 28th BS weapon system officer who created the flight plan for the fly-over crew, had one of the better views from her press box.

“This little shadow of a plane (was) sneaking down the ridgeline like a cat sneaking up on its prey,” Capt. Purdon said.

“It was 63 seconds from the decision point to the stadium. About 30 seconds after the push, they keyed the radio and I realized we were late, so I pushed the engine into full afterburner, to our max allowable speed, to arrive exactly on time,” said Maj. John Koss, the B-1 pilot, describing the action after leaving the holding pattern.

The crew was on time as they had planned, but there were many pieces of the show that had to be just right. Thirty seconds before show time, it was Capt. Brian Golden, a 28th BS pilot, who keyed a handheld radio from the field so the crew could hear the national anthem, sung by LeAnn Rimes, and make their timing perfect.

“We heard: 'home of the brave,’” Major Koss said, as he smiled and motioned forward with his hand, the same way he would have pushed the throttle up to be overhead by the song’s end. “I hope she holds that note,” he said to the crew.

“She sang a wee bit faster than we anticipated,” Col.Walker said.

The crew screamed over the stadium with their wings pinned back at .9 Mach, 1,000 feet above the crowd’s heads, and only 200 feet above the fireworks, which followed behind them as they passed. Once past the stadium, they pulled skyward, gaining over 10,000 feet.

“It shook the entire stadium,” Capt. Purdon said.

“I felt the chills and I heard the car alarms,” said Senior Airman Jason Burt, 28th Aircraft Maintenance Unit autopilot instruments technician, who was still outside the stadium during the flyover. “We showed our strength.”

The mountains, valleys and fading sunlight made the flyby more difficult than a usual flat-terrain performance. The crew had to avoid the mountains while losing 8,000 feet between the stadium and the marshal, 10 miles away.

“We had all of the pilots fly the profile in the simulator. It was very helpful,” said Lt. Col. Quinten Miklos, 28th BS pilot.

In addition to the Air Force Academy Chorus,Wings of Blue, and of course the fly over, Gen. Ronald Keys, Air Combat Command commander, was introduced after the first quarter. The flyby crew, the spare jet’s crew, and some of the maintenance crew were flown by helicopter by the Pasadena Police Department and driven by police motorcade to the stadium, where they took the field for their introduction during halftime to a standing ovation.

“I felt like a rock star,” Col.Walker said.

“It was great. It wasn’t as loud as when the Texas cheerleaders took the field, but it was loud,” said Airman Burt.

But the show was not limited to the Rose Bowl alone.

“There were at least 50 people on the ramp. There were cars lined up,” said Capt. Marc Gonzalez, 28th AMU officer in charge, about the audience gathered at the Boeing facility in Long Beach just to watch the take off.

Capt. Gonzalez and 11 of his 28th AMU maintainers were impressed by the interest of the people gathered not only around the Boeing ramp but also in the passenger terminal, on their way home. The maintenance crew, traveling in civilian clothes, was asked by a stranger if they had been at the Rose Bowl. When they told him they had, his next question was not about the game itself; it was: “Did you see the B-1 flyover?”

The flyover which was so greatly appreciated by the fans in attendance and on television, came at the request of the Rose Bowl planning committee, who contacted the Public Affairs office of the Secretary of the Air Force to specifically request a B-1 to perform in their pre-game show.

Once the request arrived at the 28th BS, Capt. Purdon responded with her own requests for waivers, which were necessary to make the performance legal. The Federal Aviation Administration prohibits flight below 10,000 feet to 250 mph and a standing ACC waiver limits the B-1 to 300 mph. Both were discounted for the Rose Bowl. Waivers were also granted for visual low-level flight after official sunset and landing approach considerations for larger, faster aircraft.

During their stay in Southern California, the Dyess team was well received by the people they met.

“All I heard was, ‘thanks for the job you do,’” said Col. Miklos.

Even an Albuquerque-based air traffic controller thanked them, at length, over the radio for all their hard work and sacrifices.

Capt. Gonzalez said he was thankful for the opportunity to have been a part of the Rose Bowl.

“It was an experience of a lifetime. We were actually a part of it ... that flyby was because of us,” he said, speaking for his maintenance team.