The Blue Angels return for 50th season

The Blue Angels returned to the Naval Air Facility in El Centro earlier today for their 50th season.

The angels arrived Wednesday but training day officially begins Thursday. People can expect to hear them in the air as early as 8 o’clock in the morning and continuing throughout the rest of the day.

“So here we are, we’re back. January 4th, 2017 and I can’t believe we are back. Pretty much from the moment the sun comes up we’ll have the diamond and then the two solo jets go about an hour after them. And then we’ll come back we’ll all debrief right around lunch time and then shortly after lunchtime is when you can expect the diamond and the solos to go again from there,” said Lt. Tyler Davies, #6 The Opposing Solo Pilot for The Blue Angels.

The Navy Flight Demonstration Team will begin their winter training for their 50th season.

But this year you will see a change in the line-up.

“We have a new two, a new three, and then myself going from seven to six. So what we are going to do is we are going to spin up everything that we have done in the postseason, getting everybody used to actually flying with each other here in the local area with the beautiful weather in El Centro,” added Davies.

We also asked questions provided from our viewers.

Nico Payne:

“How long does it take to become a blue angels pilot?”

Lt. Davies:

“So everyone one of these blue angels that are here on the line have a slightly different story, for myself I started out as an enlisted sailor so I joined the Navy back in 2000.”

Lt. Davies also shared a ritual that is performed before every flight.

“Prior to the brief we’ll actually take a minute. So we’ll have 60 seconds of no talking, no nothing. And that’s where I’ll just kind of sit there and close my eyes and just kind of think about the maneuvers that I am going to do that day, just kind of think about it in my head and then I’ll open my eyes and I’ll be like its game time. Let’s do it.”