B-2 All-Star Game Fly Over

[Gerard]

Sweet!! As Cheryl Crow was finishing up the National Anthem the DirectTv blimp had a nice shot of the B-2 Stealth bomber coming in over The Bronx from centerfield. They then switched to Crow and she had a smile on her face as the B-2 made its entrance and another nice shot from in front of her and the B-2 could be seen AND HEARD behind her passing over the Stadium to the west. Later when Fox went to commercial they had another shot of the B-2 up by the Hudson (I believe). Anyone know where the B-2 came from?
BTW, non-aviation aside, a FANTASTIC JOB with the intros of the Hall of Famers mixed with the starters from both teams. Well done!!

[Matt Molnar]

Anyone know where the B-2 came from?
The fleet is based at Whiteman Air Force Base in western Missouri, good chance it flew straight from there.

[stuart schechter]

wow, quite a haul. That was an awesome pre-game, and the game is going great right now! Into the 10th we go! :borat:

[Speedbird1]

I also liked the coverage of the B-2 over Yankee Stadium shown on Fox-TV. It was a well-kept secret like the appearance of George Steinbrenner on the field. The show had everything except for Joe Torre, I guess they "forgot" to invite him. I also attended the Parade earlier in the day. It was thrilling to see past baseball stars (Reggie, Yogi, Whitey,etc).

[kc2aqg]

I was fortunate enough to be given a last-minute ticket to the all-star game yesterday afternoon. I sat in Tier 2, row X (last row all the way up), seat 11. The seat was right behind home plate and gave a great view of the whole field and all of the action. It was amazing to see the B2 approaching from the east with the smoke trail and all, and man was it loud as it flew over! Unfortunately I didn't bring a camera since I didn't know I was going to the game when I left home (D'OH!!!), but it was a great game with lots of great stuff to remember.

[Woz]

Some shots of the fly over from Upper Manhattan.

http://wozz.smugmug.com/photos/332937761_BfGSG-L.jpg

http://wozz.smugmug.com/photos/332937808_X5d4J-L.jpg

http://wozz.smugmug.com/photos/332938019_P2szm-L.jpg

http://wozz.smugmug.com/photos/332938067_keVKa-L.jpg

http://wozz.smugmug.com/photos/332947137_6NuFE-L.jpg

[kc2aqg]

Wow, killer shots of the B2! Especially that bank shot, niiiiiiice!!!

[LGA777]

Great job with and thanks for posting those super RARE subject photos Woz. And Kc2aqg. glad you got to go, but did you stay to the end ? I was super tired last night so got in bed around 1130 with the TV on and by 0130 was pretty close to giving up, but glad I hung in there.

Cheers

LGA777

[kc2aqg]

Hey Ron - I could not stay until the end, the game was just too long. I stayed until the end of the 10th inning after the game was tied 3-3, and by then it was 12:15 and I had been at the stadium upwards of 6 hours. I had to come into work in the city today, so I figured getting home at 1:30 would be late enough. The whole introduction ceremony and the game itself was just great though! :D

[moose135]

Thanks for posting those B-2 shots, Woz - really good job of catching her. I heard they did a good job showing the fly over on TV. Unfortunately I missed it. I just couldn't sit through all that Yankee "stuff" in the pre-game, and I end up channel surfing and only caught part of the ceremony. I will say though, from what little I saw, George Steinbrenner did look quite life-like when they wheeled him out there :wink:

[adam613]

Yeah Andy texted me when the B2 flew over...I was on an airplane at the time, but fortunately, it was B6, so I was watching the game :)

Great shots, Woz...

[Gerard]

[quote="Speedbird1"]I also liked the coverage of the B-2 over Yankee Stadium shown on Fox-TV. It was a well-kept secret

Actually in the thread "F-18s Over LI" back on June 30 "Greg_NY" advised of the B-2 fly-over when I asked about anything happening for the game.

>"The show had everything except for Joe Torre, I guess they "forgot" to invite him."<

I believe they wanted to avoid the circus of Torre being back at the Stadium and from what i read he was happy to have the time off.

[Gerard]

Very very cool shots. One of my co-workers who lives near the Stadium said the roar of the B-2 set off car alarms all over the place.

[USAF Pilot 07]

Anyone know where the B-2 came from?
The fleet is based at Whiteman Air Force Base in western Missouri, good chance it flew straight from there.


Yep, it most likely flew straight from Whiteman, circled for a little, did the flyover and flew straight back to Whiteman....

[moose135]

Yep, it most likely flew straight from Whiteman, circled for a little, did the flyover and flew straight back to Whiteman....
They didn't go fly a low level training mission or something along the way? Usually these sporting event fly-overs get a "real" mission added in so it looks like they are not just out cruising around :wink:

[Gerard]

[
>They didn't go fly a low level training mission or something along the way? Usually these sporting event fly-overs get a "real" mission added in so it looks like they are not just out cruising around :wink:[/quote]<

And wasting the taxpayers hard earned dollars. :D

[USAF Pilot 07]

Yep, it most likely flew straight from Whiteman, circled for a little, did the flyover and flew straight back to Whiteman....
They didn't go fly a low level training mission or something along the way? Usually these sporting event fly-overs get a "real" mission added in so it looks like they are not just out cruising around :wink:

On the AF side of the house, for an event of this magnitude they probably just flew-in and flew-out - most likely hitting up a tanker or two along the way.

On the AMC side of the house (and I believe on the ACC side as well), generally speaking the approval authority for any flyover/airshow static display rests with the OG/CC. Many times - especially if a group/cc is going to send a crew on the road for a few days to sit static at an airshow (and especially if he/she has to cover their TDY costs) - he/she will have some stipulation that some sort of training has to be accomplished to somewhat justify letting them go (i.e. AR or something). This is especially true for the reserves who are more limited on hours/training periods etc... But, this isn't a regulation or anything. We'll send jets to do local flyovers frequently and/or airshows with no "training" attached to it. It all comes down to availability and priority... On the heavy side of the house, where a normal "local" sortie is anywhere from 5-8 hours, to burn a crew/jet for an hour event of the lowest priority with nothing else attached to it, doesn't make much sense, so you may see a flyover on either the front or back end of a local.

This flyover was more than likely directed by a 3 or 4-star somewhere, so there was probably no training associated with it. You'd want to minimize the risk of breaking or anything happening that would cause you to miss the flyover. Nothing worse than having to answer to the big boss on why you didn't show by saying "well we broke on the way while we were out playing around/or had the jet configured to go out and play afterwards". They may have even had another B2 blocked off on the ground at Whiteman for this mission in case the first broke.

Now on the Navy side, at least what I was explained by some of my Navy counterparts, the opposite is true. In order for them to do an airshow, or flyover, they HAVE to get some kind of training done along the way.

[DHG750R]

The show had everything except for Joe Torre, I guess they "forgot" to invite him.

I was thinking the same thing.. I would have loved to see the reaction to Joe by the fans... I think it wouldve choked more than a few people up...

[Gerard]

>The fleet is based at Whiteman Air Force Base in western Missouri, good chance it flew straight from there.<

How are these fly-bys coordinated? Do they have a military person with a radio on the ground?

[USAF Pilot 07]

>The fleet is based at Whiteman Air Force Base in western Missouri, good chance it flew straight from there.<

How are these fly-bys coordinated? Do they have a military person with a radio on the ground?


Yes. They will typically have another pilot on-site with a radio, talking to the airplane.

[PhilDernerJr]

I would LOVE to listen to that radio conversation to hear how that's planned. I always wondered the same thing myself.

[Matt Molnar]

I just came across this vid of a B-2 flyover of a Yanks/Sox game in 2006, appears to be shot from the rafters where the lights are, and after the anthem starts you hear a guy saying "slow it down, slow it down, we got 20-25 seconds left." Pretty sure he's talking to the B-2 since the anthem music is prerecorded and can't be slowed down.
vpGVIh8Jqxk

Looking at the All Star Game vid, it seems that Sheryl Crow's slow ass version of the anthem caused the B-2 to arrive a bit early.
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[USAF Pilot 07]

Yea basically the guy on the ground is just talking with the aircraft and giving it information on what is happening on the ground. Its a pretty mundane conversation.

The guy on the ground will also many times give slight corrections like "come right, come left" or the like. But the primary purpose of the ground guy is to make sure the flyover is timed just right.

[Gerard]

>Yes. They will typically have another pilot on-site with a radio, talking to the airplane.<

That is what I figured. I've listened in on a number of "Inspectors Funerals" for NYPD officers killed in the line of duty and they have an NYPD Aviation officer
on the ground talking to the lead pilot giving him info on how much time they have before they need to come in. Many times the ships have to circle for awhile
since the ceremonies always run over. Sometimes you might have copters from other agencies in the fly-by (Nassau, Suffolk, State) and it's pretty cool hearing
the lead ship giving instructions to the other copters.

[Gerard]

>I just came across this vid of a B-2 flyover of a Yanks/Sox game in 2006, appears to be shot from the rafters where the lights are, and after the anthem starts you hear a guy saying "slow it down, slow it down, we got 20-25 seconds left." Pretty sure he's talking to the B-2 since the anthem music is prerecorded and can't be slowed down.<
[youtubeww.youtube.com/watch?v=vpGVIh8Jqxk[/youtube video. There is actually a lot of space up there by the lights to walk around, not a narrow catwalk like I had thought.