T
HE START OF the 2019 airshow
season turned out di erent
than expected for the US
Air Force ‘Viper demo’ team.
On January 29, the USAF
announced that Capt Zoe
‘Sis’ Kotnik had been selected as the
demonstration pilot and commander
of the team. This announcement
made her the rst female solo aircraft
demonstration pilot in USAF history. For
two years, Kotnik had been serving as an
understudy to Maj John ‘Rain’ Waters, the
F-16 display pilot. Two weeks after the
announcement, Kotnik was suddenly
dismissed and relieved of her command.
Col Derek O’Malley, the commander
of the 20th Fighter Wing (FW) at Shaw
AFB, South Carolina, issued a statement
following her dismissal that left people
inside and outside the USAF with more
questions than answers regarding
the reasoning behind the decision.
However, with the show season rapidly
approaching, Waters was hurriedly
drafted back in as the search for a new
pilot began.
During a ceremony at Shaw on May 17,
Maj Garret ‘Toro’ Schmitz was introduced
as the new 2019 ‘Viper demo’ pilot.
After a rainy practice the day before
the Great Tennessee Air Show in June,
Schmitz talked to Combat Aircraft. ‘I was
on deployment in the Middle East when
I was approached to become the next
‘Viper demo’ pilot,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t an
immediate ‘yes’ because I already had
an assignment; I was going to be an
instructor pilot in Phoenix, so I had to
give that up. I had to talk to my girlfriend
and my family to get their input and also
leaving your squadron in the middle of a
deployment is tough. But I thought of the
opportunity that this job a ords and it’s
something I couldn’t pass up.’The path to ‘Viper’ displays
Schmitz started out in the Reserve O cer
Training Corps program at Arizona
University. After graduating with an
Aerospace Engineering degree, he joined
the air force and was sent to Vance AFB,
Oklahoma, to start pilot training on the
T-6 Texan II and the T-38 Talon. After
graduating from Randolph AFB, Texas,
he returned to Vance as a FAIP (First
Assignment Instructor Pilot) in the T-6.
Three years later, Schmitz was selected
to become an F-16 pilot. He completed
his initial quali cation training with the
195th Fighter Squadron (FS) at Tucson
Air National Guard Base, Arizona. After aMaj ‘Toro’ Schmitz in front of his
F-16CM Block 50 at the Great
Tennessee Air Show in June.
Rob van Disseldorp76 September 2019 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
76-79 Viper demo team C.indd 76 18/07/2019 13:19