before the nal approval, which consists of
a display in front of Gen Mike Holmes, the
chief of Air Combat Command.
The ‘Viper’ display is incredibly taxing
on the body. During the 15-minute
routine, Schmitz hits 9g about 20 times!
That is more than any other USAF demo
team in such a short time. Schmitz said:
‘I’m working pretty hard when you see
me changing directions. It’s incredibly
di cult to [get] on the correct line when
you’re under 9g and can barely move
your cranium. An option I have is to y a
‘loose’ show, where I don’t pull as muchg, but I like to y a ‘tight’ show to keep
the demonstration as close to the crowd
as possible. It makes for a much more
entertaining demonstration, but I pay for
it with pain. If you ever see me after I land
and take o my helmet, I’m drenched in
sweat. It’s a workout.’
For the next two years ‘Toro’ will be
entertaining millions of people all over the
world. What comes after that is something
he is not thinking about too much. He
said: ‘The logical next step would be the
F-35 I guess, but I really don’t want to
get out of the F-16 because it’s a great
community, great aircraft and I love the
SEAD [suppression of enemy air defense]
mission that the 20th FW ies.
‘I love meeting people on the road. You
get out of the jet and people are lined
up along the fence. Getting out and
meeting them and having a chance to
talk to a younger generation is really what
I’m looking forward to most. Hopefully, I
can do what those pilots did for me and
inspire people to become a pilot or a
maintainer and follow their dreams.’Above: Flying
on the knife-
edge during the
15-minute routine.
USAF/A1C Marcus
M. Bullock
Below: The
‘Viper demo’
team includes
dedicated
maintainers
that go on the
road with two
aircraft for each
show. Rob van
Disseldorphttp://www.combataircraft.net // September 2019 79
76-79 Viper demo team C.indd 79 18/07/2019 13:19