Squadron visits Loveland ahead of show
Airport expects there to be 30K-35K visitors on Oct. 16 and 17
A blue-and-gold-painted F-18 Super Hornet streaked the sky with colored smoke and roared into Northern Colorado Regional Airport on Tuesday to give Loveland an early taste of an October airshow planned by the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels aerobatics team.
After landing, lieutenants Julius Bratton and Katlin Forster climbed out of the cockpit and stood beside the fighter jet, heat still streaming out of its twin engines, to greet officials and fans ahead of a meeting with airport director Jason Licon.
Bratton, a 9 1/2-year Navy veteran who has flown for about a year and a half with the Blue Angels, said the group is looking forward to holding airshows and returning to its core mission of recruitment in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic grounded their plans for 2020.
“We train and we practice to put on a world-class demonstration, so getting back out on the road will just allow us to accomplish our mission and showcase that precision, teamwork and professionalism of the United States Navy and Marine Corps,” he said.
Liaison Eric Himler said the pandemic forced the group to mostly pivot to putting on performances to honor health care workers and doing other outreach.
“Their mission really changed to being ambassadors in blue, ambassadors of goodwill,” he said. “I think the team is excited to serve in their primar y role again this year.”
Forster, who has ser ved 7 1/2 years in the Navy and flown with the Blue Angels since September, said the group is tr ying to set up socially distanced visits to community centers coinciding with its 2021 shows.
Licon said the community is preparing to welcome a crowd of 30,00035,000 attendees between both days of the show, Oct. 16-17. The Blue Angels last visited Noco Regional Airpor t in 2002.
“With that, we’re expecting a lot of interest from within the community and even from outside of the state as well,”hesaid.
New this year will be the group’s F-18 Super Hornet and C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, which replaced the earlier Hornet and legacy C-130T.
“There’s subtle differences between the two aircrafts,” Bratton said of the Super Hornet and the Hornet. “That just comes down to the flight control computers and the logic associated with it.”
“But for the most part, the jets are very similar, the difference in the Super Hornet being it’s going to be about 30% larger. They have more internal fuel (and) larger engines, so more thrust, so that should give us a little bit more grunt and a little bit
more noise at the show.”
While Forster said uncertainty still looms over some of the details of the group’s 75th anniversary year, she was optimistic about the Blue Angels working around the COVID-19 threat to put on shows in 2021.
“We’re hoping that through creativity and exploring different options such as drive-in shows, socially distant shows over water, and now that we have some practice with virtual meetings, that we can still show off our demonstrations to the entire countr y,” she said.
“The good thing is it’s not 2020,” Bratton added.
Maia Cunningham passed on December 22, 2020 in Longmont, Colorado after a battle with Cancer. She was 45 years old.
Maia's legacy will live on in her beautiful 15-year-old son, Braydon Cunningham. Maia was raised in Boulder, and will be remembered for her beautiful spirit and kindness, a much-loved chef, active member of her church, accomplished martial artist, singer/ songwriter and passionate advocate for freedom and liberty. The family requests that donations be made to a trust to support Braydon's education, https:// www.youtube.com/ channel/ Uc_ybiz5sfcjgj4agcfe HS1A