Migratory birds
Blue Angels land at NAF El Centro for winter training
NAVAL AIR FACILITY EL CENTRO — When the Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, made the fourhour flight Thursday afternoon from their home base in Pensacola, Fla., to begin their winter training here for the 2019 show season, it left behind familiar surroundings, loved ones and some dreary weather.
Opposing Solo pilot Lt. Cmdr. Andre Webb, of Jet No. 6, was pleased with the brighter view once he and his five fellow pilots, along with the Blue Angels maintenance crew, landed around 2:30 p.m. and set foot on the local air facility’s tarmac.
“The weather is beautiful out here today,” Webb said. “It wasn’t quite as beautiful in Pensacola when we left, and it hasn’t been for the past few days.
The weather was not good, so I was most looking forward to this, to what you’ve got here today. It’s a beautiful, sunny blue sky, clear in a million.”
For the next 10 weeks, the Blue Angels pilots will hone their flying skills and formations at NAFEC then open their season, which includes 61 demonstrations at 32 locations, on March 16 with the 52nd annual NAF El Centro Air Show.
A total of 120 flight hours is required before the demonstration squadron can begin the season.
“We come out here to get away from the distractions and kind of form the nucleus that we need to succeed for once we’re out in front of the crowd for the rest of the season,” the Webb said.
During their demanding, six-days-a-week training schedule, which includes one hour of flight maneuvers twice a day, the team doesn’t get too much free time to explore outside NAFEC, Webb said.
“That one day off, I’ll kind of spend doing laundry, resetting and hopefully watching the Cowboys win their playoff game this weekend,” Webb said.
Although when time permits, the Jet No. 6 pilot, who is a native of Lawton, Okla., and joined the Blue Angels in Sept. 2017, said he enjoys interacting with the Imperial Valley community.
Welcoming the six pilots as they landed Wednesday afternoon was a select group of local families who were allowed on the facility for the arrival.
“There are a number of families in the local community who take care of us and make sure that we really want for nothing,” Webb said. “And we do just fine and accomplish our mission without them, but having them makes it feel like this is more of our home, so we love coming to El Centro for winter training.”
Webb said local residents who come out to the March 16 show can expect to see “the best air show that they’ve ever seen” if they haven’t seen it in a while.
While many consider the Blue Angels’ annual arrival to NAFEC somewhat of a homecoming — the team has been training here since 1967 — it was quite literally that for Logistics Specialist Linelle Benattar, one of 122 enlisted members of the maintenance crew.
After getting settled into NAFEC on Wednesday, Benattar, a class of 2000 Southwest High School graduate, proudly pointed in the direction where his El Centro home, which he purchased three years ago.
“I am from here,” Benattar said. “I am from Mexicali, Mexico, so I’m excited to be here.”
For the Mexicali native, touring across 32 different locations throughout the country with team is well worth the homesickness he gets from time to time.
“You go from state to state; you see different people and different place, places I never thought I was never going to be,” Benattar said. “It’s just amazing.”
The logistics specialist gave advice for local residents aspiring to become part of world-renowned demonstration squadron.
“Do everything that you need to, always try your best and never give up,” Benattar said. “If you have a dream — like I used to have it, cause I always wanted to be on team — don’t let people tell you ‘no’ and just work for it. If you work hard, stay out of trouble, study and always do more than you’re required to do, you can achieve all your goals, either here in the Blue Angels or anywhere you go.”