Blue Angels Take to San Diego Skies : Brush Fire Delays Practice for Weekend Shows

A brush fire briefly grounded the Navy’s Blue Angels aerial acrobatics team Thursday afternoon, but it wasn’t long before the jets were in the air practicing for their annual air shows at Miramar Naval Air Station scheduled for this weekend.

The fire on Cowles Mountain in San Carlos, which started at 1:05 p.m. and burned for more than five hours, delayed the Blue Angels’ practice, because senior officers didn’t want to interfere with aerial firefighting efforts.

The seven Blue Angels pilots will perform precision maneuvers in A-4 jets, which reach speeds up to 700 m.p.h. and altitudes of 8,000 feet during their performances, said Lt. Doug Hocking, a spokesman for the team.

“These planes are great,” Hocking said. “They fly like Volkswagens in the sky.”

The Blue Angels will be giving up their A-4s in January when the squadron converts to newer F/A-18s.

Blue Angel pilots must have 1,500 hours of flight time in tactical jets and be officers in the Navy or Marine Corps. A flier spends no more than two years with the team. The pilots spend an average of 325 days each year touring, practicing and briefing for their performances.

“This is much more rewarding than being a pilot in a regular squadron because I am able to meet so many different people,” said Lt. Cmdr. Donnie Cochran, the first black pilot in the Blue Angels’ 40-year history.

“It is something that I have wanted to do since I was a little kid,” he said.

The Navy’s “Leapfrogs” parachute team will also participate in this weekend’s shows. The demonstrations and displays are scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m Saturday and Sunday and are free to the public.

Hocking said that the Navy expects 300,000 to attend the air shows over the weekend.

“With the success of (the motion picture) ‘Top Gun’ we expect the place to be packed,” Hocking said. “This gives us a chance to show that the Navy does own planes.”