NOTE: This blog post was written in 2017 but I just recently added a podcast episode to go with it so I bumped it back to the top of the blog.

FAIRMONT, NE – The last 12 months have been a banner year for That Buzz Guy and our BuzzHead Media Company. In that year I’ve flown to Washington DC to cover a Presidential Inauguration, I’ve chased and filmed multiple tornadoes with a storm tracking crew, I’ve been an extra in three films with actors such as Jake Gyllenhaal and Bo Derrick, and I’ve interviewed rock legend Gene Simmons from KISS and TV personality Michelle Malkin.

Most of those events could be crossed off as top “Bucket List” items. As great as they all were and as much as I had looked forward to many of them, it was an event this week that I had never even contemplated that has topped them all.

It has never been my desire to see a total eclipse of the sun. I’ve never even sat down with anyone that had ever gone through the experience so I was completely unaware of what to expect and why I would even be crazy enough to go eclipse chasing. But crazy we were.

Todd Wheeler, my partner in crime on our new BuzzHead Radio, and I have been chasing stories every chance we get. We are both fortunate enough to own our businesses and have the ability to take off at the drop of a hat. I was intrigued by the hype surrounding the August 21, 2017 solar eclipse and thought it might be the next big thing for us to cover.

The only way to truly experience a solar eclipse is to plant yourself in the middle of totality. That’s the 70 mile wide area that becomes almost completely dark as the moon passes in front of the sun. A few weeks before the big event we made the decision to embark on the adventure of covering the first coast-to-coast solar eclipse over the United States in 99 years.

The first task I set out to do was find a prime location for eclipse viewing. My first thought was to head to Kansas City where I had friends and a place to stay. I quickly learned that we might run into traffic jams if we headed to the larger cities so I pulled up a map of totality.

Our hometown of Enid, Oklahoma is on Highway 81 so I decided to look straight up 81 to see which towns would fall into the path of the total eclipse. The first town that fit the bill was all the way up in Nebraska. There were a few towns in northeast Kansas that we could reach by driving on I-35 but again, I was leery of the traffic situation in that area. There were several Nebraska towns that looked promising but I honed in on Fairmont due to the fact that it was straight up 81 and was in the center of totality.

Fairmont, Nebraska luckily had a Facebook page that looked very inviting. They had posted that they would have a free parking and camping area in the park with porta-potties. Cha-ching! That’s exactly what we were searching for since all hotels had been booked for months ahead. There were also several comments on the page from travelers from other states that were planning on landing in the little town of around 600.

Without much other planning Todd and I made the decision to drive the 5 hours to Fairmont. The week before departure I started paying more attention to the hype learning that I would definitely need eclipse glasses. That turned into a futile search as there were no glasses left for sale on the planet Earth. No biggie, we’d wing it. Todd came up with some glass replacements for a welding helmet and a couple of paper eclipse glasses.

We told our families we were going and started the countdown. The only hitch I could see to our entire plan was the weather. Of course at the beginning of our plan the forecast was for mostly sunny skies but turned to mostly cloudy skies just a day before we departed. We toyed with the idea of driving to a different location but decided we’d stick with our original plan and hope for the best.

Our adventure began on Sunday, August 20 around 2pm. We left the BuzzHead Studio and stopped to stock up on snacks and drinks. We then hit the highway and drove up Highway 81 into Kansas. With zero knowledge of eclipse chasing we had no idea if the highway would be packed or not. We made a quick stop in Concordia, Kansas to get dinner out of the way at Dairy Queen. We also downed a quick Blizzard.

Story continued here…

The post Part 1: Chasing A Total Eclipse Of The Sun appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

To quickly define who I was with I’ll say there are normally three kinds of folks following tornadoes. The first category are storm spotters. These folks are trained and volunteer for the county and state. They are called out by Emergency Management to specific locations and report back what they observe.

The second group are tornado chasers. These folks load up with cameras and just start chasing storms based on what they see online. Many of these people are not trained and try to get as close as they can get to the tornado. Their main purpose is to get footage they can sell or to have a thrill.

The third group of people, which is the group I was with, are also trained and work for news stations or TV channels. These folks are out tracking storms so they can report the exact locations back to the meteorologists at the station. They are trying to get footage but their main concern is to alert the public of on coming storms, hail and tornadoes.

On Thursday, May 18, 2017 I was able to ride along with KFOR Storm Tracker Mike Bennett from Enid. Mike tracks storms for Channel 4 and has a storm chasing truck with all of the storm warning bells and whistles. We left Enid around 11:00am and returned around 9:30pm after a full day of tracking the storms.

Below are the photos and video I took while on the ride. I’ve always loved weather and that combined with reporting on a tornado outbreak made for a bucket list day. I may add more photos and remarks soon.

PODCAST EPISODE

The sky looked blue filled with puffy clouds. You could feel the moisture in the air which is what they call soup. That cloud in the middle started exploding upward and in a matter of minutes became a thunderstorm. There were at least half a dozen of these popping up all around us.

It didn’t take lone for the storm to lower and form a wall cloud.

Once the wall cloud was formed you could see the storm begin to rotate.

Once the storm was rotating it began to spawn several different tornadoes.

Once the tornado gained strength it dropped to the ground and began moving across the landscape.

This is a great photo! You can see the tornado out the front window and at the same time you can see it on radar where the “hook” is and you can also see exactly where we were which is the circle in the middle of the red box.

The scariest part of tornado tracking are the amateur tornado chasers. At one point there was a line about three miles long filled with tornado chasers and that includes tornado touring vans filled with people. There were dozens of license plates from out of state.

YouTube edited footage from the May 18 tornadoes near Chester, Oklahoma.

The post Chasing Tornadoes In Oklahoma appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

I’ve been working for myself since about 2002 when I quit my full-time job to stay at home and earn money online. I left a director of advertising position of over ten years to be able to spend time with my daughters at home.

I’ve had a pretty crazy journey getting to where I am today. My path to becoming an entrepreneur has been anything but a straight line. I’ve had to pivot on several occasions and ended up working with technology that hadn’t been invented when I first began.

I was asked to speak to young entrepreneurs at the NWOSU Entrepreneur Seminar in 2020. Part of my speech was telling my journey from employee to business owner. This is the video of my story. It’s a pretty amazing ride when you hear it and realize that it all happened out of a bedroom in Enid, Oklahoma.

I would definitely say that if I can make it as an entrepreneur doing the things that I’ve done then anyone has the opportunity to do the same. It all amounts to how much effort you are willing to put in and are you willing to take risks.

Take a look at my story and learn how I went from selling Jolly Ranchers at junior high to running an online media company providing news and information to many thousands of people.

The first video is the trailer for my entrepreneur podcast called That Buzz Guy along with the podcast below it. The bottom video is from my talk on being an entrepreneur at the NWOSU Entrepreneur Seminar.

The post My Own Entrepreneurial Journey appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

I’ve been working full-time from home running several different businesses. When Galen Culver heard about my story he thought it was interesting enough to feature it on his popular TV news segment called, “Is This A Great State Or What?”

Culver contacted me in April of 2014 and said he would like to stop by my home office and do a story about me working from home drawing cartoons and operating Enid Buzz.

He stopped by and spent a couple of hours asking me questions and filming everything in my office. All of that footage and those questions were whittled down to a two minute segment on NBC’s KFOR News in Oklahoma City.

The segment was great and helped tell my story of creating businesses while sitting in a chair in my house. The exposure was not something that made me any money but it increased my brand recognition and added credibility to my knowledge of being an entrepreneur.

If you’ve got a great story you need to get in front of everyone that you can. Today there are TV segments like “Great State,” podcasts, blogs and video channels that you can book for guest spots.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to people especially anyone in your niche. Many content publishers are looking for stories, articles and guests. Build your brand and your reputation by appearing everywhere that you can.

Here is the video segment that ran on the OKC news station. Below that is the transcript from the show.

There are people who think outside the box and then there are people who actually drew the box they live in.

Curtis Tucker was a dreamer and doodler growing up.

“When I was in school,” he says, “I was either drawing cartoons on the chalk board or on the back of my paper.”

He quit his advertising executive job in the late 90’s and drew upon his skills as a cartoonist.

Tucker formed a whole series of companies that sold logos, clip art, even greeting cards.

For more than a decade he was at the top of the online cartoon heap.

Curtis says, “I think from the very beginning of Google I probably ranked number one for cartoon logos for 12 years.”

His technical acumen should have told him that things would change though.

Google changed its search format and his cartoon business dried up almost overnight.

But Curt drew on another talent, for staying anchored to what he liked, which is sitting at home and playing around.

“It was pretty cool,” he says.

Tucker started another website called Enid Buzz.

He kept working on it, slowly making his home office the hub of information for just about everything in his hometown.

Tucker made it profitable too, so he could stay right where he wanted.

“You’re just at the hub of a smaller universe,” observes an office visitor.

“Exactly,” he replies. “I have evolved. It’s always evolving.”

It’s not often we can shoot a whole story in one room.

It has to be a pretty interesting place.

Curtis Tucker made it that way, not by being outgoing, but by drawing enough people to him.

He’s still doodling, actually, just the way he wants.

The Enid Buzz website is www.enidbuzz.com.

You can also log on Facebook and find an active page there.

The post Do You Have A Story? Let Others Help You Tell It. appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

This video was taken in the summer of 1977 on W. Broadway in Enid, Oklahoma. Bruce Bradley had snagged his parents 8mm camera and came to our neighborhood hangout to capture the fun.

This video sat forgotten until 2018 when Bruce was going through old boxes and rediscovered the footage. He sent raw clips to me and I got to editing the film together. It literally brought tears to my eyes when I first saw it. It’s documentation of all of the great times we had hanging out in our youth.

Most of the guys in our gang lived on or near W. Broadway. We would get together for hours of playing outside and creating fun games. We skipped meals just so we could play together longer. Must of us even stayed out beyond the street lights coming on.

The skateboard and acting footage took place on the block that we used for most of our games. There was a church on the corner that rarely had any people at it. If they were there we never knew it.

We played a fun game called Musklins which was a combination of tag, hide-and-go-seek and kick-the-can. The church was the main area we used for hiding and chasing.

This particular day we had several neighborhood kids show up that weren’t in the main crew. Our core group was Stayton, Brendan, Jason, David and I. More in a moment…

The post The Summer of 1977 appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

Once we were back on the road to Nebraska we noticed that there was very little traffic at all. We did notice a few license plates from out of state including a Honda Element that we passed from Oklahoma. I bet Todd that they were headed to eclipse watch. We planned our first photo opp to be at the Nebraska state sign. Todd Google mapped the road ahead so we would know where it was and what it looked like. Just before Chester, Nebraska we found it.

Todd and I hopped out of the car and went live on Facebook. We took several selfies and other pics. While there, we saw the Honda Element drive by and also saw a pickup truck drive by and whip a u-turn. Two men and two boys got out of the truck and walked towards us near the sign. The driver, Richard Johnson, has a camera in hand and asked Todd if he’d take their picture. We all took photos and talked about the eclipse. They were headed to a scout camp near Grand Island. We exchanged information so that we could contact each other in case of bad weather.

As we journeyed into Nebraska I told Todd we were going to use the power of positive thinking to will that there would be clear skies during the eclipse. We confirmed those thoughts with the universe and made our way to Fairmont.

Once we reached Fairmont we stopped at the only gas station we had seen on the map and filled up with gas in case there was a mad rush the next day. We talked to some of the locals and found out that a few other chasers were already in town including people from Australia. We then made our way to the city park which we had seen while flying over on Google maps. It looked just like we had seen on the computer.

There were a few scattered cars parked around the perimeter of the park so we drove in and parked in the next available space. Can you guess who was parked next to us? It was the Honda Element we had seen twice on the highway. They couple that owned it were from Guthrie, Oklahoma!

The park was a huge empty square filled with grass. There was a large water tower in the northwest corner of the park with the name Fairmont painted on the side. Next to the water tower was a corn field. On the south side of the park was a railroad track and across from it was the downtown area.

A small crowd was gathering by the water tower listening to a group of men talk. As we made our way to the group we noticed they had some very large telescopes pointed to the darkening sky. The men were an astronomy group was from Chicago. They were allowing people to view the planets through the equipment. I looked through the telescope at Jupiter and could see the tiny bands on the planet.

The first question you’ll here when chasing an eclipse from everyone there is, “Where are you from?” We heard that many times and discovered there were people from all over the country with a heavy number of folks from Minnesota. I asked the head astronomer if he would pick up and move the next day of the weather was bad. He said they would stay put because all of his research said we were in the best spot to see the eclipse and getting stuck in traffic would be worse than staying put.

For Todd and I, that was the knowledge we needed to stay put no matter what they weather forecast was saying. Friendly townspeople were passing out coozies and telling us that the American Legion was open for business that night. Todd and I walked the couple of blocks to the Legion had a drink with the locals. They asked us lots of questions and we asked them just as many. We watched the weather on TV which was predicting heavy clouds and possible rain for eclipse day.

Todd and I made our way back to the BuzzMobile where we climbed in and got ready for the night. The weather could not have been better and with the windows down we were never bothered by a single bug. The only problem we encounter through the night was the loudest train I had ever heard. It made its way by the park at least three times during the night. It was so loud that the campers on the other side of us decided to switch locations so it would not keep them awake all night.

Story continues here…

The post Part 2: Total Solar Eclipse appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

Todd and I awoke early Monday to a beautiful morning. The night had not been the most comfortable but we had gotten some sleep. A few more cars had showed up and we could see more on the way. The weather was showing storms to our east with clouds moving in from the south. We were going to stop by the American Legion for a Continental breakfast but saw that the Fairmont Fire Department was setting up to cook burgers and hot dogs in the middle of the park.

As we made our way around the park we talked to people from all parts of the country and recorded a few interviews. Two guy walked by us and noticed we were with the press. They made a comment that lead me to believe they were either the Aussies or from England. They quickly informed us they were from the London, England area and had made a last minute decision to hop on a plane and fly over for the eclipse.

The Londoners were Stu and Steve, two musicians from across the pond. They told us about how they had decided on Fairmont, which was much like many others, including Todd and I. Stu and Steve were band members from a group called The Midnight Tokers. They told us they were a cover band that played in the London area. Both had welders masks with them which they used to view the eclipse.

Throughout the day there were more and more clouds. Todd and I decided to grab food at 10am and got in line for a burger. A gentlemen came up to me and asked if I was the Enid Buzz Guy. I told him I was and he said he was from Tulsa and had family that told him we would be in Fairmont and they should look us up. As the morning wore on there were more and more cars filling the entire town.

Todd and I continuously tried to check the weather and live stream to Facebook. Due to our location and the number of people in town it became harder and harder to connect to the Internet. I was able to live stream at 10am and we were able to see that more cloud were building from the south.

Around 11:30am the eclipse started. We were able to see a sliver of the moon begin to cover the sun. Even through the clouds you could see the crescent sun. Todd and I began trying to snap pictures and setup our cameras. I setup a Sony 4K camera, a GoPro 5 and I was ready to live stream from my iPhone 7 Plus. I also strapped on my Cannon 40D with telephoto lens to try and snag a sun shot or two.

By 12:30pm there was a pretty good blanket of clouds over us at times almost blocking the sun. To the southwest of the park there was a small circle of blue sky. I kept telling everyone I talked to that the clear spot was going to reach us just as the eclipse were to go into totality. Not knowing if it would or not I was trying everything I could to convince the universe it needed to happen.

About 15 minutes before totality I couldn’t even get my phone to show any service at all. At 10 minutes before totality the clear blue spot in the sky reached our location and we had full view of the sun! At 5 minutes before totality my phone connected and I was able to go live on Facebook. Todd and I turned all cameras on and prepared for this event in nature that we had never experienced before.

And the story ends here…

The post Part 3: Experiencing A Total Solar Eclipse appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

Explaining to someone what totality is like can be a little difficult because there’s so much more to it than just darkness. There are wind changes, temperature changes, lighting and shadow changes and the people around you react in a way you might not be expecting. As we approached totality the sky became darker but not black. Our camera phones were soaking in every bit of sunlight making it appear much lighter than it actually was.

At exactly 1pm in Fairmont, Nebraska the moon completely blocked out the sun causing a drastic change in the lighting. The crowd began to cheer and clap as they stood and stared in awe. If you didn’t have goosebumps at this point you were a person that felt no connection to something bigger than yourself.

The best way that I can describe the look of totality is that the ground and area around us was dark. The sky looked much like it does right after dusk and the edges of the horizon showed just enough light that it looked like a 360 degree sunset all the way around us. This was the point where we were able to take off our glasses and stare at the sun. When looking at the sun with the naked eye it actually looked like a dull bright spot not the black spot you see on film.

I was able to point my telephoto lens directly at the sun and captured the corona around the edges. Totality in our location lasted for 2 minutes and 36 seconds. That was plenty of time to video, snap pictures and then just stand there soaking it all in. People were talking and kissing, the kids were running around hollering and I was just trying to experience the entire event. It did not look dark enough to me to see any stars but we did have clouds surrounding the area we were in.

Luckily Todd remembered to come over and shoot a selfie with the eclipse behind us. The street lights had come on and you could see camera flashes all over the park. Our totality lasted long enough that the crowd eventually got much quieter and immersed themselves in the moment. But the split second the moon let a crack of light through it instantly became day again. The crowd then again cheered and clapped asking for the moon to do it again. In a flash it was over. Waiting around to watch the end of the partial eclipse seemed so anticlimactic.

I have to say that the eclipse was most likely the coolest natural event I have ever witnessed. It was an experience and a memory that will last forever. Watching an eclipse in anything but totality from this point forward would make very little sense. Seeing the crescent sun is fun and the hazy sky is a bit weird but being plunged into darkness during the day opens the gates to the power of the planets and universe around us.

I urge everyone to make plans to view the 2024 solar eclipse in the path of totality. Our hometown of Enid, Oklahoma will experience a solar eclipse in August 2045 which puts us right in the middle of totality. I now plan on living at least until that day in which I can walk out my back door and see my last total eclipse. I’ll be 82 years old and I guarantee I’ll still get the same tingle and the goosebumps that I got at 54. Until the next one.

Back to the beginning of the story…

The post Part 4: Eclipse Chasers appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

In recent years I’ve ridden some pretty good roller coasters, I still skateboard down gnarly hills, I’ve hopped in a bi-plane and chased hot air balloons, I’ve zipped around the skies in a helicopter, I’ve ghost hunted in a haunted building, I’ve shot aerial photographs from the roof edge of a 14 story building, I’ve been deep sea fishing and I agreed to be a Honorary Commander at Vance, AFB hoping I might get to ride in a jet.

All of these were great experiences but nothing that really pushed my comfort level. Unfortunately I was unable to ride in the jet due to budget cuts and other factors which left me with a fun ride in a training simulator. The sims were fun but nothing like I knew an Air Force jet would be. I kept my fingers crossed hoping one day I’d get a call that past Honorary Commanders would get to fly.

Imagine my delight on February 22, 2016, a day that started out just like any other. I have this thing about numbers and lucky days and my lucky numbers are 2, 20 and 22. That date was the 22nd day of the 2nd month of a year beginning with 20, something good was bound to happen!

While working in my office I received an email from someone at Vance, AFB. I think I had to read the email multiple times to make sure I was reading it correctly. In a nutshell, it said, “When the Thunderbirds come for Vance’s Open House in July, they are inviting one local media representative to ride in one of their F-16s on Thursday, July 21. If you are interested and available, we would like you to be that person.” Wuh?! Are you kidding? If I’m interested!

After getting all giddy and jumping around like a school boy, I calmly replied that I would be available that day, I hadn’t even checked my calendar, and I would be interested. I pushed send and thought to myself, “What have I just done?”

The first thing you do when you get an invite to fly with the Thunderbirds is let every living soul within texting range know what just transpired. You contact your wife, your best friends, your mom, your co-workers and you look for strangers on the street. Family members and close friends are totally excited and can’t believe they picked YOU.

Telling your other friends that you get to ride with the Thunderbirds elicits a completely different response. Mostly you get responses like, “Take a barf bag, you’re going to throw up,” and, “You’ll never do 9 G’s, you’re going to pass out.” My response was always, “Not everybody throws up and passes out.” But of course that set the bar and now I have to fly without throwing up and passing out.

When you agree to be the once in a lifetime F-16 rider you start receiving emails with lots of forms. The first set of forms instruct you to get a physical within an exact time frame before your ride. So I immediately scheduled a physical which was almost exactly two months before the ride. The forms include lots of questions about your health history, a measurement guide and the form for the physician to fill out and sign. Then there’s that Hold Harmless Agreement which talks about death and discharging the government from any claims my family might have.

Air Force standards for a grueling Thunderbirds ride in tight quarters mean you can’t be taller than 6 feet 5 inches or older than 55 (I’m 53, whew!), must weigh between 110 and 220 lbs. and have a chest size between 34 and 48 inches and can’t have a waist larger than 38 inches. Even your shoe size matters; it has to fall between a man’s size 5 and 12.

While waiting on the date for my physical to arrive I spent countless hours watching YouTube videos of other F-16 adventurers. I can safely say that some throw up, some pass out and some don’t. I was looking for nuggets of information of how to prevent both.

It seems that throwing up is pretty common, even for first time pilots. Motion sickness typically occurs when the eyes disagree with the vestibular organ; in other words, when the movement you feel is different from the movement you see. Pilots build up a resistance to motion sickness over time plus the fact that they know what’s coming next while in flight and have time to prepare.

If you search these videos you quickly learn about G-LOC. G-force induced loss of consciousness (abbreviated as G-LOC, pronounced ‘JEE-lock’) is a term generally used in aerospace physiology to describe a loss of consciousness occurring from excessive and sustained g-forces draining blood away from the brain causing cerebral hypoxia. The Thunderbirds will try to get you to 9 G’s which is 9 times the force of gravity. So, if you weigh 150 lbs. you would feel like you weigh 1350 lbs. at 9 G’s.

With all of this information spinning in my head I’ve decided on four main goals for this flight. Avoid getting sick, don’t pass out, have loads of fun and get at least one good selfie. I passed my physical and have all forms signed and turned in. At this point its time to wait for the big day to arrive.

Getting Selected For A Ride With The Thunderbirds

You may be wondering why certain people are asked to take a flight with the Thunderbirds. It comes down to media and marketing. While exciting, Thunderbirds media flights are not offered as a means of entertainment. Media flights are not offered as rewards/prizes, nor are they offered as (re)payment for other services.

Local media professionals are specifically nominated to fly with the Thunderbirds based on their potential to communicate about the Air Force to a wide audience. The offer to fly is coupled with the expectation that significant media coverage will be generated shortly after the flight.

One of the forms that you fill out pre-flight has to do with the intent to broadcast/publish coverage of your Thunderbirds experience. You are asked many questions about where and when the coverage will be broadcast and how large your audience is expected to be.

As part of my experience I have decided to write this journal on the Enid Buzz blog throughout the process, I will also produce a professional video which will be seen on Facebook, YouTube, the mobile app and the website. In addition there will be lots of photos and hopefully an interview with my pilot.

Thanks for coming along for the ride! We’ll soon be off into the wild blue yonder!

Contact the Thunderbirds directly if you have questions about an invitation or other opportunities. Write to USAFADS, 4445 Tyndall Ave., Nellis AFB, NV 89191. Fax (702) 662-6367 or email usaf.thunderbirds@nellis.af.mil.

Read more about my journey in Flying With The Thunderbirds Part II.

The post Part 1: I Flew With The US Air Force Thunderbirds appeared first on Curtis Tucker.

The first thing I am reminded of is their disclaimer: Please understand that unforeseen circumstances may cause this flight to be delayed and/or canceled. Everything looks fine for that day, but all fliers should approach the day with a little mental flexibility.

I will need to be in place and ready for my first brief no later than 1:00pm on Thursday, July 21. Fliers are asked to wear or bring a cotton t-shirt (any color), cotton underwear, and a pair of cotton athletic socks (preferably ones that come up to the middle of the calves).

The Thunderbirds will provide me with the flight suit, harness, helmet, G-suit and all other gear necessary to make my flight as comfortable as possible. All I will wear under my flight suit is socks, t-shirt and underwear.

My first briefing will be with the flight equipment specialist. They will get my gear prepared and fitted especially for me. After that, I will brief with Maj. (Dr.) Christopher Scheibler, the flight surgeon. He will teach me how to deal with the effects of G forces and discuss breathing techniques. I will then spend an hour with my pilot, Thunderbird #7 – Kevin Walsh.

Walsh will talk me through all of the maneuvers that we will be experiencing during our flight. I can ask questions whenever I want – and they encourage me to become as comfortable with my pilot as possible during my brief.

The email was a reminder that this flight is for the flier and while we’re in the air, I’m encouraged to communicate with my pilot frequently. If there’s anything I particularly enjoy, I can ask to do it again. On the other hand, if there is something that I do not enjoy, I can also tell my pilot.

My scheduled take off time is at 4:15pm., and my flight should last about an hour. We will not be flying over Enid but will fly in the airspace used to train the Vance pilots. Walsh will take me through all of the maneuvers that the Thunderbirds will be performing.

Fliers are allowed to bring guests, including media members. Guests can stay with me for all of the pre- and post-flight activities/briefings. Jack Quirk and Renee Settlemires from KJ Filmworks will accompany me and film the entire experience.

The Thunderbirds will have a still photographer on hand who will take several photos of my day, and they provide me with all of the digital photos. Also, if all works out as it’s supposed to, the entire flight will be captured digitally with their in-cockpit, mounted HD GoPro camera. Once I provide them with a thumb drive, they’ll be able to get the photos and video into my hands right away.

They then addressed the BIG concern that most people are worried about — getting airsick. The email stated that it doesn’t happen as often as I might think, and there are a few things I will be able to do to minimize the possibility: Hydrate, sleep and eat.

They suggested I start hydrating right away, even though the ride was a week away. I am supposed to drink more water than I normally do…then I’m supposed to drink some more. Hydration combats motion sickness, so this step is key. I was told to drink extra water up until the evening before to avoid the need to use the restroom every few hours during the night, as sleep is important as well. Fliers should get a good night’s rest — at least 7 hours if possible.

The day of the flight, a flier should have food in their stomach, but nothing greasy and nothing spicy. Fruit, bread, bagels, oatmeal, light sandwiches, or peanut butter and banana toast are recommended. Some kind of light snack is allowed in case the flight is delayed.

The day of the flight, I will minimize caffeine and carbonation. Both are diuretics and will counteract my hydration efforts. One of goals is to not get airsick. I’ve never gotten sick on an amusement ride, an airplane flight or a deep sea fishing trip.

#7 Maj. Kevin Walsh – Operations Officer

Major Kevin Walsh is the Operations Officer for the U.S. Air Force Air Demonstration Squadron, flying the No. 7 jet. He entered the Air Force in 2002 as a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Throughout high school and college he played ice hockey, lacrosse and ran cross country. Before joining the team, Major Walsh was an instructor at the European F-16 Weapons School, Leeuwarden AB, Netherlands. He is a graduate of the USAF Weapons School and has logged over 2,000 hours of flight time with more than 500 hours of combat pilot experience. Major Walsh is in his first season with the team and hails from Long Island, NY.

Read about the day of my flight! Flying With The Thunderbirds Part III.

The post Part 2: My Ride With The Thunderbirds appeared first on Curtis Tucker.