Here's an interesting bit of information about the Thunderbirds. The number of the a/c is painted on the air intake and the number 5 plane's number is upside-down. I noticed this when they visited my hometown several years ago. I asked one of the alternate pilots why this was and he said that the number 5 plane does most of its maneuvers upside-down so, with the number upside-down it was right-side up when the a/c was doing its maneuvers.

They used to perform each June at the former Tri-City Airport (now MBS International Airport). I got to meet the 1975 team. The annual airshows were shut down over 30 years ago. Operations couldn't be stopped to permit a 10-minute show. Now if you want to see them perform in MI, then expect to spend at least two hours on the road.

A classmate of mine was a T-Bird and, as two fighter guys we were just shooting the sh*t about flying and the subject of formation positioning came up. He noted that, based on ground track of the show versus position of the bulk of the crowd the show is being put on for, what we would otherwise see as “in position” in formation had to be varied slightly to make it look “right” to an observer on the ground. So, for the four- or six-ship passes, the wingman adjusts for crowd position so, if you’re in the cockpit, it doesn’t “look quite right” but to the crowd, it’s spot on.

Details are important.