EI Centro Naval
ir Facility
THE SOBE SUZUKI RICER GOES
FLYING WITH THE BLUE ANGELS
STORY AND PHOTOS
By
KIT PALMER
~ oBe Suzuki's Sean Hamblin got
~ the ride of his life last week when
he went up in a Blue Angels F - 18
Hornet at the Naval Air Facility in EI
Centro, California. Lt. Craig Olson,
also known as "Merlin" to his flying
buddies, gave Hamblin a 30-minute
"tour" over the Southern California
desert that included an arsenal of flying stunts, such as loops, rolls, steep
turns, dives and a high-performance
climb on take-off. Hamblin also got
the chance to experience what it's
like to travel at nearly the speed of
sound and feel extreme G forces.
At one point, Olson flicked the F18 over and pulled 7.5 Gs (eight Gs
is pretty mu.ch the max they're
allowed to do) and Hamblin pulled
through with flying colors, none of
which was green.
"He sustained a lot of Gs and
didn't get sick," Olson said. "Obviously he's in good shape. And he
didn't use the 'party [barf] bag.'"
"A couple of times I thought I was
going to pass out," Hamblin said.
"We pulled 7.5 Gs going around a
corner, and it sucked me straight
back in my seat. It was gnarly. But
my main goal was not to throw up,
and I didn't even come close."
Many members of the Blue Angels'
team are big-time Supercross fans and
were just as thrill~d to have Hamblin
and some of the SoBe Suzuki crew
visiting as Hamblin and the Suzuki
team were to visit them. Suzuki
brought Travis Pastrana's team bike
(Hamblin's bike wasn't available, but
Pastrana's ride, of course, was available). A few of the Blue Angels said
(Below left) After the flight, Hamblin posed with the crew that made his dream
flight a reality. Lieutenant Craig Olson (far left) was the pilot.
(Below right) Chief Engineer Shawn Conley makes sure Hamblin is comfortable in
the F·18's cockpit.
Conley also added that even
though the F -18 that he would be
going up in is painted in the traditional blue and yellow Blue Angels color
scheme, "This aircraft could go to
war tomorrow. It's been modifjed only
slightly compared to the gray [warready] ones [F-18s]."
Hamblin's SoBe Suzuki teammate,
Sebastien Tortelli, was supposed to
join him for a ride, but the knee injury
Tortelli suffered the week before at
