In 1985 after the two solo's collided at the Niagara Falls NY show, only a week later I was at the Dayton Airshow and they put on a 5 ship show.
In 2007 #6 crashed because of GLOC on the rejoin. Soon after LCDR Davis’ crash, the Blue Angels began performing a five-jet demonstration. The squadron called back former Blue Angel, LCDR Craig Olson, to fill the opposing solo position. He began performing after practicing with the team for a few weeks. LCDR Olson had previously served with the squadron from 2003 to 2005, during which time he flew both solo positions. I imagine the same will happen this year.
It's been a tough week. This years Jones Beach Airshow was the best one since 2012, and included the Blues, Snowbirds and Breitling team. In addition the return of the USAF single ship (F-16) demo and HF with the F-35. That great show was marred by the loss of Bill Gordon and the AAM's P-47 on Friday night. I decided to not video the Blues performance, and instead just plugged in my earbuds to my scanner and heard all the coms. The solos were particularly chatty that day and were clearly having a good time. It was hard to tell which voice was which, but it's sad to think I was listening to the last performance of one of them.
It just struck me how good the reception was that day that I picked up every transmission clearly. On Saturday #5 toward the end of the show said he had a "bleed valve" problem and had to RTB. They finished the show as a 5 ship and on Sunday used #7 as a replacement, with #5 still at Republic . I also heard one of the solos in conversation after a maneuver says "I blacked out on that one", which got my attention. Both of those things were on my mind when I heard of the crash.
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