El Centro, CA — March 1, 2006 — By Chris Dolack, VP Public Relations
Donny Schatz played it cool, listening intently as Sgt. Deo
Harrypersaud briefed the World of Outlaws Sprint Series star about an
hour before Lt. Kevin Davis took him for the ride of his life.
Schatz soared through the sky Wednesday above El Centro, Calif., in a
U.S. Navy Blue Angels F/A-18B Hornet, a machine with a little more kick
than his No. 15 ParkerStore J&J that he’ll race Friday night in the
Cactus Classic at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, Saturday night at USA
Race Park in Tucson and next Thursday and Friday at The Dirt Track at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Shortly after takeoff, Lt. Davis, a Top Gun instructor, powered Schatz
straight up to 5,500 feet in mere seconds. They broke the sound barrier
and pulled 7.5 times the force of gravity, almost double what he can
pull in his sprint car. And through it all, Schatz kept his calm — and
consciousness.
After a preflight briefing, Schatz wasn’t too sure how his body would
handle the experience.
“I’m excited and scared both,” said the 28-year-old Mean 15 racer from
Fargo, N.D. “I don’t want to pass out, but I guess it might happen.”
After an hour of maneuvers over Southern California with Lt. Davis,
Schatz was at a loss for words to explain what he had just gone through
in a plane that includes more than 25 systems that use components from
his sponsor Parker, including the fuel system, cockpit display, landing
gear, anti-icing and nose wheel steering.
“The things they do with these planes is unbelievable,” he said. “You
don’t have time to think. It’s amazing what you do. We rolled straight
up in the air and went to 5,500 feet in a matter of four or five
seconds. The G-force that sits you back in your seat, gets you all
woozy. It’s a real scary feeling, but it’s amazing. You can look out to
the side and see the ground back here like this, then it’s up here,
then it’s here. It’s hard to describe, but the airplanes here are
definitely performers, and better than that are the pilots who are able
to deal with the environment the way they do and know where they are at
all times.”
Lt. Davis was impressed with how Schatz handled the ride.
“It was great,” he said. “Donny was a real sport about it. He handled
himself very well. He was used to the confined space being a race
driver. I think he felt pretty comfortable in the jet once we got up
there. Flying around upside down did not bother him one bit. He seemed
pretty comfortable hanging in the straps there. It was a pleasure. It
was great to take him up flying.”
Schatz, who is a licensed pilot, never experienced anything in flight
as he did on Wednesday.
“There’s nothing quite like this,” said Schatz, who dominated the
winter in Australia with eight victories and picked up another win in
February at Volusia Speedway Park. “I was shown how they do some
tactical maneuvers above the ground and you can’t explain it. The sheer
performance and the power and the sophistication of the computers on
board these things … we went from 120 knots to well over 600 in a
matter of 20 seconds. You can feel yourself by leaps and bounds getting
faster by the second. It’s amazing how it works and you’re only 50 to
100 feet off the ground in some spots. It’s indescribable is what it
is. You have to really go along for the ride to realize it. You can see
what you want in the movies, but it doesn’t do it any justice as to
when you’re sitting in that cockpit and seeing everything. You can see
the pilot in front of you, but you can see everything out to the sides.
It’s just beautiful. It’s nice and quiet, you can hear the wind going
over the canopy.”
The Blue Angels represent the U.S. Navy and Marines around the country
each year, providing selected individuals a chance to experience the
unreal thrills. Sometimes the passengers handle the experience better
than others. Pulling 7.5 Gs in a minimum radius turn for about 12
seconds, Schatz experienced more than 1,400 pounds of pressure on his
body, enough to make the blood rush out his head if not for some
techniques he learned in the preflight briefing.
“The G-forces that you pull, it’s very hard to maintain consciousness,”
said Schatz, who normally pulls about 4 Gs in his sprint car. “I don’t
know if I was conscious or not. I couldn’t see anything, all I could
see was black but I could feel myself holding on. I know I was pretty
close to going out if I wasn’t out. Lt. Davis says I wasn’t out. It’s
just kind of scary to have those circumstances in your environment, but
there’s just a lot of maneuvers that require focus and being able to
flex certain muscles in your body to maintain the blood in your head.
It wore me out awful quick.
“We maxed out at 7.5 Gs. You don’t feel 4 Gs in a sprint car, maybe
it’s because we do it every day, but obviously they do 7.5 every day
and they understand how to cope with that and how to deal with the
environment. They showed me a little bit how to do it, and I tried but
it doesn’t take much to put yourself in a situation where you are
blacked out. Those guys do it and maintain full control of those
airplanes in battle. They really know what they’re doing when they get
behind the stick of these things.
“There’s excitement there, but it’s a different kind of excitement.
When we got to 6.5 Gs and I was starting to see black, it changes your
views a little bit. It’s a scary excitement. You can’t describe how
much fun it was, but in the same sense you have fun and scary all in
the same sentence. Anybody who has experienced it probably knows where
I’m coming from.”
Schatz says his nervousness before the Blue Angels ride doesn’t compare
at all with his experiences before competing in a major race.
“I wouldn’t think of getting as nervous at the Knoxville Nationals as I
was today,” Schatz said. “Every time these guys strap in these things
there’s a chance they might not come back, that they might not come
down on the ground on the wheels. Any time you get in an airplane you
have that thought. Even though it’s just a casual thing, anything can
happen. You always keep that in the back of your mind. The safest place
I feel is in my racecar. With me behind the wheel, I feel like I’m in a
good safe place and I don’t think about those things. With these types
of aircraft, it doesn’t have to be the pilot’s fault, it can be an
unforeseen circumstance. I was awful nervous when I got in it. I
wouldn’t compare it to nervousness at the Nationals because I don’t get
nervous to get in a racecar.”
Schatz probably won’t be too nervous to hop in a plane again, either,
after his day of maneuvers over Southern California. He experienced
nearly everything possible in the jet except for ejecting, something
Sgt. Harrypersaud said in his briefing that the Blue Angels never do on
Wednesdays, which elicited a smile from the anxious Schatz.
“I think everybody should be able to experience this,” Schatz said.
“It’s not just a matter of how fast these planes go and the things that
they do, it’s just the way the pilots are able to deal with the
conditions. Lt. Davis took me for a heck of a ride. I’ve got to thank
him for the ride I got. We did things you can’t ever do anything but
tell people about. It was a great honor to be a part of it and I’m glad
I got to experience it because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
The Blue Angels’ mission is to enhance Navy and Marine Corps recruiting
efforts and to represent the naval service to the United States, its
elected leadership and foreign nations. The Blue Angels, celebrating
their 60th anniversary this year, serve as positive role models and
goodwill ambassadors for the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps. A Blue Angels
flight demonstration exhibits choreographed refinements of skills
possessed by all naval aviators. It includes the graceful aerobatic
maneuvers of the four-plane Diamond Formation, in concert with the
fast-paced, high-performance maneuvers of its two Solo Pilots. Finally,
the team illustrates the pinnacle of precision flying, performing
maneuvers locked as a unit in the renowned, six-jet Delta Formation.
The team is stationed at Forrest Sherman Field, Naval Air Station
Pensacola, Fla., during the show season. However, the squadron spends
January through March training pilots and new team members at Naval Air
Facility El Centro, Calif. The Blue Angels are scheduled to fly nearly
68 air shows at 35 locations in the United States during the 2006
season. Last season brought out more than 17 million spectators. Since
its inception in 1946, the Blue Angels have performed for more than 414
million fans
Schatz and the World of Outlaws race in the annual Cactus Classic
Friday at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix and before making the series’
inaugural appearance Saturday at USA Race Park in Tucson, Ariz., with
4:30 p.m. autograph sessions featuring several Mean 15 racers preceding
each event. The Outlaws will invade The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway for a two-day event March 9-10 in conjunction with the NASCAR
Nextel Cup Series weekend. The Mean 15 racers will sign autographs at
2:30 p.m. on Friday, March 10, in the midway near the LVMS 1.5-mile
oval.
Donny Schatz played it cool, listening intently as Sgt. Deo
Harrypersaud briefed the World of Outlaws Sprint Series star about an
hour before Lt. Kevin Davis took him for the ride of his life.
Schatz soared through the sky Wednesday above El Centro, Calif., in a
U.S. Navy Blue Angels F/A-18B Hornet, a machine with a little more kick
than his No. 15 ParkerStore J&J that he’ll race Friday night in the
Cactus Classic at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix, Saturday night at USA
Race Park in Tucson and next Thursday and Friday at The Dirt Track at
Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Shortly after takeoff, Lt. Davis, a Top Gun instructor, powered Schatz
straight up to 5,500 feet in mere seconds. They broke the sound barrier
and pulled 7.5 times the force of gravity, almost double what he can
pull in his sprint car. And through it all, Schatz kept his calm — and
consciousness.
After a preflight briefing, Schatz wasn’t too sure how his body would
handle the experience.
“I’m excited and scared both,” said the 28-year-old Mean 15 racer from
Fargo, N.D. “I don’t want to pass out, but I guess it might happen.”
After an hour of maneuvers over Southern California with Lt. Davis,
Schatz was at a loss for words to explain what he had just gone through
in a plane that includes more than 25 systems that use components from
his sponsor Parker, including the fuel system, cockpit display, landing
gear, anti-icing and nose wheel steering.
“The things they do with these planes is unbelievable,” he said. “You
don’t have time to think. It’s amazing what you do. We rolled straight
up in the air and went to 5,500 feet in a matter of four or five
seconds. The G-force that sits you back in your seat, gets you all
woozy. It’s a real scary feeling, but it’s amazing. You can look out to
the side and see the ground back here like this, then it’s up here,
then it’s here. It’s hard to describe, but the airplanes here are
definitely performers, and better than that are the pilots who are able
to deal with the environment the way they do and know where they are at
all times.”
Lt. Davis was impressed with how Schatz handled the ride.
“It was great,” he said. “Donny was a real sport about it. He handled
himself very well. He was used to the confined space being a race
driver. I think he felt pretty comfortable in the jet once we got up
there. Flying around upside down did not bother him one bit. He seemed
pretty comfortable hanging in the straps there. It was a pleasure. It
was great to take him up flying.”
Schatz, who is a licensed pilot, never experienced anything in flight
as he did on Wednesday.
“There’s nothing quite like this,” said Schatz, who dominated the
winter in Australia with eight victories and picked up another win in
February at Volusia Speedway Park. “I was shown how they do some
tactical maneuvers above the ground and you can’t explain it. The sheer
performance and the power and the sophistication of the computers on
board these things … we went from 120 knots to well over 600 in a
matter of 20 seconds. You can feel yourself by leaps and bounds getting
faster by the second. It’s amazing how it works and you’re only 50 to
100 feet off the ground in some spots. It’s indescribable is what it
is. You have to really go along for the ride to realize it. You can see
what you want in the movies, but it doesn’t do it any justice as to
when you’re sitting in that cockpit and seeing everything. You can see
the pilot in front of you, but you can see everything out to the sides.
It’s just beautiful. It’s nice and quiet, you can hear the wind going
over the canopy.”
The Blue Angels represent the U.S. Navy and Marines around the country
each year, providing selected individuals a chance to experience the
unreal thrills. Sometimes the passengers handle the experience better
than others. Pulling 7.5 Gs in a minimum radius turn for about 12
seconds, Schatz experienced more than 1,400 pounds of pressure on his
body, enough to make the blood rush out his head if not for some
techniques he learned in the preflight briefing.
“The G-forces that you pull, it’s very hard to maintain consciousness,”
said Schatz, who normally pulls about 4 Gs in his sprint car. “I don’t
know if I was conscious or not. I couldn’t see anything, all I could
see was black but I could feel myself holding on. I know I was pretty
close to going out if I wasn’t out. Lt. Davis says I wasn’t out. It’s
just kind of scary to have those circumstances in your environment, but
there’s just a lot of maneuvers that require focus and being able to
flex certain muscles in your body to maintain the blood in your head.
It wore me out awful quick.
“We maxed out at 7.5 Gs. You don’t feel 4 Gs in a sprint car, maybe
it’s because we do it every day, but obviously they do 7.5 every day
and they understand how to cope with that and how to deal with the
environment. They showed me a little bit how to do it, and I tried but
it doesn’t take much to put yourself in a situation where you are
blacked out. Those guys do it and maintain full control of those
airplanes in battle. They really know what they’re doing when they get
behind the stick of these things.
“There’s excitement there, but it’s a different kind of excitement.
When we got to 6.5 Gs and I was starting to see black, it changes your
views a little bit. It’s a scary excitement. You can’t describe how
much fun it was, but in the same sense you have fun and scary all in
the same sentence. Anybody who has experienced it probably knows where
I’m coming from.”
Schatz says his nervousness before the Blue Angels ride doesn’t compare
at all with his experiences before competing in a major race.
“I wouldn’t think of getting as nervous at the Knoxville Nationals as I
was today,” Schatz said. “Every time these guys strap in these things
there’s a chance they might not come back, that they might not come
down on the ground on the wheels. Any time you get in an airplane you
have that thought. Even though it’s just a casual thing, anything can
happen. You always keep that in the back of your mind. The safest place
I feel is in my racecar. With me behind the wheel, I feel like I’m in a
good safe place and I don’t think about those things. With these types
of aircraft, it doesn’t have to be the pilot’s fault, it can be an
unforeseen circumstance. I was awful nervous when I got in it. I
wouldn’t compare it to nervousness at the Nationals because I don’t get
nervous to get in a racecar.”
Schatz probably won’t be too nervous to hop in a plane again, either,
after his day of maneuvers over Southern California. He experienced
nearly everything possible in the jet except for ejecting, something
Sgt. Harrypersaud said in his briefing that the Blue Angels never do on
Wednesdays, which elicited a smile from the anxious Schatz.
“I think everybody should be able to experience this,” Schatz said.
“It’s not just a matter of how fast these planes go and the things that
they do, it’s just the way the pilots are able to deal with the
conditions. Lt. Davis took me for a heck of a ride. I’ve got to thank
him for the ride I got. We did things you can’t ever do anything but
tell people about. It was a great honor to be a part of it and I’m glad
I got to experience it because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”
The Blue Angels’ mission is to enhance Navy and Marine Corps recruiting
efforts and to represent the naval service to the United States, its
elected leadership and foreign nations. The Blue Angels, celebrating
their 60th anniversary this year, serve as positive role models and
goodwill ambassadors for the U. S. Navy and Marine Corps. A Blue Angels
flight demonstration exhibits choreographed refinements of skills
possessed by all naval aviators. It includes the graceful aerobatic
maneuvers of the four-plane Diamond Formation, in concert with the
fast-paced, high-performance maneuvers of its two Solo Pilots. Finally,
the team illustrates the pinnacle of precision flying, performing
maneuvers locked as a unit in the renowned, six-jet Delta Formation.
The team is stationed at Forrest Sherman Field, Naval Air Station
Pensacola, Fla., during the show season. However, the squadron spends
January through March training pilots and new team members at Naval Air
Facility El Centro, Calif. The Blue Angels are scheduled to fly nearly
68 air shows at 35 locations in the United States during the 2006
season. Last season brought out more than 17 million spectators. Since
its inception in 1946, the Blue Angels have performed for more than 414
million fans
Schatz and the World of Outlaws race in the annual Cactus Classic
Friday at Manzanita Speedway in Phoenix and before making the series’
inaugural appearance Saturday at USA Race Park in Tucson, Ariz., with
4:30 p.m. autograph sessions featuring several Mean 15 racers preceding
each event. The Outlaws will invade The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway for a two-day event March 9-10 in conjunction with the NASCAR
Nextel Cup Series weekend. The Mean 15 racers will sign autographs at
2:30 p.m. on Friday, March 10, in the midway near the LVMS 1.5-mile
oval.
