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Bantam flies high with Thunderbirds: One of six pilots for U.S. Air Force demo team is '97 Clarkston High grad
Jul 04, 2009 (The Lewiston Morning Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
When Aaron Jelinek graduated from Clarkston High School in 1997, all he wanted to do was fly fighter jets for a living.
That's a bit like saying you want to be a rock star, though: There's no shortage of competition. When it comes to strapping on a rocket and roaring down the runway, hundreds of hopefuls never make the cut.
But Jelinek, a former basketball and track and field star for the Bantams, charted a path and achieved his goal in 2003, when the U.S. Air Force selected him to fly F-16s.
Now he's taking his dream one step further. The 29-year-old captain was recently named one of six pilots on the Air Force Thunderbirds demonstration team. After four months of training at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas this fall, he'll join the team for its next two air show seasons.
"This is the first year I'm eligible to serve with the team," said Jelinek, during a telephone interview from Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, where he's an instructor pilot and flying program supervisor. "I've always thought it would be great to be able to represent our Air Force personnel, who I'm incredibly proud of. The Thunderbirds' primary mission is to represent those 700,000 personnel (including the Air Force Reserves and Air National Guard) and recruit the best people possible. The flying is great and fun and incredibly precise, but that's only part of it."
The Thunderbirds travel about 210 days per year, performing at air shows around the country and overseas. In addition to the six pilots and six other officer positions, more than 120 enlisted personnel are part of the team. Three officer slots were available this year, including two pilots and one narrator. Jelinek said he would have been happy with any of them.
"I applied to be part of a team," he said.
Nevertheless, he was "thrilled" to be chosen for the opposing solo position, one of two solo pilots on the team. While the other four demonstrate precise flying maneuvers as part of a diamond formation, the solo pilots get to showcase what the F-16 is capable of doing.
"They'll fly low, make fast turns and maneuvers and demonstrate the max performance of the aircraft," Jelinek said. "They'll also make opposing passes, coming from behind the crowds to meet at the center of the airfield, rocking their wings to miss by a couple of feet while closing at over 1,000 knots."
That's distinctly different than the type of flying pilots in combat squadrons engage in, he said. Although combat pilots learn to fly in close formation, coming within three feet of each other, they typically practice tactical flying where they're a mile or more apart. They'll fly at medium altitudes, so they have good visibility, and the lowest they'll go is about 500 feet.
The Thunderbirds push the envelope a little further. They drop down to 100 feet, Jelinek said, and in the diamond formation they'll fly within 18 inches of each other while cruising at a brisk 450-500 knots.
"Fast and close. That's why the selection process is so competitive," he said. "You need a minimum of 750 flight hours to apply for the team. They want someone with enough flight hours that they can train for a few months and be just as precise as the last pilot."
Jelinek's parents moved to Montana last year, but his older brother, Adam, is still here. He's an orthopedic surgeon at Lewiston Orthopaedic Associates -- but the way he remembers it, he and Aaron had different career aspirations in high school.
"I wanted to be a fighter pilot and he wanted to be a doctor," Adam said. "Somehow we got turned around. But I'm really proud of him. It looks like the coolest thing. It's an interesting career and fun thing to do."
As part of the Thunderbirds application process, Jelinek had to submit basically his entire military record, which includes a computer science degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University just after he joined the Air Force in 2001, plus pilot school at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, where he trained on T-37 and T-38 jets before being selected for the F-16.
He described the jet as "the Corvette of airplanes."
"It fits like a glove," Jelinek said. "With that bubble canopy, the visibility is unmatched, and it has amazing acceleration. The videos you always see are of it flying straight up for 15,000 to 20,000 feet. The pilot's probably screaming by that point. The easiest way to describe it is, take the wildest roller coaster ride you've ever been on and multiply it by a thousand."
After another few years in the States, he deployed to Balad Air Base in Iraq in 2007. He flew 235 combat hours in five months there, mostly on night missions, then spent a year at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea before returning to Luke as an instructor pilot.
Performance reports from all these assignments were part of his application packet. Before he even interviewed with the Thunderbirds, they knew his history and thought he had a chance to make the team. He and nine other semi-finalists were then selected for onsite interviews with the team commander, crew chief and base generals. Following a second interview, Jelinek made the cut.
He'll transfer to Nellis Air Base in November. After the final air show of the 2009 season, he and the rest of the team will begin training for next year.
"We'll start out with single ship manuevers, then two, then practice the delta formation and with all six jets," Jelinek said. "I'll be flying two or three times per day. Right now (at Luke), I fly maybe three or four times a week, versus 10 to 15 times with the Thunderbirds. I can't wait."
On the Web: thunderbirds.airforce.com
Spence may be contacted at bspence@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2274.
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to http://www.lmtribune.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Lewiston Morning Tribune,
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