Reporter’s Notebook: Into the wild blue with the Breitling Jet Team
I put my life in the hands of a Frenchman named Paco on Thursday morning. Before that, I watched the most alarming safety video I’d ever seen.
An explanation:
My assignment was pretty sublime — join the Breitling Jet Team in a special flight from Long Beach Airport on Thursday, one day before the team’s appearance at this weekend’s inaugural Breitling Huntington Beach Airshow. Zip up in a flight suit. Strap on a flight helmet. Adjust the knob, letting the helmet’s visor rest in front of my eyes.
Then hang on, thousands of feet above Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Oh, and don’t touch the cockpit controls, specifically the two (easily accessible) reddish handles in my lap that, if pulled with enough force, would have launched me within seconds into the sky, cluelessly soaring in a parachute.
The safety video nonchalantly informed me and my six colleagues flying that morning to eject only when given specific, emphatic instruction from the pilot. Nervous smiles and quiet laughter ensued before one of the Breitling team members coolly replied something along the lines of, “Yeah, that’s just a safety precaution. We won’t be ejecting.”
Good thing.
The Breitling Jet Team — based in Dijon, France, and sponsored by Swiss watchmaker Breitling — is a civilian aerobatic team composed of seven Aero L-39 Albatros jets. Breitling has been touring in the United States and Canada since April 2015. Huntington Beach is the final tour stop.
For Paco Wallaert, my French pilot, flying above Surf City comes with emotions. It’s the end of a touring adventure highlighted by his racing above many American icons — Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Manhattan skyline.
“I will fly with emotion,” he said of the Huntington Beach show. “It’s the finale, the final show.”
Wallaert, 44, is a veteran of the French air force. He served 22 years, attaining the rank of captain. He’s the father of two and the descendant of pioneering pilots. Both his grandfather and great-grandfather flew.
On Thursday, Wallaert carried a piece of his family history — a mangled coin from 1918, attached to a necklace. During World War I, his great-grandfather was shot at and the coin, among others in his pocket, absorbed the impact of a bullet, saving him.
After the distressing safety video, we headed out to the runway, adorned in our black flight suits emblazoned with the Breitling logo and an “American Tour” patch. Our flight helmets were yellow.
A mechanic helped me into the aft cockpit, where it was initially hot until Wallaert turned on the engine that revs up the cockpit air conditioning.
“Are you good to go, Brad?” he asked.
“Good to go. Are you good?” I replied.
He laughed. “More than good. I’m better in the air than on the ground.”
He asked me about the Daily Pilot. I told him it’s an Orange County newspaper.
“It means pilot, but it’s not a newspaper for the pilots?” Wallaert inquired.
I chuckled and explained it’s pilot heritage of the nautical kind.
When we weren’t talking, there was radio chatter from the control tower and the Breitling team. It came in a wave of garbled English — aerial terms I can’t understand — and French, which I can’t understand either.
Wallaert has been with Breitling for three years. He flies in the No. 6 spot, known as the right outside wingman. For safety reasons, the pilots don’t try new stunts during shows.
“There is no improvisation,” Wallaert said. “Everybody has his place.”
Soon enough, we were in the air.
All seven jets hung an immediate left, staying in formation and flying past the Port of Long Beach at 250 mph. Then we went south toward Huntington Beach before heading east past Anaheim and north to the San Gabriel Mountains near La Crescenta.
We approached the mountain range and the Breitling leader told air traffic controllers that the jets wanted to do maneuvers between 3,000 and 8,000 feet. After a delay — they say the Los Angeles-area airspace, like the ground, is quite busy — the team got approval and we undertook the first maneuver.
It was a complete vertical loop, pounding my body with g-forces to the extent that I started to black out. We were told about that possibility at the safety briefing.
They warned we would feel intense pressure, “which is completely normal,” because blood is leaving our brain and upper body and heading toward our feet.
But for pilots, “it’s no problem,” a Breitling team leader quipped. “We have no brains.”
Wallaert, who himself sounded a bit strained as we ascended, told me to contract my lower body to help keep blood from leaving my head. I looked to the sky. For a few seconds, my vision grew darker, like watching black paint drip down a blue canvas.
Quickly, though, the black was gone. I belted out a moderate hoot.
Next was a barrel roll, which was easy to withstand compared with the loop. I laughed when we were upside down. Surprisingly, it didn’t feel different than being right side up.
The rest of the flight was easy going. Still, it was shocking to witness how the group can stay so close together as the planes bob in the air. All the while, the team was in constant contact with air traffic controllers, who guided us back to Long Beach.
We cruised by Dodger Stadium. Wallaert kept his eyes ahead while occasionally looking down at the ballpark to see the big “LA” letters.
We passed over Seal Beach and turned toward Long Beach. Wallaert said he wants to rent a surfboard and hit Huntington’s waves. He later told me he also has a skateboard. I said he’d blend right in with the locals.
We landed at Long Beach as several people, including a Long Beach police officer standing outside his squad car, recorded the landing on their phones. They waved. I waved back.
“We’re gonna have a million views on YouTube,” Wallaert joked.
He reminded me of his interest in surfing in Huntington Beach.
“The life is good here,” he said. “I’m very happy to do the last show here. Good vibes.”
I’ll admit I was nervous in the days before the assignment. It was my first aerobatic jet ride, which itself is a rare thing to do. Would I be able to handle such extreme gravitational pulls?
But everything turned out fine. “The bag,” as we’ll call it, never left its holster. And, for the record, my heart beat faster while watching that safety video than during anything else.
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IF YOU GO
What: Breitling Huntington Beach Airshow
When: Noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Where: Prime viewing at Pacific Coast Highway and Beach Boulevard
Cost: Free; upgraded seats are available for $50 to $200
Info: hbairshow.com
Twitter: @BradleyZint
