All right, all right, all right. Welcome back to a really cool episode today. We are joined by Buster, who's going to be doing the flyover for this room. Buster, how are you doing today? Doing great. First time in California, actually, much less for an occasion as big as this. So really exciting, really happy to be here. It's going to be an awesome time. That's pretty cool. So I want to start here. How do you even get selected to do the flyover? Honestly, I mean, we're – I don't want to say we kind of just put our names in the hat and they pick one. But, I mean, we're all very skilled air crew members. Honestly, it comes down to who's available and, you know, what other commitments they have going on at the time. I thankfully was free to do this. It's awesome. So I'm very happy to be here. So what was your reaction when you were like, oh, man, you're going to – Because I don't know in terms of, like, pilot milestones, but it's got to be pretty cool. Like, I'm somebody who, like, no matter what, National Anthem had a big sporty event, auto goosebumps. So, like, you're going to be a huge part of that is doing the flyover, which is, like, synonymous with this. So, like, what was your reaction to hear you're going to do it? I mean, just super excited. I mean, once in a lifetime kind of thing. Like, I'm never going to get to do anything like this cool probably every year. Like, I mean, just absolutely hyped. and getting to do it with a whole bunch of other people around the Air Force and around the Navy, that's not something we get to do very often. So just super excited. That's pretty amazing. And can you tell us what aircraft you'll be flying over the stadium? Yeah, so we'll be in the lead aircraft, which is the B-1. Oh, nice. I love the B-1, dude. I don't want to brag, but it'll be drawn the most high. Yes, 100%. That's cool. That's awesome. Yeah what it like just the maneuverability between a fighter and a bomber even one that can go supersonic Yeah B really really unusual in that it really wants to fly like a fighter jet You know, we can pull a decent amount of Gs for the size of the plane, and obviously, like you said, we can go supersonic, which is something that no other bomber in the world can do while carrying the largest conventional payload in the Air Force. So, I mean, it's just the coolest dang jet all around. Yeah, that's awesome. Biased a little bit, I guess. But I mean, like, definitely, definitely awesome. That's cool. The thing is, this might be the dumbest question. I don't know. But I'm a big movie guy. Top Gun Maverick is, like, the first thing. Like, how, like, when you watch a movie like that, are you just, like, sitting there like, this is either super unrealistic, or are you just like, oh, this is fun? Yeah. I try really hard to just enjoy it and, like, not pick it apart. Because the moment I start noticing little things, it kind of kills it. So I just try to, like, forget about it. Yeah. Just enjoy it. Yeah. Wait, what's the fastest that you've gone? The fastest that I've gone? I've gone Mach 1.2. Wow. 1.2 times the speed of sound. Wow. That is pretty awesome. Like, I mean, when you're in the cockpit for something like doing that, like, what is that like? Like, is it like breaking the sound barrier? Yeah. It's actually really, really anticlimactic. Really? You cannot tell the difference. Okay. Yeah, yeah. It's when you slow down from going that speed. It kind of feels like slamming on the brakes in your car. Like, you lurch forward a little bit. like you really feel it you come down from the speed yeah going up you know it's just like business as usual yeah yeah that's really cool and so when you if we can talk about this when you were in the the academy and you graduated were you assigned the b1 is that what you were assigned when you graduated so it's it's a really long okay convoluted track so okay you know i i commissioned into the air force out of college went to um navigator training down in florida right i was there for about two years and it kind of like right towards the end where you get slotted in your aircraft and then you go off to that plane and get even more training All of a sudden done, it took about three-ish years to get to that. Are you based in Florida? Not based in Florida now. I'm based out of South Dakota, out of Ellsworth. That's where the B-1 is coming from. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for this, like, are you taking off from here, but, like, are all, like, the B-1s, like, they take off from South Dakota, or is that, like, just yours? Yeah, so we're, you know, we got it prepared, so there's going to be, like, spare aircraft, you know, just in the same way. Got it, got it, got it. Yeah, yeah. You know, whatever it is. Yeah. But, yeah, there will be at least one. So when you're doing the flyover, I mean, this is, I'm assuming this is your first flyover, right? Yeah. like when you're going to be flying is it business as usual or are you going to be kind of like pumping yeah i think everybody's going to be yeah it's going to be really hard not to be of course it's sick yeah as far as you know like meeting kind of the time on target at the end of the national anthem that's yeah like that's always a little nerve-wracking because every literally everybody's going to be watching you and if you mess it up they'll notice that kind of thing but i mean it's it's nothing too crazy do you have like somebody and you're like telling like all they're at this point like you have to now like make your way over like everybody's gonna be working pretty closely with people on the ground to time it just right um though you know lots of practice lots of rehearsal kind of makes things pretty smooth how many times have you done the the route none okay first time that's awesome oh yeah and do you would you think that like something like a flyover like this uh do you feel like it's something that i i guess what i'm trying to say is is when it comes to what your normal flying experience is like in the sense like you very much controlled I know he was like saying if you gonna be very like energetic but do you think that just the experience of flying itself like will it stick out being able to go over like a stadium usually a very big no fly zone like how do you think that's going to be it definitely feels a little weird flying over something that big that low but i mean like it's all very like choreographed it's very safe like you know we're checking all over boxes yeah that's really cool like no sweat at all that's gonna be awesome man. I was gonna say have you talked to anybody on like the demo teams for advice about how to go low and like maybe like the best way to do a wing wave over here? No, no, nothing like that. We got it handled pretty well. We're gonna be turning into the zeroes and we're doing 360 flips around. I'll be like that's Buster up there in the front. That's awesome. Yeah that actually is really pretty cool like seeing you do the flowers like we know that guy. We know that guy. And the B1 man what a plane it's just that plane like really sticks out like you said not just in the the way it wants to fly but just the shape in of itself and everything it is the coolest looking thing i was gonna ask you have experience flying other like aircraft military aircraft besides what i was trained in in my you know like undergraduate flying training so the t6 and the t1 those are the kind of standard air force training aircraft yeah nothing crazy at all nothing flashy but like those are the only other crap i've touched yeah well listen the final question god for you do you have a dog in this fight are you going seahawks or patriots uh i i don't have the dog really but i want the seahawks yeah okay yeah yeah just for i'm going for the seahawks too we're from so we're from miami so i'm a miami dolphins guy i hate the patriots so being from dallas yeah yeah yeah there we go well awesome thank you man for Join us and good luck on Sunday. We will literally be watching you. I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, it's going to be awesome. Thank you, man.
