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| Boeing F/A-18C . SL Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron . 2018 |
For the NFDS Blue Angels team pilots and crews, SL United States Navy Third Fleet.
"How do I become a Blue Angel?"
The Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron (NFDS) Blue Angels mirrors in Second Life the real life team and its purpose: to be the ambassadors of the US Navy and an example of the knowledge of flight and discipline all naval aviators embody.
To become one you need to be a certified naval aviator within the US Navy SL structure, which means an ongoing career that starts with USNSL Officer Candidates School (OCS) or SLMC Basic School. You must be a carrier certified pilot with service in an active duty squadron and a minimum of 150 hours (SL USN) or 100 hours (SLMC) flown as a naval aviator in jet aircraft. You then apply for a tour of duty with the Blue Angels, through your command.
SLMC pilots applying for the C-130 crew positions must have the same career background as any naval aviator, be in an active duty squadron and have a minimum of 80 hours flown in multi engine aircraft, propellers or jets.
Tours of duty with the Blue Angels are requested through each naval aviator/enlisted person's command and must be recommended by his/her commanding officer. Each Blue Angels pilot and crew member remains active in their assigned SL USN or SLMC units. The squadron examines each candidate and accepts him/her unanimously.
Ground crews are required the equivalent level of excellence and should be active duty SL USN or SLMC enlisted personnel with a minimum of 2 months with their assigned units.
There are only 8 Blue Angels assigned positions by number, although the steady number of officers in the team is 30, in Second Life's NFDS. The team's ideal formation has 7 Alpha and 7 Bravo pilots, 1 Alpha and 1 Bravo Events Coordinator, 1 Alpha and 1 Bravo Marine C-130 pilots and 6 Alpha and 6 Bravo Marines as support.
There are a few differences between the RL NFDS and SL's for obvious reasons.
For Second Life USN purposes the squadron is, as in real life, the Navy's ambassador squadron, all members including SL USMC crews are given a NAS Miramar group position to use group privileges (such as exclusive communications - see below). As part of the NFDS, NAS PAX River is the team's operational station, while NAF Boonootoo remains its support facility.
SL NFDS - SL USN
Angel 1. The Boss - Team leader and Diamond head
Angel 2. Left Wing - Diamond port side
Angel 3. Right Wing - Diamond starboard side
Angel 4. Slot - Diamond end
Angel 5. Lead Solo
Angel 6. Opposing Solo
Angel 7. Narrator/Solo Alternate
Angel 8. Events Coordinator/Ground Ops Coordinator (GOC)
Fat Albert - SL USMC crew
Ground Crew - SL USN/USMC crews
1. The Jet Team
AIRCRAFT, UNIFORMS & COMMUNICATIONS
The Blue Angels in Second Life's USN flew the heritage 1955 Grumman F9F-6 and F9F-8T Cougar in the 2016 and 2017 Seasons and currently fly the Boeing F/A-18C and F/A-18D Hornet. Each team pilot, active, reserve or retired, has a unique aircraft that will never be assigned to another. The Bureau Numbers on the aircraft tails are unique. Following NFDSCO directives, the pilot's name may be included in future liveries.
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| Vintage Blue Angels Cougar line up at NAS Miramar, 2016. |
The Blue Angels support crew is made and flown in a Hercules C-130 belonging to the Marine Corps and is composed of Marines (C-130) and Marines and USN enlisted personnel (Ground). "Fat Albert" is the nickname given to the plane by Marine Corps Blue Angel pilots in the 1970s because of its size and shape. It is a reference to the popular children's cartoon of the same era.
Blue Angels aviators need three things they are responsible for acquiring:
1. A stock version of the current jet flown by the team
2. The adopted Blue Angels flight suit
3. The adopted service khakis uniform (USN and USMC)
Links to Market place items:
Flight suit MEN / Flight Suit WOMEN
(click each to follow link)
USN Service Khakis Uniform MEN / USN Service Khakis Uniform WOMEN
(details with each pilot's main group)
Current vintage jet stock version store in world (no market place link available):
Grumman F9F-6/F9F-8T Cougar (click to go to in world store)
Current jet stock version in world (no market place link available):
Boeing F/A-18C and F/A-18D Hornet (click to go to in world store)
Aircraft note:
After you have the Cougar stock version the NFDS CO or XO will contact the manufacturer and you will receive from her the Blue Angels last version of the current model we fly. You will then proceed to apply the unique livery assigned to you as described below.
All Blue Angels active members should have active voice capability in and out of SL. The team uses voice for coordination and all team members should be able to HEAR voice. For the positions of Angel 1, Angel 5 and Angel 7 you should SPEAK as well. Without speaking through voice those positions are extremely hard to be executed.
We use GRIDTALKIE as our mandatory chat communication system - voice is only recommended.
As part of the SL USN/USMC structure, pilots will have uniforms in which to attend official events in US Navy or USMC attire (as in NOT Blue Angels flight suits).
Optional additions to Blue Angels flight suits (scarves, leather jackets, etc.) are approved by NFDSCO and used only before and after shows. On game days all uniforms are stripped of personal additional elements with the single exception of shades (recommended OFF for flight).
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| The Blue Angels naval aviator cases. |
At the time of integration with the NFDS, each pilot is given two cases.
Case name: Blue Angels Helmet Case 07/2016
(each numbered - example is case # 7)
This case contains the Blue Angels unscripted boom microphone helmet required in three versions:
- BA Helmet Sygma 2 Mic - V [ Visor down ]
- BA Helmet Sygma 2 Mic - VU [ Visor up ]
- BA Helmet Sygma 2 Mic - HAND [ Hand held ]
Case name: CDR. Asra "Cougar" Kron USN
(each with rank and name of the aviator - example is CDR. Kron's case)
This case contains the aviator's additional elements for the Blue Angels official flight suit, namely:
- BA Patch Cougar 2016 flight suit [ wings and name chest patch ]
- Blue Angels Suit NUMBER [ suit position number ]
- Set of 10 textures numbers 0 to 9
- (RANK) insignia Garrison Cap - full perms [ where rank is the actual rank ]
- Blue Angels LEFT arm FLAG [ White border embroidered US flag worn on left upper arm ]
- =NAS=USN PT YELLOW Top [ Yellow T-shirt - in case your flight suit misses it ]
This case also contains the note card with the current livery UUID's to be used in the stock drop box or other paint system that applies our unique liveries to the aircraft - each Blue Angels livery is unique, each plane has a unique BuNo.
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| Main NFDS Blue Angels adopted flight suit combos and options. |
Above are the main flight suit combinations, from left to right, clean ground (shades and scarf optional), ground with shades, hand held helmet and scarf (optional), ground with shades, bomber jacket and scarf (optional), ground flight ready and flight VU and ground flight ready and flight V (all options except shades came off for show days - shades OFF recommended for flight).
NOTE: the last 4 on the right represent ground and flight versions with visors up and visors down. You need to have at least two versions ready as outfits so you can change with a click: one ground flight ready and one flight. The main difference is that on the FLIGHT version you remove all extras not related to flight, such as military AO's and any other scripted items not needed.
NOTE:
From the adopted flight suit you bought as required both male and female pilots will ONLY need the flight suit itself (it comes with boots on). Everything else is not used in the team. Note that the male version already has the yellow T-shirt on, the women will need the yellow T-shirt provided in the case mentioned above. The scripted helmet in the flight suit package is NOT our helmet, we use the ones provided in the case mentioned above. The garrison cap provided in the female version is NOT used, we use the one provided with the USN Service Tan Uniform mentioned above.
REMARK: USMC female officers may use the USMC garrison cap provided in the flight suit package but need to place the correct RANK PIN on it.
Communications are established in chat via a grid wide local chat comm system named GRIDTALKIE ( GT for short ) which has three tuners to which a number of selected channels can be assigned - this is exclusive to NAS Miramar group officers and the communications pack dedicated to the Blue Angels is the THIRD FLEET 01 pack, containing a common all packs Third Fleet 01 channel set to Tuner A, choice of the BLUE (NFDS Blue Angels) channel or RED (NFWS Top Gun) channel assigned to Tuner B and a choice of civilian generic channels to be assigned to Tuner C, like the Grid-ATC channel.
Tuner A's channel on chat is prefix 11, Tuner B's is prefix 12 and Tuner C's is prefix 13.
The BASE menu is also accessed by 11 on chat.
This is a GROUP TAG ONLY comm system.
If you don't have the NAS Miramar group active (tag on) it will not attach and will not work.
When you have it saved as part of a Blue Angels outfit and you change to that outfit with the wrong group on (wrong tag) the device will auto-detach.
After receiving the GT pack and unpacking the process is simple.
JET PILOTS
1 - ADD (never wear) the device named GridTalkie FLEET 01 Wirelink 2.0.6
2 - Type in local the following line (replace RANK, NAME, CALL SIGN and position by your own)
/11sethandle CDR Asra "Cougar" Kron - Angel 7
This will set your handle when you use the GT "radio" to communicate.
3 - Type in local the following line:
/11menu
This will bring up the GT menu.
4 - From the GT menu assign the channels to tuner B like this:
- Click on Tuner B then choose channel BLUE
5 - Type in local the following line:
/11menu
This will bring up the GT menu again.
6 - From the GT menu assign the channels to tuner C like this:
- Click on Tuner C then choose channel Grid-ATC
FAT ALBERT, VK HS-4 crews and GROUND crews and ATC
1 - ADD (never wear) the device named GridTalkie FLEET 01 Aviator 2.0.6
2 - Type in local the following line (replace RANK, NAME, CALL SIGN and position by your own)
/11sethandle CDR Asra "Cougar" Kron - Angel 7
This will set your handle when you use the GT "radio" to communicate.
3 - Type in local the following line:
/11menu
This will bring up the GT menu.
4 - From the GT menu assign the channels to tuner B like this:
- Click on Tuner B then choose channel BLUE
5 - Type in local the following line:
/11menu
This will bring up the GT menu again.
6 - From the GT menu assign the channels to tuner C like this:
- Click on Tuner C then choose channel Grid-ATC
POSITIONS for GT handles
- Angel 1 (Leader)
- Angel 2 (Left Wing)
- Angel 3 (Right Wing)
- Angel 4 (Slot)
- Angel 5 (Lead Solo)
- Angel 6 (Opposing Solo)
- Angel 7 (Narrator)
- Angel 8 (Events Coordinator)
- Fat Albert (C-130 crew)
- NFDSCO (NFDS Commanding Officer)
- NFDS (generic - all others)
NOTE:
Characters for GT handles are LIMITED keep it as short as possible.
Abbreviate your first name if necessary.
To use the Blue Angels channel on Tuner B start all local chat with /12 - any GT team members with the set on will copy you anywhere on the Grid. That is the operational team channel.
To use the civilian ATC channel use /13 - we choose Grid-ATC channel.
On Tuner A, Third Fleet 01 channel - prefix 11
SL USN Third Fleet has two more packs similar to the one we use in the Blue Angels (GT 3DFL1 pack). They all have Tuner A set to Third Fleet 01 - prefix 11. You can thus communicate with a Navy ATC officer at PAX or any SL USN Third Fleet or SLNFC pilot using another pack as they all see Third Fleet 01 /11 comms.
[ UPDATED 2020-04-29]
BLUE ANGELS MANEUVERS MANUAL
CAPT. Asra "Cougar" Kron
Angel 7
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