{"id":54922,"date":"2025-04-03T23:53:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T03:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=54922"},"modified":"2025-04-03T23:54:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T03:54:00","slug":"blue-angels-arrive-at-sun-n-fun-to-wow-the-crowd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/04\/03\/blue-angels-arrive-at-sun-n-fun-to-wow-the-crowd\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Angels arrive at Sun ‘n Fun to wow the crowd"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photos by\u00a0Elrod Elrod Official<\/a> Click here to see more <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Angels soared into Lakeland Thursday with a mission of inspiring excellence in the people who watch their gravity-defying skills.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cWe just want whatever folks choose to do with their lives to do it really well and to do it with focus and excellence,\u201d Lt. Connor O\u2019Donnell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O\u2019Donnell said he was first moved by the Blue Angels as a kid in Maine.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s when I saw them first when I was about 10 years old, and that will stick with you as a kid, and that\u2019s really what we\u2019re hoping to do here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He now flies Blue Angel #6 all over the country and, this weekend, at SUN \u2018n FUN in Lakeland.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve heard it\u2019s huge, and there\u2019s tents,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cI\u2019ve been looking for them. I\u2019ve heard people camp out here on the fields.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Flying at speeds over 500 miles per hour in tight formations requires months of practice and intense focus during the demonstration.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cYou\u2019re just focused on what you\u2019re doing at that moment. Not really worried about the next thing, stay in the moment, trust the training,\u201d O\u2019Donnell said. \u201cThis is not a place you want to have a bad day. We\u2019re all about not only practicing the demo itself but preparing our bodies so good rest, good hydration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At certain times in the demonstration, the F\/A-18 jets come close to 18 inches from each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The planes are unique in that they can fly at high speeds while also maintaining maneuverability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou see the high speed stuff, that\u2019s what excites us. But I think a lot of the aviation people around here understand that one of these planes can fly as slow as some of the prop aircraft around here,\u201d said Cdr. Adam Bryan, commanding officer and flight leader for the Blue Angels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Bryan\u2019s first visit to SUN \u2018n FUN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith an air show that\u2019s essentially already begun, it makes it quite a unique place to come into. Seeing all the aircraft on the ground excited me a lot when I came in to land,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Bryan said his favorite move is the \u201cDiamond 360,\u201d which is the quintessential, tight maneuver that kicks off the Blue Angels\u2019 demonstration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training begins in Pensacola, Florida, in November and then the teams spend 2.5 months in El Centro, California, practicing over the desert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe practice by doing a lot, a lot of repetition. You can think about it like being in the gym. It\u2019s a lot of reps and sets over and over again,\u201d Bryan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all an effort to display excellence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur job is to inspire those that are watching us to kind of reach for their highest potential,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Blue Angels\u2019 demonstrations are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday during the daily air shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To see the schedule, visit https:\/\/flysnf.org\/activities\/airshow\/airshow-schedule\/ <\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photos by\u00a0Elrod Elrod Official Click here to see more The Blue Angels soared into Lakeland Thursday with a mission of inspiring excellence in the people who watch their gravity-defying skills.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"7254","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDRcLzU0NDI5NTAyNzI4XzNkZWZiYTFhMjVfdy53ZWJwP2ZpdD00MDAlMkMyODYmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJCbHVlIEFuZ2VscyBhcnJpdmUgYXQgU3VuICYjODIxNjtuIEZ1biB0byB3b3cgdGhlIGNyb3dkIiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJoaWdod2F5IiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.JJJLFWQ6Z-V70FQUg416AwTvh3hp7nlobKvsPpZcMK0MQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":54925,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/54429502728_3defba1a25_w.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[7254],"tags":[11248],"class_list":["post-54922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sun-n-fun","tag-blue-angels-arrive-at-sun-n-fun-to-wow-the-crowd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54922"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54928,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54922\/revisions\/54928"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}