Will Train For Three Months At NAF El Centro
The Blue Angels arrived over the weekend at their winter base at Naval Air Facility El Centro to begin training for the coming air show season.
The Blues will spend three months honing their show routine in California’s central valley, which has been their winter headquarters for 35 years. They made the four-hour flight from Pensacola, FL to California January 3.
The team winters in central California large part because of the weather. F/A-18 pilot Navy Lt. Cmdr. David Tickle of Birmingham, AL told television station KSWT that “it hardly ever rains, there are hardly ever any clouds in the sky, [and] there’s so much great air space and ranges for us to fly.”
The team has 70 air shows in 34 locations on its schedule this year. While at El Centro, they will fly two training sessions per day six days a week until the air show season begins in March.
