Thunderbirds Day 2 - 9/20/09

I had so much fun on Saturday, Celia, Erick and I went again to see the Thunderbirds, this time from the Airport parking lot. I was surprised that there were a lot of other people who had the same idea and braved the hot sun to see them. This time, I had the vantage point to watch the Thunderbirds take off.
I caught a few few more shots (after cropping) of the Thunderbirds.
It was cool to see them fly by the control tower.
I caught a shot w/ Diamond Head..
Even though they perform in front of Hickam, they actually kept up the maneuver in front of the airport.
On Sunday, the planes landed back at the Honolulu Airport instead of Hickam.
I was going thru my pics from Saturday, and I noticed one of the pilot actually waved at us.
This was Pilot #3 who was waving.
Then I noticed pilot #5 had an upside-down number 5 sewn on his uniform which made me wonder..
Because I caught his plane and the number under it was also upside down. I did some googling and this is what I found:
In mirror formations, one Thunderbird must be inverted, and it is always Thunderbird number 5. In fact, the "5" on this aircraft is painted on upside down, and thus appears right-side-up for much of the routine). At the end of the routine, all six aircraft join in formation, forming the Delta. There is also an extra amount of humor regarding the inverted performance of Thunderbird Five: the pilots all wear tailored flight suits with their name and jet number embroidered on the left breast. The 5 is sewn inverted.