OK, I’ll admit it. Writing about airplanes for a living has its advantages, and a ride with the Titan Aerobatic Team is certainly one of them.
What started as a dream to fly in the back seat of one of these North American T-6 Texans during my first EAA AirVenture in July 2015 turned into a reality a few months ago during the Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo, thanks to team member Jimmy Fordham.
After a few back-and-forth phone calls and text exchanges a month in advance of the expo, everything came to fruition (after a weather cancellation) the Thursday of the weeklong event. Not knowing what to expect, I arrived at the designated area on the taxiway, beyond a chain-link fence, slightly early, with GoPros fully charged, fresh SD cards, and my iPhone in hand. This was going to be the ride of a lifetime, after all, and I wanted to capture everything.
After signing my life away (which I was quite happy to do), I was escorted to the T-6 by the Titan ground support team. From there, I met and shook hands with Fordham, who had already completed several rides that morning. “Well, are you ready,” asked Fordham. “I was born ready,” I replied.
Although I had been in the back seat of a T-6 several times before, this felt different. As I donned my parachute and tightened my WWII-era seat belt, I had flashbacks to a 16-year-old me, sitting on the grass under the Wisconsin sun, staring in amazement at airplanes I couldn’t even name at the time. I didn’t know how I was going to swing a ride with these guys, but here I was, and my dreams were unfolding right in front of me. It felt surreal.
Before closing the canopy, Fordham ran through a safety briefing and crawled into the front cockpit. Within minutes, he exclaimed “clear prop,” and the Pratt & Whitney purred to life in its standard smoky fashion.
Fordham, who was flying lead during this mission, gave the signal that we were ready to taxi. Followed closely behind by Bryan Regan, right wing, and Steve Gustafson, left wing, we made our way toward Runway 10R.
“All right, let’s go have some fun,” said Fordham as we lined up on centerline. “Let’s boogie,” I replied.
Peering off my right shoulder, I watched as Regan and Gustafson got into their respective takeoff positions. With a final takeoff confirmation from tower, Fordham announced over the formation’s unique frequency, “run ’em up, brakes release, now,” as he quickly moved his head down and forward to visually signal to the team that we were on the roll.
As Fordham applied full power, the T-6 rattled and roared to life in the way that only a T-6 can. I turned my head to the right and watched as Regan (who felt like I could reach out and touch) did the same.
As Fordham lifted the tail, I watched Regan act as a mirror to Fordham’s inputs. Although I couldn’t see Gustafson’s No. 3 ship directly behind us, I can only imagine he was a slightly delayed version due to his position being right behind Fordham and me.
It was at the point of rotation where I truly began to hear the raw power of not only our Pratt & Whitney barreling down the runway, but also the throaty sounds of Regan’s T-6 radiating just a few feet away. Within seconds of leaving the runway, landing gears were immediately raised. It was truly a unique perspective to watch as Regan’s gear folded into the wheel wells as we made our respective ways down the runway.
As the end of the runway approached, Gustafson came into view off of our left wing, where he immediately closed the gap. Although we took off as a three-ship formation, it felt like the real deal when Gustafson slid into his rightful, left-wing position.
“Right turn,” Fordham announced over frequency, as he led us away from the congested airspace over Sun ’n Fun. Due to a scattered layer, Fordham had to make careful considerations when navigating his wingmen through a hole in the clouds. “Y’all keep the power up, because when I go, we’re gonna go,” he said.
As we navigated above the layer, Regan distanced his aircraft to allow for a touch more spacing. Once we arrived at an appropriate altitude above the layer, it only took a matter of seconds for Regan to close the gap and for Fordham to prepare his team for aerobatic maneuvers.
“All right, here we go, pushing the power up,” said Fordham. With the bellowing noise of three 600 hp radials echoing through the cockpit, Fordham announced, “It’s gonna come quick, loop, wingover, barrel roll, here we go, nose coming down, now.”
As Fordham pointed the nose down toward earth, Regan and Gustafson followed suit. “Smoke on, ready loop, pull now,” Fordham announced as airshow smoke filled the cockpit.
“Woo-hoo,” I shouted as Fordham pulled back on the stick and sent us straight into the top of a loop. “Let it ride,” Fordham said as we came back toward earth. At the bottom of the loop, we flew right back through our smoke trail and went into a wingover and barrel roll almost immediately.
Although I was slightly nervous about turning green during these maneuvers (since aerobatics aren’t exactly my favorite), a combination of Fordham’s smoothness on the controls, air vents, and everything happening so quickly made for quite the opposite of a nauseating experience. Although the positive G-forces were quite noticeable, and I had to keep adjusting my headset as a result, I never once thought I was going to need a Sic-Sac.
“Here we go, nose up,” Fordham announced on frequency as we prepared for our final maneuver, the barrel roll. “And roll.” With that, we entered into a perfectly synchronous roll that felt almost too good to be true. Fordham pointed the nose down and told his wingmen “smoke off” as we resumed straight and level flight.
“Ease the power back, hold the turn,” Fordham said. And just like that, the aerobatic portion of my flight with the Titan team was over almost as quickly as it began, but it was everything I expected and so much more.
As we made our way back toward Sun ’n Fun, we realized that our timing was far from impeccable. With several jets, warbirds, and even the Blue Angels’ C-130 “Fat Albert,” also trying to land, we remained in a holding pattern, as a flight of three, for nearly 20 minutes.
“I can’t believe y’all don’t get some sort of VIP status for getting in and out of this place,” I half-jokingly told Fordham as we made what felt like our 10th circle. “Oh, we’re just a bunch of nobodies,” Fordham replied.
“A bunch of nobodies” isn’t how I would describe this iconic aerobatic team, but if you were to meet any of them on the street, you might just fall for that.
Behind the Scenes
“We’re just a bunch of country boys,” said Gustafson during my postflight interview with the team. “We’re just trying to inspire younger people to get into this, and to get them to realize they can do this if they want to. That’s what we’re here for.”
The team, which was founded by Gustafson and Alan Henley, has been flying nearly the same routine in their self-owned North American T-6 Texans for over four decades.
“We picked the T-6 because that’s what we had,” said Gustafson. “My dad bought the very airplane that you see me flying with the Titan team the year before I was born. I flew my first airshow in it when I was 19, and I guess I’ve got over 7,000 hours in that T-6 alone.”
Originally named the North American Aerobatic Team, the Titan team is one of the most recognized and notable airshow acts in the world. But that’s no coincidence. Through decades of perfecting its art, the team doesn’t mess with the recipe for success.
“We designed our routine a certain way,” said Gustafson. “We’ve tried doing different things, and it never flows like it should. It took a while to figure that out, but the key is we never lose sight of each other. As long as you can see everybody, you’re never going to hit anybody.”
Regan said the team relies on a sight picture.
“…That’s how we maintain our position,” said Regan. “So generally we’re looking out at a 45-degree angle and maybe cross referencing a tail, but so many times I look out, and it’s like, whoa, we’re dang close.”
Added Gustafson: “We fly where we’re comfortable. And when the wind starts blowing, you’ll notice we don’t fly as tight.”
Mark Henley, Alan’s twin brother who also flies lead for the team said the team having to adjust to conditions represents the biggest challenge.
“Wind and density altitude can be tough,” said Gustafson. “These airplanes are really underpowered. They have 600 horsepower, but they weigh 5,000 pounds. With four airplanes at 5,000 pounds each, that’s 10 tons of airplane. You gotta push the throttle up on Tuesday and hope it arrives Friday morning. That’s why we really love the night shows, [because] the air gets real stable and calm and you can get where you want to be.”
Although the team makes putting the airplanes where they want them look quite effortless, especially on windless, summer nights, formation aerobatics is no small feat.
“There’s a lot of time and practice involved,” said Gustafson. “We all learned to fly inverted in airplanes that have an inverted system. The T-6 can’t do negative [Gs]. It will quit, so…”
Added Henley: “[That’s why] we are always flying positive Gs.”
“Once you learn how to fly inverted, maintain altitude, turn inverted, and push inverted, then you can start flying formation aerobatics,” said Gustafson. “Everyone has the same pressure on the controls to keep everyone in position. It doesn’t matter if we’re upside down or right side up, so that isn’t that big of a deal… You have to know where you are at all times in case you need to get out of that maneuver.”
The Team
Aside from the thousands of hours spent in the air, mimicking one another’s every move, the Titan team believes its longtime success has nothing to do with the time spent a few feet off each other’s wings.
“The real reason this team has stayed together so long is because we all get along,” said Gustafson. “I’ve seen teams that can’t go eat dinner or even ride in the same car. Guess what? Those teams only last two years. To put it bluntly, no [jerks] allowed.”
Although many have made their desires known to fly with team Titan, only seven men in a 41-year history can say they have earned the prestigious position.
A year after the team’s founding, Alan Henley and Gustafson were joined by Ben Cunningham. After flying as a three-ship for 11 years, crop duster Gene McNeely joined the ranks, creating a four-ship formation. Alan’s twin brother, Mark, joined shortly after McNeely.
Tragically, in 2008, seven years after the team earned its sponsorship with Aeroshell, Alan became paralyzed from the waist down after a chin-up bar gave way at home, and left him with a broken neck. After the accident, Regan, who was formerly with the Red Baron Pizza Squadron, joined the team, and two years later in 2010 Fordham was brought on board.
“Steve was actually my mentor,” said Fordham. “He was the one who mentored me when I started flying the Yak and got me my first aerobatic competency card so I could start flying shows. But he told me to keep flying, [saying] ‘You never know one of us might eventually retire,’ and sure enough that’s how it happened when Gene McNeely retired.”
It didn’t take Fordham long to get spooled up to act on what he calls the “opportunity of a lifetime.”
“I bought my T-6 in 2011, and Steve and I put a smoke system on it,” said Fordham. “It was blue and white back then, but when I knew they were serious about me flying with them, I got it repainted and got good avionics in it so I could get ready to go for the shows. Basically we’re just flying billboards for all these sponsors, kind of like NASCAR. They are our airplanes, and they all have a story.
“Like Steve mentioned, his T-6 has been in his family since ’59, Alan’s airplane was bought in ’72, and it was actually flown by Neil Armstrong—we’ve got the logbook entries for that. Mark’s airplane was flown during the French-Algerian War. There’s a couple bullet holes to prove it. There’s a lot of history here that’s pretty cool.”
Through life’s ups and downs and team transitions, these old school, Southern gentlemen have stayed the course.
“It’s like I’m married to these guys,” said Gustafson. “We can argue, get on each other’s butt, but five minutes later we can be laughing and joking and slapping each other on the back. We don’t carry it with us. We all respect each other’s flying abilities and differences.”
Added Henley: “You gotta have nerves of steel, and you better be able to sit on a pineapple and not make a face, because you’re gonna get your butt chewed out. That’s just the nature of the beast.”
Gustafson agreed with his teammates’ assessment.
“We’re still having a good time,” said Gustafson. “They call us legends now and I tell them, you know what that means? And they’re like, what? That means our [butts] are old, At 25 or 30 they don’t call you a legend. I don’t know what to think about that ‘legend’ thing.”
So what does the future hold for the Titan team?
“That’s a good question,” Gustafson said. “We’re looking at a couple more years, but we want to be smart and go out on top.”
Fordham became sentimental thinking about his time with the team.
“I’m thankful to have lived to see this opportunity,” he said with tears welling in his eyes. “I never thought I’d do anything like this, and it’s just been great. I’m thankful to Steve and Mark for giving me the chance. It’s a special deal. I love to fly, and I’ve lived the dream. I really have.”
