Heading into the weekend, there is a very good chance for clear skies during the Atlanta Air Show in Peachtree City on Saturday, October 26, and temperatures will climb into the mid 80s through the afternoon.

A cold front will drop south into Metro Atlanta late Saturday night, bringing cloud cover to the region on Sunday. In addition, an east breeze will drop daytime highs into the mid 70s through the afternoon.

An isolated rain shower can’t be ruled out on Sunday, though any rain will be very spotty and light in nature.

Heading to the Atlanta Air Show in Peachtree City this weekend?

I spoke with Major Bryce Turner, US Air Force Thunderbirds F-16 pilot, to find out how they adjust the show depending on the weather forecast.

Q: When it comes to meteorological conditions -- what would be the easiest and the hardest weather conditions to fly into?

“While sun would be great, because there would be no clouds and we could do loops and we can fly high -- sometimes will create uneven heating on the ground, the concrete will have a different air mass above it than the grass. So when they are flying in formation as they transition, they may actually get a little bit of turbulence, so they are fighting when they go through that.”

“Depending on the clouds, it can create a smoother air.”

“For us, we have one primary show, we call it the “high show”. Our other shows are variations on that. So depending on where the clouds are will determine which show we can fly.”

“As long as we have clouds above about 7,000 feet, we can fly the full “high show”. We’ll do loops, we’ll do rolls, we’ll do everything else.”

“If the clouds come down but they are at least around 4,000 feet, we can get rolls in, but we can’t do the loops. So instead of the loops, we’ll do 360 degree turns.”

“If the clouds come very low -- call it 1500 feet -- we’ll do what’s called a “flat show”. We can’t do rolls, and so instead of rolls, now we’re just doing flat passes.”

“We’re at least getting the jets right in front of the crowd so they can see them, but we’re not exactly doing all the rolls and loops that we would love to do on a bright sunny day.”

Q: Why wouldn’t you be able to do the rolls on a cloudy day?

“For the rolls, all of the pilots are flying off BOSS -- if we started rolling into the clouds, and they lost sight of BOSS, there are a lot of airplanes flying next to each other, that could be a very dangerous situation. So we like to keep it safe -- if we can’t do a roll, we’ll just do a pass. Hopefully, the weather is high enough that we can do a loop and give you the full experience.”

Q: What does BOSS stand for?

“BOSS stands for Thunderbird One, our commander and leader. We affectionally call him BOSS, since he is in charge of the team.”

Q: So he’s got visual flight rules (VFR) going on with you guys?

“So we only fly VFR when we do our show.”

Q: I would imagine -- precipitation, the show is out?

“Not necessarily -- we’re actually flying fast enough that the rain is flicking off our jets.”

“It’s really the visibility -- we need 5 miles of visibility. So even if it’s a light rain shower but we have 5 miles of visibility, we can actually fly.”

Q: So fog cannot be more than 5 miles, drizzle cannot obscure. But what about thunderstorms? What is the safety precaution with that?

“If there is any lightning within 5 nautical miles, that is a show-stopper for us because we can’t work on the jets, we can’t be near them. Typically, it’s already become a factor for the air show crowd because you want them to be safe as well. So if you see a thunderstorm coming that is going to be a factor, we’ll have them either leave or seek shelter, hopefully wait for the system to pass.”

“If there is hail -- hail is very damaging to our aircraft. If we see that on the radar, we will put all of our jets in the hangar to protect them.”

“Lastly, winds above 50 knots (58 mph) -- we don’t want to get these things airborne or flying around, so we will put them in the hangar as well.”

Q: And 50 knots would be a Severe Thunderstorm Warning. Have you ever flown through a hailstorm? Have you ever encountered anything like that?

“I have not flown through a hailstorm, thankfully. The controllers are great, they will alert us to any severe weather along our flight path, and typically, we will divert around it.”

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