You have to like kill your survival instinct. Opposing passes head on at each other, passing like 70 feet apart, 500 knots each.

The flying is just so different than any other flying I did. Like you are a precision demo pilot.

You are also a character at Disney World. Like you have to be on. You have to be friendly and personable, and you are the face of the Air Force for those two to three years. Sam, watch. Okay, 0-5-low. The second is there. Five, he's good. That's one. Another standalone. Another sandwich. Same good news. Roger that.

Go ahead. Wait, somebody got to hit in one row. No hundred naps. Get out of here. Jack, that's got me in Puerto. Oh! First, finance, boys. Of the more than 200 numbered episodes in the fighter pilot podcast catalog, four have been about the U.S. Navy's Blue Angels. One has been about the Canadian Forces snowbirds, but ashamedly none have been about the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds. Well, that ends today

because joining me in studio is former Thunderbird solo pilot, Michelle Curran. Mace, welcome to the show.

Thank you. I feel like I should almost be offended that you had, like, the ratio is four to one, but work in progress. I'm happy to be here.

You know, I said way back on episode zero, the introduction. I said, hey, I'm starting the show and here's what we're going to do. it's probably going to be Navy heavy because those are the people I know.

But yeah, we're equal opportunity.

We've had Bomber Month.

We've had all kinds of Air Force stuff.

But yeah, never the Thunderbird still now.

So thank you.

Changing it.

All right, good.

Well, Yeah, we're equal opportunity. We've had Bomber Month. We've had all kinds of Air Force stuff. But yeah, never the Thunderbird still now. So thank you.

Changing it. All right, good. Well, besides being a Thunderbird, you were an F-16 pilot. You are now a keynote speaker. You're an author. You're doing all kinds of stuff. And I really look forward to uncovering all that today. Yeah, let's do it. I'm excited to talk about someone who is also familiar with Jets.

I do a lot of interviews with non-military, non-Avasion. I'm covering all that today. Yeah, let's do it. I'm excited to talk about someone who is also familiar with Jets.

I do a lot of interviews with non-military, non-aviation shows. So this will be a little bit different. All right. Well, and hopefully our audience as well will understand all our jargon and everything, but we sometimes explain it at the bottom. Acronymes. Let's start at the beginning, though. Where are you from? Where'd you go to school and what made you interested in joining the military?

Yeah, so I grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin about 40. Let's start at the beginning, though. Where are you from? Where'd you go to school? And what made you interested in joining the military?

Yeah. So I grew up in a small town in northern Wisconsin, about 4,000 people as far as population goes, like rural farming town. Not a military family, not an aviation family. So blue-collar family, super hard work ethic, just not a lot of exposure to the opportunities in aviation.

As I got into high school, I knew my parents didn't have a college fund for me.

So we started to have those conversations about scholarships.

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