If I didn't know better I'd say the same thing. But I do, so allow me to help you understand the value and how it literally changes nothing regarding your tax dollars.
1) The guys flying this are going to have to plan the route for travel from base, timing so that they appear over the stadium at the key moment, and fuel. All of that is directly related to the training conducted for any "time on target" missions aka being at an exact point in space at an exact time, usually plus or minus 30 seconds. Think it's easy, drive to your local store and arrive at an exact minute and second that you planned. Tell me how it works out.
2) Your tax payer money (ours too cause don't forget, the military is paying taxes as well). That money for flying was allocated a year ago. Now it's up to the unit on how to spend it. Let the guys go fly the pattern? Straight and level at 3000 feet, or maybe coordinate with entry and exit of several different airspace, coordinate with the FAA to create a ROZ, etc. Again, valuable training being used for something that is already paid for. They will fly that time either way, it just depends on how it's utilized.
3) Recruiting. The military (namely Air force and army) are at record lows regarding military pilots and losing the battle of attrition to the commercial aviation side. If you don't think that all it takes is a good memory of a football game and a flyover to be enough to motivate a kid to chase the dream of becoming a combat pilot then you're a silly goose.
And finally, it looks cool. Yup. It looks really cool.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
