Soaring Stoops survives, and enjoys, trip
By DAVE SITTLER World Sports Writer
5/11/2006
The OU coach shares Blue Angel aircraft with QB Babe Laufenberg and pop star Kelly Clarkson.
Bob Stoops added another accomplishment Wednesday to his already impressive resume: Blue Angels survivor.
The Oklahoma football coach was among three people invited to fly with the Navy's famous Blue Angels exclusive flight demonstration team in Fort Worth.
Dallas sportscaster and former NFL quarterback Babe Laufenberg and singer Kelly Clarkson also took the VIP flights to promote the Texas Thunder 2006 Air Show this weekend near Fort Worth.
Stoops, who has won a national championship at OU, three Big 12 titles and been the national coach of the year twice, said the flight was one of the greatest experiences of his life.
"It was just incredible," Stoops said in a telephone interview. "I loved it."
Lt. Kevin J. Davis was the pilot of the U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter / attack aircraft that carried Stoops.
"He was awesome," Stoops said. "It's amazing what those guys are able to do. It's an incredible machine with an amazing pilot."
Stoops said his hour-long flight, in which the airplane nearly reached 700 mph at times, included doing a corkscrew maneuver straight up to around 7,000
feet, before going into a nosedive spiral.
Davis then flipped the plane over and nearly reached the speed of sound.
"We were flying upside down only about 1,000 feet over this farmland," Stoops said. "It's just hysterical; you're hanging there from the straps and he (the pilot) is talking to you the whole time."
Not surprisingly, the competitive Stoops challenged his pilot to try and make him black out because of the force gravity. Stoops was proud to say that it took 7.8 times the force of gravity (Gs) before he blacked out.
"Coming around a minimum radius turn where they take a tight circle at 7.8 Gs, I was fighting it and made it three-quarters of the way around and then boom," Stoops said. "When he gave it a little extra I was out for a couple seconds, which I wanted. I wanted to see what it would take, and he (Davis) said 7.8 Gs is a lot."
Stoops said he also didn't ever feel like reaching for the barf bag during the flight.
"I wasn't queasy or anything," Stoops said. "Shoot, I ate a hoagie (sandwich) just before we went up.
"Now Kelly (Clarkson) filled up a couple bags."
Asked if he would do it again, Stoops said: "Heck, yeah. In a heartbeat."
Dave Sittler 581-8312
[email protected].