Air Lieutenant Brigadier Carlos de Almeida Baptista Junior flies aboard the A-29 Super Tucano
Air Force Agency, by Lieutenant Eniele Santos
The Brazilian Air Force (FAB) reaches another milestone: for the first time, a FAB Commander flies with the Air Demonstration Squadron (EDA). On board of the A-29 Super Tucano aircraft was Air Lieutenant Brigadier Carlos de Almeida Baptista Junior, who emphasized the importance of this achievement, since the Smoke Squadron (Esquadrilha da Fumaça) has been showing the efficiency and professionalism of its pilots for more than seven decades.
“It was very pleasurable to fly with positive and negative G loads, as I did as a Lieutenant. I made a point, throughout my life, of always flying and being with the pilots, because we cannot forget that the airplane is the central figure of any Air Force. We are an Air Force only because we have airplanes,” he emphasized.
The mission began with the Commander’s preparation for the flight, when the General Officer, accompanied by the Chief of Staff of the Aeronautics Command (GABAER), Air Major Brigadier Ary Soares Mesquita, was equipped and given a briefing about the flight and the maneuvers that would be executed. In this way, the Commander could actually experience a real training day for the seven “Smokefighters” – as the Squadron’s aviators are known – with all the actions usually performed in the aerial demonstration display.
The EDA Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Garcia Pereira, after the flight talked about this historic milestone, in which there are no records, in the last 70 years, of a FAB Commander flying and performing maneuvers aboard EDA aircraft. “For us it is really a great privilege to have the presence of the Aeronautics Commander, which is a reason for pride and recognition of our work by FAB, the Commander and the Brazilian population,” he said.
The flight
During the flight, which lasted approximately 30 minutes, and through the skies of Pirassununga (SP), Air Lieutenant Brigadier Baptista Junior was able to recall his entire military life trajectory as an Air Force aviator and fighter pilot.
Thus, between past, present and future, the Commander performed several traditional maneuvers of the Smoke Squadron, such as: Espelhão, with six aircraft, vertical looping with the cobrinha show mount, looping in front line and several passages with the seven aircraft. The Commander flew with pilot number four.
EDA
The Air Demonstration Squadron, commonly known as the Smoke Squadron (Esquadrilha da Fumaça in portuguese), originated from the initiative of young flight instructors from the old Aeronautics School, based in Rio de Janeiro (RJ), who, in their spare time, trained aerobatics in groups, with the purpose of encouraging the cadets to trust in their skills and in the safety of the aircraft used in the instruction, motivating them to a career as military aviators.
Today, the young Aviators continue to perform aerobatics through the skies of Brazil and the world. But they have expanded their mission and now also perform aerial demonstrations in order to spread, nationally and internationally, the institutional image of the Brazilian Air Force.
Photos: Sergeant Müller Marin / CECOMSAER – Video: Sergeant Neris and Sergeant André Souza / CECOMSAER
*** Translated by the DEFCONPress FYI team ***