I’m always up for trying something new and being unique in some way. As some of you know, my day job is working in the video game industry and I love it when games and aviation come together! A couple of years ago I bought a bunch of aviation related video game shirts to wear throughout the week at AirVenture.
I didn’t have anything unique planned for this year though. However, two of my favorite worlds did come together again (hockey and aviation this time) earlier in the year when Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers got to fly back seat with the Air Force Thunderbirds! I wrote an article about it because it was a fun story for me. I took note in that article that the Panthers presented the Thunderbirds with a number 26 ‘Thunderbirds’ jersey. I thought to myself and put it in the article, “I totally want a #26 “Thunderbirds” Florida Panthers hockey jersey! I would absolutely wear that at Oshkosh this year!”
Well, the Florida Panthers liked that idea too and actually sent me a #26 ‘Thunderbirds’ jersey to wear at AirVenture this year!
Thankfully Wednesday was a very nice and cool day and made it the perfect day to wear a hockey jersey! Not only was it fun for me wearing the jersey, but it created opportunity for conversation with people that found it interesting. I got to share the story of why I was wearing it, but also had general conversations with hockey fans as well. This included a ‘Canes and Lightning fan! A few notes, people around aviation are generally very nice. It’s also the hockey off-season, so most fans are missing hockey and love the opportunity to talk a little bit about it. If not for those two facts, I think I would have gotten slightly different looks and perhaps a few alternative comments from them (there’s a bit of a rivalry there, especially with TB lol). However, the biggest reason folks like it was due to the Thunderbirds name on the back. They thought that was so cool (and this was even before I told them the story of how I came to have this jersey).
The other part that worked out perfectly was that Thunderbird 8 was around for the entire week! So, I had the chance to get photos of the jersey with the jet. They did a really neat thing this year by parking the F-16 in Vintage for a night as Samuel “RaZZ” Larson, pilot of TB8, camped out with his plane. I love that they did that! Unfortunately, that was Tuesday only and they had already moved the plane by Wednesday. I did finally find it in Boeing Plaza though but sadly didn’t see RaZZ for a photo!
I just wanted to say thank you again to the Florida Panthers for allowing me to have fun with this at AirVenture this year! Now to continue wearing this jersey all season long starting next month! Go Cats!!
