It's not just the pilots that have to hit a TOT, it's usually the folks singing/playing the national anthem. It's pretty tough to get them to understand that they need to 1) start it at an EXACT time and 2) sing it the same way they practiced, i.e. not draw out notes...in order to finish at an exact time. I was the dude on the ground for one recently...they started singing a minute early and sang it in 30 fewer seconds than they did in practice. Kind of tough to fix all the timing when you're holding just 10 miles away without busting some windows with a sonic boom.

I did a flyby for NASCAR one time. I was pretty impressed how well the promoter handled all the coordination. He had an AF ALO come down with all his radios to act as the FAC. He also had his own guy sing the national anthem. He told us in the prebrief his singer could vary the length of the song by a minute. Thus he would give us a TOT 4 minutes prior and then use the singer to adjust for changes. Pretty hard to screw this one up. Those NASCAR guys really had their sh!t together.

VFA-106 did the Daytona 500 quite a few years when they were at NAS Cecil Field. The coordination was always good for the fly-over and the support they provided the aircrew and maintenance det at the race was top notch! Those guys know how to take care of you!

Some of the toughest I have done are the fly-bys for burials at Arlington. Very complicated to coordinate both on the ground (takes three people - one at Washington Center, one graveside, and one at the cemetery on the radio) then the holding point is VFR to the east of the cemetery and they have to come across Regan National - shutting down ops for a few. As tough as it is though - it is very satisfying and very moving.

USMCFLYR

And for all that effort, very appreciated by the family. Thanks for your service.

Fly by's....at best, an opportunity to break even.

True
 

Very true and the reward for success is no punishment!;)

Live performances were the worst,

Memorex definitely better for TOT.

But, definitely easier to speed up than it is to slow down so....sounds like the old saying still rings true.

fighter pilots make movies, attack pilots make history

Looks like it made it to Youtube...both the early TOT and the hatchet job on the anthem (but not as bad as Rosie "Fata$$" O'Donnell).

YouTube - Anthem Flyover:(

Here's a much better job (of the fly-by and the anthem):
YouTube - Jet flyover at Orange Bowl:)
YouTube - Orange Bowl Flyover

SWEET TIMING! I'd like to know who did that fly-over.
Nearly got taken out by the fireworks huh? :D

USMCFLYR

That was awesome timing I agree but I don't know if the speed they had was planned or more of a " put the pedal down cause we're gonna be late." In the end who cares it looked awesome!