Squeeze your abs. Eat a banana. And whatever you do, don’t touch the black and yellow handles.
Those are some of the pre-flight lessons Red Wings forward Luke Glendening learned prior to taking to the skies Wednesday in a high-speed F/A-18 Hornet during a test run for the Blue Angels’ 2015 Thunder Over Michigan show (Aug. 29-30).
“It’s like the Dragster at Cedar Point, times 10,” Glendening told The Detroit News after his high-speed flight. “It’s awesome … like the best roller coaster you’ve ever been on.”
Glendening said he’d been looking forward to the event all summer.
“It’s such a special memory that I’ll have forever,” said the 26-year-old. “You couldn’t get the smile off my face up there.”
(Well, except maybe at one point.)
“I blacked out. One time,” he said. “I shouldn’t have told you guys that, but I did. One time.”
“He did great,” said Capt. Jeff Kuss — who just so happens to be an avid Colorado Avalanche fan. “I expected it, him being an NHL athlete of his calibre. We had a great day. I was able to showcase the things the aircraft is capable of. We were able to get on top of the cloud layer here, we were upside down.”
“He caught up on some sleep at one point, but other than that, he did a great job,” said Kuss. “We had fun.”
Watch the video — and maybe squeeze your abs, just in case — of Glendening’s preparation and flight, which includes a near-90-degree angle takeoff:
Glendening isn’t the only Red Wing to earn his, um, wings. Teammate Danny DeKeyser went through the same training, mid-air flips and 90-degree accelerations with the Blue Devils last summer.
“I was a little nervous after I talked to Danny,” Glendening said. “[But] he gave me a little information [on what to do].”
And, in case you’re wondering: Squeezing your abs will help with the dizziness/puking; Bananas “taste the same coming up as they doing going down”; and those black and yellow handles might just eject you from the plane. (So seriously, don’t touch those.)
