I don’t know who practices that, but it’s not a very professional approach. The only time I’ve known that to happen has been for quick reaction alerts, when it’s considered an acceptable risk to save time.
For normal operations the pilot doing their own check isn’t a lack of confidence in the ground crew, it’s the prudent, smart, and responsible thing to do when playing with people’s lives and very expensive aircraft. I’ve never known ground crew to get upset over it.
(Which means I’m only partially right, but I admit mostly wrong. I’ve also seen strong evidence that the Blue Angels do something similar, but can’t quickly find a reference.)
I can’t speak to the Thunderbirds, but I know that on the Maintenance side getting accepted to the Blue Angels is HARD. They are extraordinarily picky, and the application process is demanding.
The people who go tend to be the ones everyone hates at the front line squadrons because they are the sticklers for doing things right and putting in the work to do it right AND fast. Most others will cut corners on one or the other without oversight.
Ah yeah, the Blue Angels do the same. It’s all part of the show for them, with the aircraft parked in view of the public and a big deal made of the pilots walking to the aircraft and there being a smooth and rehearsed synchronised starting process.
I don’t really understand why they do it, to be honest. Most other military display teams, including the famous Red Arrows and Frecce Tricolori, just do regular startups with all the usual preflight checks.
This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. It makes sense for something that you personally own and maintain yourself i.e. a Cesna. Do you expect Air Force 1 pilots to do walk around? Astronauts? Submarines?
These are mostly war machines that have to be scrambled asap, meaning the pilot is expected to jump in and fly. To alter that during peacetime would be silly, as you want to establish habits.
The pilots of Air Force One do in fact do pre-flight inspections and walks around, yes. I’ve seen them do it personally. All military pilots do their own pre-flight inspections, including checking inlets, exhausts, the undercarriage, and flight surfaces.
But don’t take my word for it, here’s a video I found as literally the first result when googling for it, showing a USAF F-22 pilot conducting a full pre-flight walk around inspection: https://www.dvidshub.net/video/149526/f-22-walk-around
Before saying something is the ‘stupidest thing’ you’ve ever heard, it might be worth first making sure you actually know what you’re talking about.
Unless you’re talking about dysfunctional developing world air forces like the Afghan Air Force I have difficulty believing that, and even then I’d question it. I can’t say I know how every single force operates, but I’ve seen a few African air force crews doing preflight preparations and in all cases the pilots did their own inspections. It’s really basic operational stuff.
The USAF is also not any more professional than other developed world and NATO air forces, who all have similar procedures in any case.
I've seen many pilots of my commercial aircraft (737 typically but A320 as well) do walk arounds. I even heard one say "I saw something funny hanging from the <something> so the maintainence crew has to come back and repair it."
For normal operations the pilot doing their own check isn’t a lack of confidence in the ground crew, it’s the prudent, smart, and responsible thing to do when playing with people’s lives and very expensive aircraft. I’ve never known ground crew to get upset over it.