Natalie Decker’s Ride of A Lifetime With The Thunderbirds

Amy Decker Lifestyle

LAS VEGAS, NV – Natalie Decker was back at the track where she recorded her career-best finish so far in her rookie truck season to start off September. However, ahead of her Friday night race, Decker had a very eventful day out at Niels Air Force Base.

That eventful day at the base was a once in a lifetime opportunity to fly with the USAF Thunderbirds. She started the morning with an 8:30 am meeting with Thunderbird public affairs staff at the entrance to the base before heading to Thunderbirds headquarters.

Once at the HQ, she had a second meeting with Public Affairs, which was utilized as the intro meeting with Lt. Col Ray Geoffroy, Thunderbird 12. The intro meeting was Natalie’s chance to ask any questions about the process that she had as well as go over in detail what she would be experiencing throughout the day. During her morning intro brief, she was introduced to her pilot, Lt. Col. Eric Gorney, Thunderbird 7. Gorney only came in for a brief second for the initial introduction.

After her intro meeting, she moved onto the medial part of the morning. Lt. Col Noel Calls, Thunderbird 9. He reviewed the things Decker would feel while in flight. Key parts that Lt. Col. Calls reviewed were ear-popping, controlling breathing and the importance of maintaining blood flow during flight. In regards to breathing, Decker had to practice how to ensure she had enough oxygen in her lungs before hitting 9g’s because, at that Velocity, the body cannot intake breaths. .

After the medical briefing, Decker was taken through the flight bay, and into the fitting room. While in there, Sgt. Josh Metzger, got Natalie fitted for her G-suit, boots, helmet, mask and all the other bells and whistles that come with the Thunderbird inflight uniform.

After finding the perfect fit, it was time for some survival training with Sgt. Matt Stevens, a Sere Specialist on the Thunderbirds team. Decker went through parachute training, with a series of scenarios that could happen in an emergency situation and how to react.

Then it was time for the final meeting, this coming with her pilot, Thunderbird 7, Lt. Col. Gorney. It was at this point that Decker was informed of all the inflight information that would be going on. Lt. Col. Gorney, also informed Decker that at some point during the flight he would give the reins to Decker to fly the F-16. Gorney also went over all of the maneuvers they would be doing in flight, in addition to the importance of maintaining all of her gear in flight. She was given the ability to use her phone in flight for selfies or POV video, however, if the phone should slip behind her seat, they would have to abort the flight and return to base.

To wrap up the meeting, Gorney told Decker they would be flying to Death Valley National Park in California. This is about a two-hour drive from base, but just 10 under minutes in the F-16. After that Gorney left Natalie for final preparations for the 12:30 pm scheduled flight.

As the two meet back up in the bay, they walked out and onto the tarmac for the flight. There, they were greeted by members of the Thunderbirds mechanic and engineering team. They exchanged high fives and shared final moments. Natalie’s family was there to greet her after the line of the Thunderbird crew.

She got a final kiss from her boyfriend Derek Lemke, and went next to the F-16 to get into her gear before getting into the jet. After a slight adjustment to her G-suite, due to a faulty zipper, Nat’s was geared up and ready to roll out.

As she climbed into the F-16, she paused for a moment and looked to her right as the photographers took her “Hero” shot. Then after two checks done by separate Thunderbird crew, Lt. Col. Gorney climbed up next to Natalie for the third and final check to ensure all her equipment as good. Then he took his place in the the front seat of the cockpit. The crew made their final checks of the plane as onlookers backed up to get the distance between them and the fighter jet.

The crew cleared out and Gorney put the F-16 in motion as they drove 30 yards forward, they made a left turn and Natalie to her family and the Thunderbirds crew. Decker and Gorney then took the long drive down to the Southwest end of the airstrip, with the Vegas Skyline in their view. Once they reached the end of the tarmac, they made the 180-degree turn and faced the Northeast. Then Gorney released a puff of white smoke and flipped the jets on for takeoff as they screamed down the runway towards the Decker family and thunderbirds crew.

As they took off, veered to the left as Gorney gave Natalie a birds-eye view of Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Then it was a 90-degree climb straight up and then flattened out and zipped off an out of eyeshot.

Gorney took Decker over into California and the two spent an hour doing inverted flips and barrel rolls, as well as taking in a few sights. Midway through the flight, Gorney gave the controls over to Decker to let her fly the F-16.

“You get a little scared, try to size them up ahead of time before giving them the throttle. Kind of thinking in your head is this flying going to have a basic concept of how to operate the airplane” explained Gorney. “And flyers that have previous flying experience take the throttle and their good with an airplane. It’s pretty intuitive to fly this jet. However, you can tell Natalie definitely understands from the driver’s perspective on how to control this jet. So it was pretty cool to watch her do the aileron roll and turn us around and fly like a pro!”

Also during the flight, Gorney took Natalie up to 9.1 G’s, much to the pleasure of Decker. It was something that she had desired to do for years and finally accomplished the goal. She went through the G’s without passing out or getting motion sickness.

After landing, Decker landed with a smile as big as ever, climbed out of the plane with excitement and gave hugs and high fives to the crew. She then took a brief moment to thank the Thunderbirds and everyone that made it possible.

Lt. Col. Gorney then gave a final few thoughts after the flight and briefed those in attendance on Decker’s performance, which he highlighted was outstanding!

“As for the flight today, wow, what an incredible experience! Good job Natalie! Absolutely crushed it from start to finish! So tough in fact, she broke the first G-Suit, had to go back and get another one.”

“It was the muscles!”, chuckled Decker.

“We wanted to make sure we saw the track there, so, we waited to do our max climb over there, out to the west a little bit. So we cruised over the track at 500 miles an hour, sorry, a little faster.” said Gorney.

“Way faster!” said Natalie exuberantly.

“And then hopefully you got to see us pop up and do the vertical over there for the max climb. Then a nice flight on out, admiring the sights over Mount Charleston and then through the whole profile from start to finish, so good job! We got down low altitude, got the G-strain figured out and then went right through all the solo and diamond maneuvers. Natalie said her favorite was inverted to inverted, so that was a good one, and then she crushed it with a 9.1 G turn. However, I think the highlight was when Natalie was flying! Excellent job while she was flying, she did three aileron rolls through the valley, so I got to sit back and relax. So after you’re done driving, you can come fly!”

Natalie took a few moments for a few words of thanks to the Thunderbirds and Gorney as well as her family for bringing it all together. Then it was time for small final photoshoot in front of the F-16 Thunderbird jet. She then walked off the tarmac with a final glance back at the F-16 sitting where she had exited it still, then turned back and put an arm around Derek, who returned the gesture with an arm around her as the two walked back inside the Thunderbird HQ bay.

Once inside, Decker changes out of her Thunderbirds uniform and back into her civilian clothes as she transitioned back into driver mode ahead of her Friday NASCAR Truck Series action at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. She took a final moment to thank Gorney and the rest of the Thunderbird staff that hadn’t already flown out to Reno for an air show they were scheduled to fly in.

Once the Thunderbirds were in Reno, there would be another VIP flying with them. This is something the Thunderbirds have in their mission and pride themselves in. Though they thoroughly enjoy giving rides to impactful celebrities and social media influencers, they pride themselves on giving rides to first responders and wounded veterans.

“While it is great to have people in the spotlight that have incredible social media reach and great missions out there, it’s really rewarding when we get to fly the hometown heroes, like local police officers, firefighters that make a difference in people’s lives everyday. So that part is pretty cool.” said an excited Gorney, “We try to do two of those flights at each of the 35 different places we go.”

Natalie was afforded the opportunity to ride with the Thunderbirds, to help bring awareness to their cause and help shine a light on what they do. Lt. Col. Gorney awaited a refuel, stepped back in to say goodbye to Natalie and then headed back out to Thunderbird 7 and took flight to Reno to catch up with his fellow crew as he continued the mission. Just as he did the previous 15 years, with time in Korea and Iraq.

Meanwhile, Decker loaded up with her family and rolled back into Las Vegas as she continued the chase for her dream in NASCAR. Something that wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for all the men and women fighting for our freedom every day across the world. Something that she takes very seriously and doesn’t ever take for granted.

“The most exciting part about the flight was just being able to have the opportunity to be in that jet and be with one of the Thunderbirds. Not a lot of people get to do it, so just to be able to be there and experience the whole thing was amazing.” said Decker, “I am just so thankful for all that these men and women do every day to protect our freedom. It’s because of them that I get a chance to live out my dreams as a racecar driver and the citizens of the USA get to chase their dreams as well.”