The whole military pilot culture urges people to show off. If you are really hot you get to join the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels or some other demonstration unit and become a professional showoff.
It isn't quite 'hold muh beer' but it is 'hold muh brain'
SO9
No, no, no, dude.
The Blue Angels and Thunderbirds don't do anything that any fleet pilot cant do. The attributes that get people into a demo squad are always about attitude, consistency, personality and only then is it about ability.
Demo pilots are ambassadors and recruiters, and potential members are evaluated on how well they can motivate, and what kind of image they put forward. These are super-squared away individuals who never, never consider bending the rules.
If you could not fly, they would never put you in a fighter in the first place.
I see Pukin Dog, a squared-away guy who knows his stuff, put you in your place about this. Ain't no 'stunts' in the Blue Angels. 8~)
Used to do heavy maintenance for the Thunderbirds. 57th CRS, Jet Engine Intermediate Maintenance shop - it wasn't a matter of being "hot," it was a matter of being good. When you're flying wing over wing, and changing paint at three hundred knots, there's no room for someone who doesn't follow directions.
Hardly the same thing. Those demonstration team pilots are highly disciplined. Their maneuvers are not spur of the moment things, they are planned well in advance, gone over on the ground, and practices and practiced and practiced.
It's the difference between a guy on a road race course and some dummy who decides to put the pedal to the metal to "see what she can do", on some winding stretch of highway.