Donβt look for Christopher Kapuschansky in the next βTop Gunβ movie.
βI move my head a lot when I talk and I donβt like the sound of my voice,β the Navy pilot offers as an assessment. βIβll stick to the plan in place.β
That plan included a stint with the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navyβs elite demonstration team.
In the new documentary, βThe Blue Angels,β Kapuschansky β or βCheeseβ as heβs called β is one of the pilots who fly through the air with the greatest of ease. Chronicling a year in the life of the Angels, the film shows him and his teammates going through intense preparation for those air shows that wow audiences.
Kapuschansky, a Massachusetts native, saw a Blue Angels show as a child and got βreally, really into naval aviation. I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to fly jets off ships. Never did I think the Blue Angels would be attainable.β
After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy with a bachelorβs degree in oceanography, he earned his commission in the Navy and, in 2014, his Wings of Gold. In 2022, he was No. 2, the right wingman, to Capt. Brian Kesserling, the Blue Angels flight leader.
βI applied a few timesβ for the team but didnβt get in. Then, after a pandemic pause, βI was selected...and it was really eye-opening.β
Besides serving asΒ ambassadors for the military, the Angels gave Kapuschansky a chance to embed with other pilots and learn how difficult it is to fly so close they could practically touch wings.
βYouβre never going to fly this close if youβre in the fleet squadron,β he says. βWeβre doing a slightly different mission. Weβre not at the pointy end of the spear when it comes to the tactical stuff. Weβre here to showcase the finer details and pride of what the Navy has to offer.β
To get to that level β some 18 inches apart β the Angels go through months of training. βWhen we get our confidence up a little, we make ourselves a little bit more uncomfortable by taking it a little bit closer. Halfway to two-thirds ofΒ the way through the season, we get even closer. What we want to do is fight a sense of complacency. Once you have that sense of complacency, bad things tend to happen. We donβt start off super close. We work toward it.β
While the film puts viewers in the cockpit, it doesnβt give them other sensory experiences. βWe are very sweaty,β Kapuschansky admits. βMost of us will chug a bottle of water before we get into the jet and then chug a bottle of water once we get out. Youβre essentially holding a 40-to 45-pound spring for 40 to 45 minutes. Itβs a workout.β
Kapuschansky says itβs unlikely the Blue Angels would ever become automated. βThatβs the beauty of it. There are numbers associated with these things but itβs an art, itβs a feel. You canβt digitize or automate the finesse that goes in with this performance.β
While Kupschansky is now stationed at VFA-21 Black Lions in NAS Oceana, he jumped at the chance to see his fellow Blue Angels at the filmβs premiere in Pensacola, Florida, last week.
βWe spent about 300 days of the year with each other. We knew every single thing about (the others) because we trusted each other so much. I knew that Scott (Gossens, the No. 3 pilot) didnβt like bleu cheese on a salad, so heβd scrape it off every single debrief.β
The reunion wasnβt necessarily to catch up (βwe text and talk all the timeβ) but to mark another milestone in their careers.
And those nicknames? βEverybody gets a call sign,β Kapuschansky says. βIt started post-World War II so that you could go with that in case you were stuck. Typically, the Navy gives you a call sign and the Air Force gets to pick theirs.β
And βCheeseβ? Kupuschansky got the name because somebody couldnβt pronounce his βand they just shortened it to cheese.β
βItβs typically related to something youβve done in the past, usually something stupid. It rarely is really cool.β
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