Stay Tranquilo - How It Feels to Fly a B-1 Bomber Over the Super Bowl LX | US Air Force Pilot Buster Christon

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

On this Stay Tranquilo Podcast episode, we sit down with Buster Christon, a U.S. Air Force pilot chosen to fly the lead B-1 bomber in the historic Super Bowl LX flyover — a rare joint formation with Air Force and Navy aircraft celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.We dive deep into what it really feels like to fly a supersonic bomber over Levi’s Stadium, the pressure of hitting perfect timing during the National Anthem, and how this once-in-a-lifetime moment compares to everyday flying and military tradition.🎙️ In this episode you’ll hear about:✈️ What it takes to be selected for a Super Bowl flyover✈️ Flying a B-1 Lancer: power, speed & maneuverability✈️ What going Mach 1+ feels like in the cockpit✈️ How military precision makes the flyover possible✈️ Top Gun Maverick — reality vs Hollywood🏈 And of course… Seahawks vs Patriots predictionsWhether you’re into aviation, military life, or just love incredible Super Bowl stories — this conversation takes you up close with the pilots behind the sky show everyone tuned in for. 🙌👇 Subscribe for more stories at the intersection of culture, sport, and real-life experiences — Stay Tranquilo. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

All right, all right, welcome back to a really cool episode today. We are joined by Buster, who's going to be doing the flyover for this room. Buster, how are you doing today, man? Doing great. First time in California, actually, much less for an occasion as big as this. So really exciting, really happy to be here. It's going to be an awesome time. That's pretty cool.

So I want to start here. How do you even get selected to do the flyover? Honestly, I mean, we're, I don't want to say we kind of just put our names in the hat. They pick one, but I mean, we're all very skilled air crew members. Honestly, it comes down to who's available and, you know, what are the commitments they have going on at the time. I thankfully was free to do this. It's awesome. So I'm very happy to be here.

So what was your reaction when you hear like, oh, man, like you're going to do it? Because I don't know, like, I don't know in terms of like pilot milestones, but it's got to be pretty cool. Like I'm somebody who, like, no matter what, National Anthem had a big sporty event, auto goosebumps. So, like, you're going to be a huge part of that is doing the flight. which is like synonymous with this so like what was your reaction to here you're going to do it i mean just super excited i mean once in a lifetime kind of thing like i'm never going to get to do anything like this this cool probably every good like i mean just absolutely hyped and you know getting to do it with a whole bunch of other people around the air force and around the navy that's not something we get to do

very often yeah so just super excited that's pretty amazing and can you tell us what aircraft you'll be flying over the stadium yeah so uh we'll be in the um the lead aircraft, which is the B-1. Oh, nice. Yeah. I love the B-1, dude. I don't want to brag, but it'll be drawn the most high. Yes, 100%.

100%. That's cool. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah. What's it like just the maneuverability between a fighter and a bomber, even one that can go supersonic? Yeah. B-1 really, really unusual in that it really wants to fly like a fighter jet.

You know, we can pull a decent amount of G-eas for the size of the size of the plane and obviously like you said we can go supersonic which is something that no other bomber in the world can do while carrying the largest conventional payload in the workforce so i mean it's just the coolest dang dead all around yeah that's biased a little bit yeah yeah yeah yeah like definitely definitely awesome that's cool i the thing is this might be the dumbest question god i don't know but i'm a big movie guy top good maverick is like the first thing like how like what do you watch a movie like that are you just like sitting there like this is either super unrealistic or are you just like this is fun. Yeah. I try really hard to just enjoy it and not pick it apart. Yeah. The moment I start

noticing little things. Oh yeah. I kind of kills it. So I just try to like forget about it. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, what's that what's the fast that you've got? The fastest that I've gone. I've gone mock 1.2. Wow. Wow. That is pretty awesome. Yeah. Like I mean when you're in the cockpit or something like doing that like what is that like? Is it like breaking the sound very? Yeah. It's actually really, really anti-climactic. Really? You cannot tell the difference. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. It's when you slow down from going that speed. It kind of feels like slamming on the brakes in your car. Like you leverage forward a little bit. Like you really feel it when you come down from the speed. Yeah. Going up, you know, it's just like business as usual. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's really cool. And so when you, if we can talk about this, when you were in the academy and you graduated, were you assigned the B1? Is that what you were assigned when you graduated? So it's a really, long kind of convoluted track. Okay.

You know, I commissioned into the Air Force out of college, went to navigator training down in Florida. Nice. I was there for about two-ish years, and it's kind of like right towards the end where you get slotted into your aircraft, and then you go off to that plane and get even more training.

All of sudden done, it took about three-ish years to get to there. Are you based in Florida? Not based in Florida now. I'm based out of South Dakota. That's where the B-1 is coming from. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for this, like, are you take, well, I know you're taking out from here, but like, are all, like, the B-1s, like, they take off from South Dakota or is that, like, just yours? Yeah, so we're, you know, we got to prepare. So there's going to be, like, spare aircraft, you know, just. Got it, got, got it, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, there'll be at least one. So when you're doing the flower, I mean, this is, I'm assuming this is your first flyover, right? So, like, when you're going to be. flying, is it business as usual, or are you going to be kind of like pomp? Yeah. I mean, I think everybody's going to be. Yeah. Yeah. It's going to be really hard not to be of that kind of thing. Yeah. As far as, you know, like meeting kind of the time on target at the end of the national. That's, yeah. Like, that's always a little nerve-wracking because literally everybody's going to be watching you. Yeah. And if you mess it up, they'll notice that kind of thing. But, I mean, it's, it's nothing too crazy. Do you have, like, like, all right, they're at this point, like, you have to now, like, make your way.

everybody's gonna be working pretty closely with people on the ground to time it just right though you know lots of practice lots of rehearsal kind of makes things pretty smooth how many times have you done the the route none oh okay how you haven't done yet first time you're gonna kill it though that's awesome hell yeah and do you would you think that like something like a flyover like this do you feel like it's something that i i guess what i'm trying to say is when it comes to what you're normal flying experience is like in the sense like you're very much controlled i know he was like saying if you're going to be very like energetic but do you think that just the experience of flying itself like will it stick out being able to go over like a stadium usually a very big no fly zone like how do you

think that's going to be it definitely feels a little weird flying over something that big that low but i mean like it's all very like choreographed it's very safe like you know we're checking all boxes. Yeah. That's really cool. No sweat at all. That's gonna be awesome, man. I was gonna say, have you talked to anybody on, like, the demo teams for advice about how to

go low and, like, maybe like the best way to do a wing wave over here? No, no, nothing like that. We got it handled pretty well. We're gonna be turning into the series. We're doing 360 flips around. I'll be like, that's Buster up there in the front. That's awesome. Yeah, that actually would be pretty cool.

Like, seeing you do the flower. It's like, we know that guy. Yeah. We know that guy. And the B1, man, what a plane. Yeah. That plane really sticks out. Like you said, not just in the way it wants to fly,

but just the shape and of itself and everything. It's just the coolest looking thing. It is the coolest looking thing. I was going to ask, do you have experience flying other aircraft, military aircraft? Besides what I was trained in in my undergraduate flying training, so the T6 and the T1, those are the kind of standard Air Force training aircraft.

Nothing crazy at all, nothing flashy. Those are the only other aircraft I've touched. Yeah. That's cool. Listen, the final question we got for you, do you have a dog in this fight? Are you going to Seahawks or Patriots? I don't have a dog, really, but I want the Seahawks, too. Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah.

Just for, yeah. I'm going for the Seahawks, too. So we're from Miami Dolphins guy. I hate the Patriots, so. Being from Dallas, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There we go. Well, awesome.

Thank you, man, for joining us. And good luck on Sunday. Hey, we will literally be watching you. I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, it's going to be awesome. Thank you, man.