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Introduction
Behind the scenes at Metro Pulse Corporate Headquarters

SEC Preview
Brooks Clark's annual SEC football predictions

It's Official!
Knoxville: America's Best College Football Town

Drunk & Disorderly
Not-so-great moments in UT football history

High-Flying Fans
You've heard of the Vol Navy. How about the Vol Air Force?

Air Bud
Blimps: Where would football be without them?

Blood Orange
One writer agonizes over the color of his veins

Everybody's heard of the Vol Navy, but the invasion also comes from above via the Vol Air Force

by David Madison

Please stow all carry-on chicken biscuits in the overhead compartment and do not take a slug of bourbon until the plane has come to a complete stop.

These are rules to cheer by for the Vol Air Force, a collection of pilots and tag-along fans who travel in private planes to UT football games. Tennessee's airborne boosters don't tailgate, they tail wing. They don't arrive by car or by boat like the Vol Navy. These fans fly, buzzing into the Downtown Island Airport or McGhee Tyson on football Saturdays, dressed in orange and eager to de-plane.

Out on the tarmac, Vols fans who've earned their wings casually mingle with incoming members of the Gator or Bama Air Force. Downtown Island Airport's Stacie Lewis says the rival fliers are generally cordial, but no less fired up than the fans who creep through Knoxville traffic in Volunteer party vans or captain pontoon boats up Fort Loudoun Lake en route to Volunteer Landing.

"They come off those airplanes beers in hand," says Lewis. "They're ready."

And so are Knoxville's two airports. The strip in Island Home staffs its control tower before and after each home football game. It's the only action air traffic controllers see in Island Home, where Vol fans line up in the sky before swooping over the river and touching down like a sortie of fighter jets returning to base.

Giant, complimentary Blimpie subs await as many as 70 plane loads of arriving fans. At ease, they nibble in the airport lobby and arrange for troop transport. Lewis says the Vol Navy does not assist the Vol Air Force by attempting amphibious landings at the downtown airport, where the runway begins at water's edge. Instead, the Vol flyers catch a ride with friends or grab one of the taxis lined up for game day in the airport's parking lot.

Members of the Vol Air Force almost always arrive in time for the opening kick-off. They're there to hear Neyland Stadium explode in a sonic boom of megaphones and hip flasks. Even as the Vol flies, the UT field is at least a couple of miles away from the Downtown airport. But when the opening whistle sounds, the staff at Island Home can hear the game begin as if it were next door.

Once the game starts, it's time for airport staffers to sit and wait. Air traffic controllers must adjust their schedule according to how play unfolds on the field. If it's a Vandy blowout, then fans may want to take off early. But if it goes into overtime against the Gamecocks, then it could be a long day in the tower.

"We wouldn't be working if we didn't watch the game," says Lewis, who expects Nov. 6 to be the Downtown airport's busiest Saturday of the season. That's when Knoxville's sky will fill with the flying Irish of Notre Dame. Lewis says the Irish Air Force has an immense squadron, much like the barnstorming fans who propeller in from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Arkansas and Alabama.

One highly decorated member of the Vol Air Force sometimes flies all the way from Wyoming to make a game. When he's not at home in Chattanooga, John "Thunder" Thornton fires up the orange and white jet he keeps parked in Jackson, Wyo. Christened "Thunderbird," Thornton's Vol jet also ventures deep into Southeastern Conference territory for away games. When the Vols are at home, Thornton usually drives up from Chattanooga in his orange and white limo.

To avoid football Saturday traffic, Vols fan Gary Matthews likes to land his Cesna 303 or King Air B100 at McGhee Tyson on Friday night. By arriving early, and then setting up base camp at the Hilton downtown, Matthews has streamlined the trip from his home in Clarksville to the stands in Neyland. Total trip time, including the drive from the airport: 50 minutes.

Looking for a wetter way to avoid game day gridlock, former UT broadcaster George Mooney began taking his boat to games in 1962. Today, there are at least 200 boats in the Vol Navy and roughly 50 planes in the Vol Air Force. However, no one really knows how the Orange Air Force first got off the ground. The history books do note the founding of the Knoxville Flying Club in 1923, but make no mention of a Vol Air Force.

There is one tidbit Vols fans know for sure: In 1934, during Bob Neyland's illustrious coaching career, UT chalked up its 200th victory in a win over Mississippi. Three years later, McGhee Tyson Airport opened.

Coincidence? Perhaps, but there is some curious interplay between Knoxville aviation history and UT football's rise in national stature. In 1938 and '39, just as McGhee Tyson was establishing itself as a regional airport, the Vols had two of their best seasons ever. In '38, Tennessee went 11-0 and in '39 the Vols held opponents scoreless for 10 games in a row. In the 60 years since, no college squad has, as a Vols web site boasts, shutout "an entire slate of opponents."

Unfortunately, there is one sad footnote to the Vol Air Force story. On Oct. 11, 1997, the Garrett family—Robert, Sandra and their son, Bobby—were flying back to Lafayette, Tenn., after the Georgia game when their Piper Cherokee plane crashed into Fort Loudoun Lake. Witnesses saw the plane make a sudden left turn following take-off from Island Home and then crash into the water near the South Knoxville Bridge. There were no unusual weather conditions the night of the fatal crash, and activity at the airport was described as "a very normal ball game-type situation."

In Knoxville, a "normal ball game-type situation" means fans arrive by land, by water and by air. For the Vol Air Force, football Saturdays are a time to take off and then touch down for the Big Orange.