By Raul Cisneros
U.S. Air Force Maj. Sam “RaZZ” Larson said he first came to AirVenture when he was about 10-11 years old. “I remember distinctly the first time my dad drove me up here,” he said. “I knew about Oshkosh, but just the scale of it, overwhelming … .” He kept coming back year after year. This time around, he’s at AirVenture representing the USAF’s demonstration team as Thunderbird 8, conducting outreach. Joining him is his crew chief, Staff Sgt. Sovann Din.
Becoming a Thunderbird pilot is a multistep and rigorous process. “You have to be an instructor pilot in a fighter platform, is the min-qual,” he said. “And then also 750 to 1,000 hours minimum to apply, in addition to being an instructor pilot. You apply to the team, you go out on a trip with the team to a show site, and then they down-select semifinalist to finalist. If you’re selected as a finalist, you go out to Nellis Air Force Base, and you actually do a flying tryout in the (F-16) D model.” Applicants are also interviewed by the wing leadership at Nellis and the demonstration team.
RaZZ was selected as a Thunderbird pilot in June 2025. Afterward, he went to Holloman Air Force Base to get checked out in the F-16. Last November he became Thunderbird 8, his current role, where his job is to inspect sites ahead of shows and conduct narration. This November he will transition to Thunderbird 3, where he will fly one of the six actual demonstration jets.
A Davenport, Iowa, native, RaZZ is a 2015 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado where he was on the parachute team, making more than 700 jumps. In 2015, right after graduating from the academy he came to AirVenture and saw an F-22 demonstration. “That was hugely impactful on my life of, ‘Okay, I want to go fly F-22s,’” he said. “That’s my dream.” He came back in 2018 and set his goal to fly an F-22 at Oshkosh. In 2023 he got to do that, including doing an aerial photo shoot featured in EAA Sport Aviation the following year.
While standing next to his F-16, RaZZ has taken the time to talk to a steady stream of attendees, sign his autograph, and take pictures. Asked what advice he can offer to young people, he said, “You have to take a risk at some point in your life and step outside of your comfort zone. And sometimes that’s the most difficult step in their journey, but we encourage everyone to take that step, bet on yourself and be willing to get outside of your comfort zone because on the other side of all that discomfort and adversity, usually that’s where your dreams lie.”
RaZZ also offered his perspective about another part of life: failure. “I’ve been telling folks, ‘Don’t be afraid to fail,’” he said. “Failing is an inherent part of flying. Air Force flying is designed to make you fail multiple times. It’s part of life. It really is. And to learn how to fail forward, to pick yourself back up and move on to the next day and apply the lessons learned … .”
As for AirVenture, RaZZ expressed his gratitude to EAA for its hospitality. “To the fans here, to the volunteers, probably most importantly, thank you for what they do year-round to make this happen,” he said. “We get to come here for a week and enjoy the spectacle, but we know that people pour their blood, sweat, and tears into this to make it happen, and specifically this week, we were welcomed with open arms everywhere we went.”