Christophe Cail has the most important job of the show.
As flight director, he is responsible for the safety of everyone in the air and on the ground during the aerobatic displays.
He has had an extremely busy week ensuring pilots meet the strict display criteria, and stay within three tightly defined horizontal and vertical envelopes of airspace or "volumes" allocated to the show.
Volume A is the smallest and reserved for light aircraft and helicopters.
Volume B1 is suitable for most modern aircraft including the A380, while Volume C is restricted to warbirds and newer military aircraft such as the C17.
Pilots who overshoot their envelopes are alerted by a ground-based laser system which tracks their every movement.
Magnetic
Le Bourget has two runways and display aircraft use runway 21. Runway numbers refer to the magnetic direction in which they point, rounded to the nearest ten degrees.
Since Volume C extends to within 2km of the track of runway 26 at nearby Charles de Gaulle airport there is a possibility of conflict, so it is only used for half an hour each day.
French regulations decree that the flight director for Le Bourget has to be a test pilot. As a 2,600hr ex-navy pilot who trained at EPNER, the French test pilot school, Cail knows his stuff. "My job is to catch something before it becomes a safety issue", he says.
Pilots busting restrictions are warned during debriefing sessions.
"The worst punishment is to be grounded, and it has happened", he says.
"However that's rare and pilots learn from each other's mistakes."
In the job since 2001, Cail adores flying.
So what is he most looking forward to seeing this year?
He grins: "The F-18 and the Sukhoi 27".
Source: Flight Daily News