First post in a while....
I got to work the ramp this year at Thunder (If anyone saw the ramp rat that lost his hat during the TBM / Wildcat startup on Saturday, that was me. I hate that f'ing hat, and curse the name of the guy from the Russel group that caught it and returned it to me.
). These are just my opinions, and are not intended to represent Yankee, Kevin & Mike, or anyone else.
This show was the first time in many years (perhaps the first ToM, not sure about that) to use an entirely Yankee Ramp crew. Every ramp rat out there was a Yankee Ramp Rat. From my perspective, the ramp layout was very good, and worked well, but I can certainly see why some people weren't happy with a few things. For us, it was easier to launch and recover aircraft. Pilots could show up a few minutes before engine start, and be on their way quickly.
As a fan, I'd have been bummed if I could only have seen "Old Crow" or the Mig-21 from 50+ feet away. Ditto the ride-selling warbirds that were down the ramp. I know in the Mig-21's case, they flew on Friday and were at least going to try and fly during the show, hence their spot on the "hot" ramp. Unfortunately, things just ended up not working out. Although, everything on the hot ramp flew during the show at some point, sans the Mig. So that's some consolation.
But on the plus side, we didn't have to raise an army of CAP cadets and security people to shoo the crowd to a safe distance when we started an airplane. I know that helped keep the show on schedule, was a bit safer for the general public, and probably kept people fans a bit happier (there's always "that guy" that gets p*ssy because someone asked him to move, or "that security guy" that thinks his radio and store bought cammies entitles him to act like Rambo meets Chuck Norris.)
I'm glad the weather held out at least for Saturday. I had to leave early Sunday, but heard that the jumpers didn't get to go. I will say that the fans this year seemed really great. During the whole weekend I only had one bad experience with a fan. Everyone else was fantastic, and not one person was rude or inconsiderate when I had to ask them for something. A great crowd in every sense of the word.
Here's my ToM flickr photoset. After a mere ten hours on the ramp Friday, I managed to get free for a quickie run around the aircraft before we closed up shop and went to dinner.
http://flickr.com/photos/tenthousandmarbles/sets/72157606623350589/
But my favorite shot of the weekend is this one. This just to proves how hard Gary had to work to get Old 927 in the shape she's in. Heck, if it takes 12 people and two tugs just to
tow the aircraft anywhere, imagine how hard it must be to change the oil.
(the first tug vapor locked just after we hooked up. We were in the process of unhooking the tug and hooking up the second tug to move the first when the first tug refired.)
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Yes, you should've seen the looks on their faces. My friends and I are still laughing over that one! I'll never live it down 
