THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN 2012

[Jeff H]

Vlado.....Briefly chatted with you on Saturday night at the dinner, thanks for taking the time to speak to this volunteer and two giant thumbs up for your aerobatic routine and another two for your super low passes in Baby Duck....( don't tell the other Stang guys but those low passes were the hands on favorites of all the folks in the photo tent area.)

Cheers,

Jeff

[Boeing666]

That must have been Vlado who buzzed me in Baby Duck on Ecorse Rd Sunday and the guy flying Charlotte's Chariot. I got a few shots of Charlotte's Chariot flying pretty low from Ecorse. I would have had a great shot of Baby Duck coming right at me but my autofocus had to act up right then and there - I am sure you saw me standing right out in the island of Ecorse Rd on Sunday and were aiming for me.

Saturday I was inside right and Baby Duck was definitely the lowest, with Moonbeam McSwine a close 2nd - so if Vlado was flying Baby Duck, who was flying Moonbeam McSwine?

We were talking to one of the P-51 pilots while the Mustangs were up Saturday, but someone else was flying his plane (might have been Baby Duck) because he wasn't formation flight qualitified.

[BK]

Does anybody know why the A-36 didn't fly? It wasn't even static for much of Sunday. There were issues the whole weekend, still a nice show but by far the least enjoyable of the three Thunders I've been too.

[Boeing666]

Does anybody know why the A-36 didn't fly? It wasn't even static for much of Sunday. There were issues the whole weekend, still a nice show but by far the least enjoyable of the three Thunders I've been too.

The A-36 I had heard had a hydraulic issue on Saturday.

I hate to say I agree with you about being least enjoyable - and I hate to make it sound like an insult to everyone who worked hard setting it up and I will always keep coming back to the shows no matter what (well as long as I can take my vacation from work). The issues are not the fault of the Thunder staff, most of the problems lie with our government - the high gas prices are grounding a lot of aircraft, on top of that the military cut backs. Some on here don't care for modern military stuff but I think it does make for great static displays and very enjoyable to watch on arrivals day seeing a large military aircraft like a C-130, KC-10, P-3, E-6 etc landing. On top of that, I am always a big fan of the heritage flight, the more planes the better of course. With the current military cutbacks, we are lucky to get anything modern to show up just to park on the ramp.

I love the Mustang, I think it is a great plane. However I am a bigger fan of the heavy WWII bombers Nine Mustangs went up Sunday, but I would have been more impressed if 9 B-17s went up. For me, 2005 or 2010 were my favorite shows, I wish Fifi could have been flying at those shows but during that whole time she was grounded and pretty much being rebuilt. In 2005 we saw 8 B-17s and 2 B-24s go up, Fifi was also scheduled but that was about when all the problems started - seeing 11 heavy bombers in the air at once would have given me a stiffy. I would have loved to be here in 2007 (the only show I missed since I started coming in 2005 - never went to a show when I lived in Michigan) - this was the big gathering of B-25s.

There are 9 flyable B-17s (Liberty Belle went down last year) 2 B-24s (although both are having temp maintenance problems) 1 B-29 and 1 Lancaster. Send up a few C-47s and a C-46, and a bunch of B-25s and I would be in heaven - Hint, this would be great for Thunder 2013.