THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN 2013

With hopefully a LOT more U.S. Vietnam era warbirds being announced for the show over the next weeks and months, it just occured to me that we haven't mentioned any aircraft from the opposing side for quite a while. I hope that at least one MiG-17 can be procured for the show. Don't know if Will Ward has any available MiGs anymore, but I did notice that Randy Ball's "Fighter-Jets" MiG-17 is still not booked for the weekend of June 15-16 (at least as indicated on the web site's 2013 show calendar).

[kalamazookid]

With hopefully a LOT more U.S. Vietnam era warbirds being announced for the show over the next weeks and months, it just occured to me that we haven't mentioned any aircraft from the opposing side for quite a while. I hope that at least one MiG-17 can be procured for the show. Don't know if Will Ward has any available MiGs anymore, but I did notice that Randy Ball's "Fighter-Jets" MiG-17 is still not booked for the weekend of June 15-16 (at least as indicated on the web site's 2013 show calendar).

I heard Will wasn't doing airshows anymore, but still had the MiGs. Not sure if that's true or not. Would be cool to see either a MiG-21 or MiG-17 in the air at TOM.

[Mr. Scott]

He still has his MiG-17 and is ready to fly. As for the -21, that is a non-flier now. Best thing to do would be to ask him if would attend the air show.

[Warbird Kid]

Has the Starfighters group been considered?
http://www.starfighters.net

Since the acquisition of FOUR MORE F-104s from the Italian Air Force, I wonder if they'll have them flying by the 2013 season. Imagine.... Seven F-104's...

Has the Starfighters group been considered?
http://www.starfighters.net

Since the acquisition of FOUR MORE F-104s from the Italian Air Force, I wonder if they'll have them flying by the 2013 season. Imagine.... Seven F-104's...

The Starfighters are basically out of the air show business for the time being. They are strictly doing government contract work for NASA, etc. out of the Kennedy Space Center. They are scheduled to do a single ship demo at the adjacent TICO warbird show in March, but that is probably the extent of their air show activity this year. I doubt seriously if the company has enough qualified F-104 pilots on board to fly seven Starfighters at the same time, and I don't think they have that many airworthy at this time. I believe they may actually have a total of NINE F-104's right now. I would love to see them put up at least a 4-ship Starfighter formation someday!

Since the F-104 was a relatively minor player in SE Asia during the Vietnam War, I think the F-4, A-4 and F-100 are the flying jet warbirds we really need to see at the show. And the MiG-17 and/or MiG-21 if possible!

[Xray]

Look forward to anything from TOM, will otherwise by a dry year for the area since Selfridge has cancelled its bi-annual show this year, 1st time they have ever done that.

[michael luther]

Just added,

Neal Melton's A-1H Skyraider "LIEUTENANT AMERICA"!

Just added,

Neal Melton's A-1H Skyraider "LIEUTENANT AMERICA"!

Thank you, Michael! The lineup gets better and better. The A-1H Skyraider is a PERFECT fit for this year's theme. Keep up the great work!

[TOM WALSH]

All,

Almost 50% of the Friday Taxiway Photography, Saturday and Sunday Photo Tour/Photo Pit slots are sold. This popular area of the show sells out well in advance of the event. Don't be disappointed.

Cheers,

Tom Walsh.

[flightsimer]

Just added,

The Air Heritage's C-123K Provider "THUNDER PIG".

Was gonna say, I thought from our last members meeting the show was announced as confirmed but couldn't remember. Your post confirmed that.

A few here mentioned about a C-123 seen on the airshow curcuit. It is C-123 "Thunder Pig" operated by Air Heritage out of Beaver Falls Pa. I only ever see it on static display. But C-123's are def. VIETNAM birds for sure!

We always do static, but given the opportunity, we will do a demo flight. However, most of the time the demo is done when we are either leaving or arriving.

There are really only so many things we can do, one of them being the assault landing. Which is one hell of a ride from the inside! At lots of the shows, when arriving we do the assault landing.

This was before my time there, but at least once, we have had fire and rescue come out because they saw the start of the approach and thought we were crashing. They must not have had sight on the runway, and deployed based on what they saw and as they finally were making it out towards the runway, they saw us taxiing in. I think they ended up following us to parking and then greeted us and began BSing with our crew. It's always a fun story to hear from the crew members who were on the flight.

Hopefully, I will be able to crew this trip and if I'm lucky, from the right seat!

[Flyin Illini]

With the upcoming and all but done sequestration. Looks like there will be more time for warbirds with no t-birds

With the upcoming and all but done sequestration. Looks like there will be more time for warbirds with no t-birds

Aaron - as a hard core prop and jet warbird fan, I would be very happy to have more time with flying warbirds at the show without the Thunderbirds, but for the sake of the Yankee Air Museum and their ability to generate more funds to help to finance the warbirds, I hope the Thunderbirds do not have to cancel their appearance at Thunder. It would undoubtedly affect the attendance.

That being said, most years Thunder has put on a great warbird show without a major jet team, so if any show can weather this kind of thing, Thunder Over Michigan should be able to do it. Whatever happens, I am looking forward to this show and a great lineup of flying warbirds. The C-1A, AC-47, C-123, A-1, multiple UH-1's and Me-262 (not to mention YAM's own birds) are a terrific start to what hopefully will be a very memorable warbird show!

[Xray]

I sure couldn't see the Tbirds getting clipped as anything to gloat about.
As stated, it would drastically affect show attendance, and be a huge disappointment to the jet fans like me, though I'd still go. [I really doubt if there would be much of anything to fill the slot timewise anyhow ,,, Are they going to tell a B-25 to circle for 45 minutes instead of 20, and maybe get the Texans to orbit 15 times instead of 8?]
I miss badly the days of all jet shows, with aircraft like F-4's, A-4's, F-14's, F-15's, F-18's, Harriers, F-111's, B-1's and more performing on the same day ,,, Obviously, those days are gone for good, but its pretty humiliating to consider putting the worlds premiere aerial performers on ice for lack of funds, while we are giving F-16's and M1-A1 battle tanks to Islamic countries and others on the taxpayers dime.

Hope we get some new aircraft information soon for the show. Been kind of quiet with no news since January 31 here, on the web site or on the Facebook page.

Looking forward to the show!

Under 4 months to the show now..........

[seabee1526]

I agree. I'm a bit nervous about this years show

Hope we get some new aircraft information soon for the show. Been kind of quiet with no news since January 31 here, on the web site or on the Facebook page.

Looking forward to the show!

Under 4 months to the show now..........