Warbird Information Exchange

yeah sucks only reason i was going to make the trip was for me262. i feel like they had vietnam type show couple years ago. hoping they add few more ww2 birds to the mix possible flying status, thunder isnt thunder without couple bombers flying overhead.

thank you haha i am planning my visit based on if they get any ww2 aircraft.

I do like Warbirds of all eras but I tend to think of Thunder Over Michigan as a WWII warbird airshow, I guess because of the whole history of the B-24 being made there and their WWII aircraft collection.

I am already up in Michigan for family business and will be up here until a little after Thunder so I will automatically attend Thunder. The ME-262 and the Mosquito were 2 main reasons I wanted to see the show because I had never seen those types fly before. As of now, everything on the list I have seen fly either at Thunder or at other shows, another reason was B-17 Chuckie originally on the list before it got sold and moved west. I missed the Titusville show this year where it flew and it only parked on static at New Smyrna Beach show. Chuckie is the only flyable B-17 in USA I haven't seen fly (since I missed the 2005 Thunder).

I still think Thunder will be a good show and I think we might get some nice surprises in the next couple of weeks which I am sure will be a few WWII era additions (other than the usual T-6 formations).

Now that it seems they are easing up on the Air Force Sequester by letting more units fly again and Thunderbirds fly again that we will get some modern military to show up on static and maybe get a heritage flight. Getting a few modern military birds is always nice for arrivals day

Any details on that ?
Last I heard they were cutting back even more, and obviously any demo teams would need at least a month to get up to trim.

From what I've heard, the T-birds are only resuming practice. The performance schedule is still scrubbed for this year.

So is the C-123 just going to be static during the show? My brother and I are planning to be there on Saturday, and he'd love to see her fly (he's a big Provider fan.)

SN

Back where we belong.

Our thanks to everyone.

Cheers,

Tom Walsh.

Wiley Sanders' AD-4N will not be attending, but it did get a fresh engine installed last year.

_________________
"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

From the Thunder participating aircraft list - 6 Spads;

Douglas A-1H Skyraider "LIEUTENANT AMERICA"
Neal Melton

Douglas A-1E Skyraider
Collings Foundation

Douglas AD-5W Skyraider (Book a ride!)
Cavanaugh Flight Museum

Douglas AD-1 Skyraider "BAD NEWS"
Warbird Heritage Foundation

Douglas AD-4NA Skyraider "NAKED FANNY"
Jim Rohlf

Douglas AD-5W Skyraider
Midwest Wild Refuge, LLC

Cheers,

Tom Walsh.

Actually I think one of the GREAT things about Thunder Over Michigan is the fact that they normally go out of their way to include Post-WWII warbirds in their lineup. This is not true of many warbird shows that almost exclusively focus on WWII.

I think it is highly unlikely any current military aircraft will be attending any air shows in the near future. I do not think that the resumption of some training and proficiency flying will include any support for air shows for a while. It would be great to see aircraft for Heritage or Legacy flights, but I don't think that is in the offing any time soon.

Looking forward to a great show in 3 weeks and look forward to perhaps a few more WWII and Post-WWII warbird additions.

And GREAT to see this thread back in the main WIX Hangar!

I was hoping at least we could get maybe a couple F-16s up from Ohio, a couple A-10s from Selfridge, a C-27 from Battle Creek to come as static. We also can get a Coast Guard HH-65 to go alert 2 on us like a couple years ago

I said this times before. It would be nice if the government would allow some fly bys of airshows of modern military as part of the training. I am not askingfor the full F-16 demo, but if we could get a high speed pass, dirty pass and knife edge pass, that would be all I need, then continue on as part of cross country training.

Unfortunately there are no C-27s here in Battle Creek..in fact the entire program was cancelled a couple of years ago. After the A-10s left in 2009 we got a few C-21s (Learjets) but the last one of those was tranferred out last week. Now our ANG unit is officially doing drone control, which means that for the first time since 1946 there are no military aircraft stationed in Battle Creek.

SN

The balloon fest still going on this year ?
I went last year and outside of the Tbirds and F-86, nothing even went past the fence. Year before that was great when they had the Angels, Phantom and F-22 demo. Kzoo used to have some good shows too.

The Battle Creek Balloon Fest/Airshow is always over the Fourth of July weekend. This year of course there were no military demos, just civilian aerobatic acts (and the stupid jet truck ) The only warbird was "Panchito" the B-25. We live about a mile from the airport, right under the pattern, and I saw it go over a couple of times..but I didn't bother to go out to the show. Never even saw any balloons.

Kalamazoo hasn't had an airshow in over a decade. The last event was when the Air Zoo held their "Warbirds Over Kalamazoo" in 2001. Of course, they'd grounded all of their warbirds the previous fall, so the turnout wasn't that great.

SN

thunder rocks, total mix of old and new is a good thing, ww2,korea,vietnam,i remember once a few years back they even had WWI,and air racers,my only(and annual)complaint is our own C47 being static,year after year,but I am hopelessly biased when it comes to that airplane,the finest DC3/C47 flying in the world.

Oh yeah thats right, soon as they grounded the Birds I knew it would not be worth the trip from Detroit.
I remember some great shows at Kzoo, including one where a Mig-29 put on a jaw dropping demo, his high angle of attack maneuver was something I have never seen before on that scale ,,, F-18 went up right after him and tried to outdo or at least equal him, I was worried he was going to fall out of the sky. They had a B-52 and B-1, really just about every jet in the inventory USAF & USN. Shows like that will and can never be replicated, shame.