THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN 2013

[flightsimer]

My plans are Ecorse by the runway FRI, inside show SAT, Ecorse again SUN, will have a sun tent and a blue Ram [Fri at least, Sun will probably go with an uncle], scanners blazing. Anyone feels like stopping by and shooting the @$%& feel free, looking forward to the show.

I don't think the planes will be landing by Ecorse today. Winds are out of the northwest and the main runway I think 24L is closed until November.

True, didn't know about the construction, but the area is still "show center" I believe. Sunday will for sure be a guessing game for take offs.
Not much action today, F-100 went up early about 11:30 and flew most of his runs parallel to Ecorse and landed that way too, runway 30 something ?
Skyraiders were nice to see, they all did a couple passes before landing, as did the A4. They put up a half hearted heritage flight with a Mustang, Corsair and a Bonanza, apparently filling in for the 86, they took off and orbited out of sight and landed. Saw the 123 arrive a bit after 5, great looking bird ,,, Never did see the F-86 or Mig, I left about 5:30.
Looking forward to the next 2 days, weather looks stellar.

Wow 5pm arrival... They must have had a good headwind as I was predicting it to only be a hour and 15-30min flight.

[Boeing666]

True, didn't know about the construction, but the area is still "show center" I believe. Sunday will for sure be a guessing game for take offs.
Not much action today, F-100 went up early about 11:30 and flew most of his runs parallel to Ecorse and landed that way too, runway 30 something ?
Skyraiders were nice to see, they all did a couple passes before landing, as did the A4. They put up a half hearted heritage flight with a Mustang, Corsair and a Bonanza, apparently filling in for the 86, they took off and orbited out of sight and landed. Saw the 123 arrive a bit after 5, great looking bird ,,, Never did see the F-86 or Mig, I left about 5:30.
Looking forward to the next 2 days, weather looks stellar.

Wow 5pm arrival... They must have had a good headwind as I was predicting it to only be a hour and 15-30min flight.[/quote]


The C-123 landed on Runway 32 around 4:30pm. I was tracking it across Lake Erie on Flightaware on my phone. I wish I had stayed by the 32 approach but the 2 Skyraiders landed on 23R and I figure that was where everything was landing after that. I think every runway was used yesterday at one point or another, it got annoying. I was with a group of guys that sat in the field between the old Zantop hangar and Roush hangars getting Runway 5L arrivals. The F-100 shot down Runway 9L several times before landing on it. We heard on our radios that the A-4 was landing on Runway 32 so we quickly got over there and got it. There were people parking watching along the approach to 32, which was a great approach for lighting in the afternoon. When we saw the skyraiders land on 23R, we moved over there but unfortunately missed Thunderpig. Nothing much else landed on 23R except and N3N, T-6 and the AC-47 about an hour later.


The Bonanza going up with the Corsair and Mustang wasn't a heritage flight, it was a photo shoot. Whenever you see the bananza go up with a couple warbirds they are shooting for Warbird Digest, Warbird Magazine or something. Someone was asking about the F-86, it came in earlier during the week and was parked there. I was surprised there werent any practice heritage or legacy flights - the A-4 and the Skyraider that does Legacy flights came in around 4pm though.

[Xray]

Enjoyable show, I think they did a great job with what was available.
Didn't see a peep out of the F-86 which flew yesterday, what happened with that ?
Finally picked the right spot for takeoffs after the show at the end of runway 27 and was treated to a scorching take off from the 100, also a pair of B-25's and other aircraft, I stayed until past 7pm today. Back in the day, all departing aircraft would at least do one pass, sometimes 2 or 3, and wag their wings goodbye as they headed for the wild blue - Not no more, they take off and keep right on going, guess time + gas are the primary considerations these days.
Heres hoping the military will be back in 2014 !

[flightsimer]

Well the pig got back tonight. Ironically enough, it followed me back to our airport all the way from Sandusky, Ohio. As we contacted Cleveland center, so did they and they were about 5-10 min behind us.

I flew there today to go to cedar point. We brought three planes (C172's) worth and ended picking the day of a pancake breakfast without even knowing it. Saw a Beech 18, Texan, Stagerwing and Fairchild 24 before leaving for the park and saw a P-51 fly over head while in the park.

I talked with the crew after landing and they all sounded like they had a great time. Sounded like it was a really good show too. They said they had a long line of people touring the plane, which is nice to hear.

If you got pictures, please post them as well as any video. I have video from it leaving for the air show,mthat eventually I will upload.

[flyingfortress90]

Enjoyable show, I think they did a great job with what was available.
Didn't see a peep out of the F-86 which flew yesterday, what happened with that ?
Finally picked the right spot for takeoffs after the show at the end of runway 27 and was treated to a scorching take off from the 100, also a pair of B-25's and other aircraft, I stayed until past 7pm today. Back in the day, all departing aircraft would at least do one pass, sometimes 2 or 3, and wag their wings goodbye as they headed for the wild blue - Not no more, they take off and keep right on going, guess time + gas are the primary considerations these days.
Heres hoping the military will be back in 2014 !

yes very good job for what they had, but hey thanks i took your advice and went on ecorse road today. it was amazing the 25's did their passes right over where i parked. but i stayed till about 5 30 looked like they were puting alot of aircraft in hangers so i left for home wish i would have stayed to see 25's and 100 depart.

[flyingfortress90]

Well the pig got back tonight. Ironically enough, it followed me back to our airport all the way from Sandusky, Ohio. As we contacted Cleveland center, so did they and they were about 5-10 min behind us.

I flew there today to go to cedar point. We brought three planes (C172's) worth and ended picking the day of a pancake breakfast without even knowing it. Saw a Beech 18, Texan, Stagerwing and Fairchild 24 before leaving for the park and saw a P-51 fly over head while in the park.

I talked with the crew after landing and they all sounded like they had a great time. Sounded like it was a really good show too. They said they had a long line of people touring the plane, which is nice to hear.

If you got pictures, please post them as well as any video. I have video from it leaving for the air show,mthat eventually I will upload.

hey have some good footage of c-123 and few pics i can upload them to you as soon as i unwind from the show. but very nice plane the c-123 very impressed looking forward to making it out your way also heard about the real warbird 47 you guys just acquired, very cool

[Xray]

Enjoyable show, I think they did a great job with what was available.
Didn't see a peep out of the F-86 which flew yesterday, what happened with that ?
Finally picked the right spot for takeoffs after the show at the end of runway 27 and was treated to a scorching take off from the 100, also a pair of B-25's and other aircraft, I stayed until past 7pm today. Back in the day, all departing aircraft would at least do one pass, sometimes 2 or 3, and wag their wings goodbye as they headed for the wild blue - Not no more, they take off and keep right on going, guess time + gas are the primary considerations these days.
Heres hoping the military will be back in 2014 !

yes very good job for what they had, but hey thanks i took your advice and went on ecorse road today. it was amazing the 25's did their passes right over where i parked. but i stayed till about 5 30 looked like they were puting alot of aircraft in hangers so i left for home wish i would have stayed to see 25's and 100 depart.

Yeah those warbirds were buzzing around pretty good, you must have been further away from the [closed] runway than me, I was more under the side the DC-3 was flying, but then they sorta switched sides and started flying more over me. I might have moved over a bit but I had a pop up sun shelter and didn't feel like taking it down to move ... Pretty good view up and down the street, must have been cars stretched for a mile there.
I was really lucky with the takeoffs, I saw the A-4 take off for home just before the 100 did his routine so I figured that direction would be the best place to go after the show, and I was right [for once]. They were taking off nearly over my head, great time there ,,, When I left, I think there were only a couple of Skyraiders that hadn't taken off, and the F-86 if it was even there.

[MichiganRick]

Here are a few pictures from Friday. I was unable to make the show on Sat or Sun. I look foward to seeing pics from the show. Thanks



















no warbird...but I love the floats...sorry Jeff

[Warbird Kid]

Wheres the nose art on Naked Fanny?

[ktst97]

Wheres the nose art on Naked Fanny?

no "art" -- only the name

[flightsimer]

Wheres the nose art on Naked Fanny?

I can't tell the actual size from pics, but it might be covered by the prop. Otherwise, I would say they painted over her.

[kalamazookid]

Wheres the nose art on Naked Fanny?

The old nose art was faded and the new owner is planning on having that re-done in the near future.

[CH2Tdriver]

I can't believe the famous TOM show and it's thread is already on page two with only arrival day photos. (No thread even on Photo page) I was hoping to see some of the HF shots.

Did no photog WIXer's attend this year? The buzz on some other boards seemed to indicate disappointment. A lot of down time between flying?

[Xray]

Had a great vantage point for 3 days, not a cam guy though.
No shortage of people with cams, it would appear that most take pics for personal use, or to post a few on facebook or whatever. I ran into a guy who brought an album of printed out photos from last year, some really outstanding shots.

They had a decent flow of flying, I have seen worse with downtime. I was disappointed with the F-86, didn't see him at all FRI, tooled around with a Mustang on heritage passes SAT, and was MIA on SUN. Mig never showed up, period. We dodged a bullet though, it was non stop rain starting on MON morning.

[dc8jet]

I too am surprised at the lack of photos. Usually by now there are quite a few. Myself I thought the lineup this year was a bit thin. I had to go to downtown Ypsilanti on Saturday and took Ecorse rather than I-94. Passed the airport during the show twice about an hour or so apart and nothing was in the air either time. I'm hoping next year will be better.