Thunder Over Michigan 2018: 20 Years of Thunder

[RyanS]

The show got dealt a very bad hand with weather each morning (and to a lesser extent all weekend) but today was one of the more screwed up (and that doesn't mean I blame anyone) shows I've been to. The fog yet again cut some cool stuff this morning (props to the warbirds for trying the engine run-up instead of flying, it was a great idea but the runway was just too far away from us to really hear) and when they finally got Doc in the air she had a gear problem and had to circle to solve it.

One thing that definitely can be blamed on someone (I'm not sure who) is that during the Navy segment with a planned five aircraft, three of them never got the signal to start and thus didn't fly. I don't understand how that wasn't taken care of. If there is more to the story I'd love to hear it because as far as I'm aware this is something that was entirely within control and just plain dropped. Inexcusable and very frustrating since it was one of the rare opportunities to actually FLY.

Ride aircraft and military departures (lots!) kept things so crowded that the two Navy planes that did fly got cut short after just two passes. The Corsair flew some acro before declaring an emergency with fuel in the cockpit and rolling the trucks. Meanwhile, the E-2 Hawkeye that had been tugged out to depart got pushed into the grass and stuck, so they had to defuel it and get it back onto the pavement.

The afternoon battle was good (all the battles were good, and the taller brush helped. Well done re-enactors!) but the aircraft were more limited on passes than yesterday. Texas Raiders called in with a problem before starting so they scrubbed. The P-47 and P-63 took off but departed instead of flying any passes. Only time they got in the air all weekend. The F-15s ended up waiting on the ground so long that they had to cut one of their passes, and they flew over the runway instead of anywhere close to the crowd, so they were actually pretty lame. Nothing like the departure at Oshkosh.

Props to the Thunderbirds for mixing their maneuvers up throughout the show. I don't think I've ever seen a flat show start with a loop on takeoff, but I was disappointed that #6 did the Split-S instead of the sneak pass on takeoff like yesterday. That was awesome. We did get 3 sneaks with the low show routine though so that's good.

Overall I'm a big fan of the changed layout; lots of space for people and a much better view. Takeoffs were quite far but at least they were visible this time. I also liked the intermission schedule (since there's a morning battle anyway) but the ride aircraft coming and going really interrupted the flow of the flying.

My biggest annoyance with the day was the super loud music blasting all morning. Why do airshows think that people want that??? Don't pay a DJ to play for hours when everyone would be happier with silence and being able to hold conversations!!!

[bigt512]

Ryan I agree with what you are saying about the music. If you want to play it turn it down so that people can talk with out yelling at each other. You can always turn the sound up when you are making announcements. One of the things that I noticed is that if you were over by the static aircraft you could not hear what was going on. I did like being able to see the runway but it made for a lot of walking on uneven ground. One of the other things that I did notice is that it seamed to me that there were not enough potable john's. There seamed to be a lot of confusion on Saturday especially when Rob said that all the flying had been cancelled for the day.

[alexp2805-]

I agree about that Navy Flight Ryan! The planning on that was bad. 3 or 4 TBM's were scheduled to fly during that and none of them flew today! Yesterday was better for the Navy Flight. Disappointing the P-60 and P-47 didn't do a flyby on the way out. In fact, I didn't even notice they were in the air until they were already out of sight.

I don't blame the Air Traffic controllers people who were running it for this. Well kinda do on the Navy Flight. But all in all, the show just had some bad luck this year. With the weather and maintenance. Wasn't a bad show for me just expecting a little more in the air. Static ramp was great this year though! I look forward to another show next year.

Alex

[JasonB]

This was my fourth year in a row going to this show. This year, the weather certainly did play a factor. I went with some friends of mine and we only went on Saturday. My shoes, pants, and coat, got pretty wet. Though nothing like Fort Wayne in 2016. I need to consider buying some cheap shoes, in case I go to another air show and it rains. I looked at a few of the statics in the rain before finally, just standing under the wing of the KC-135.

I kind of liked the layout, but there was only speakers setup in the new seating area. I liked being able to watch the planes takeoff and land. This new layout could work for the Blue Angels, when they do the half squirrel cage. Though you couldn't hear anything when you were looking at the statics. There were people that were sitting in that area, and probably didn't hear anything. I also don't know why Rob said the flying had been cancelled, unless he was given bad information.

The Thunderbirds put on a decent show on Saturday with the low clouds. I didn't know the sneak pass on takeoff was part of the flat show. It was something that was unexpected, and I enjoyed it. The clouds did make filming a little difficult.

I didn't really care for the food this year. The prices seemed to be expensive for the amount of food you were getting. I've noticed this show is one of the most expensive air shows for food.

There also seemed to be a lack of port-a-johns this year again. This was brought up last year, and was supposedly being addressed. There were some lines on Saturday, but if we had the crowds like last year, it would have been pretty bad.

On Friday, we found a nice spot to watch some of the practice. The Thunderds started with a high show, and switched a to a low show. After the practice got done, the Thunderbirds practiced the high bomb burst. #4 had a problem with rejoin, and ended up flying over us in full afterburner. We also got to watch the F-15's do some flybys, nothing spectacular.

[kalamazookid]

A few from a rainy day Saturday.

IMG_6325 by , on Flickr

IMG_6333 by , on Flickr

IMG_6334 by , on Flickr

IMG_6352 by , on Flickr

IMG_6366 by , on Flickr

IMG_6385 by , on Flickr

IMG_6421 by , on Flickr

IMG_6446 by , on Flickr

IMG_6504 by , on Flickr

I don't care at all about the battle, but I tried a couple photos incorporating the aircraft that came out kind of fun.

IMG_6470 by , on Flickr

IMG_6476 by , on Flickr

[JAckrmn]

Here’s some pics I was able to get of some cool statics.

[RyanS]

Can't upload videos thanks to the Comcast data cap but here are a few photos I quickly edited from the show

[FlyRed]

Good show. Great people. Unfortunate weather.

[FlyRed]

Saturday night was the highlight

[Ack]

We went down on Sunday and to sum things up......the weather was lousy, statics were alright, flying show was meh, and the new layout pretty good. Few things I didn't care for.......porta johns are all bunched up for the convenience of the cleaners, not the convenience of the crowd.......parking is still a mess, just wish they could come up with better entrance and exit strategies.......loud music, self explanatory. Either way it is what it is and I still enjoyed the acts that did fly.....we'll be back next year.

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