Thunder Over Michigan 2021

Discussion relating to 2021 airshows/fly-ins/exercises/other events. Post news before the event and post your photos afterwards! Please create only one thread per event.
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Airplanefreak2000
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Post by Airplanefreak2000 » Mon Aug 09, 2021 10:54 pm

British I don’t think could happen again. You could get probably two hurricanes and three spitfires, and a few British painted American fighters. Also, the lanc issues.

I think instead of a cats scheme. A pacific Airshow would be easy to make especially with the blues coming. Get some p-40s, corsairs, pby’s, wildcats, b-25. Bring tora or see if CAF Georgia can get their prowlers of the pacific going again with the helldiver which just started flying again and dauntless. Finish it off with doc or Fifi. Maybe get fagen to bring the hellcat and tri state to bring their kiwi p-40. Could get a really solid pacific show. Add a legacy flight as well. There will also be two Zeros on the east coast now as well by next year. One already is.


They p-38/p-47 is highly unlikely as there are only 2 p-47s this side of the Mississippi and I haven’t heard of them flying lately. Only p-38 is Collings which we know their issues. Fagens and rod Lewis would be possible but those would be the only two that would make that trek. Being a week before Oshkosh helps with pre show stuff.


These are just my opinions and I’m open to debate lol.
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Post by GRNDP51 » Mon Aug 09, 2021 11:17 pm

Airplanefreak2000 wrote: Mon Aug 09, 2021 10:54 pm British I don’t think could happen again. You could get probably two hurricanes and three spitfires, and a few British painted American fighters. Also, the lanc issues.

I think instead of a cats scheme. A pacific Airshow would be easy to make especially with the blues coming. Get some p-40s, corsairs, pby’s, wildcats, b-25. Bring tora or see if CAF Georgia can get their prowlers of the pacific going again with the helldiver which just started flying again and dauntless. Finish it off with doc or Fifi. Maybe get fagen to bring the hellcat and tri state to bring their kiwi p-40. Could get a really solid pacific show. Add a legacy flight as well. There will also be two Zeros on the east coast now as well by next year. One already is.


They p-38/p-47 is highly unlikely as there are only 2 p-47s this side of the Mississippi and I haven’t heard of them flying lately. Only p-38 is Collings which we know their issues. Fagens and rod Lewis would be possible but those would be the only two that would make that trek. Being a week before Oshkosh helps with pre show stuff.


These are just my opinions and I’m open to debate lol.
Just putting it out there, if you have a "Pacific" theme or a "Cat" theme, you need to pick a featured type. To your point of the Pacific theme, would it be better to get a dozen P-40s with the budget, or 6 P-40s and some other things? I know we all have our opinions on what would make a perfect warbird show, but TOM likes focusing on one plane to center the theme around. I would personally prefer seeing a record gathering of one type, rather than a sprinkling of various aircraft (like POF tends to be).

Your point on the 38/47 is what I was going for. There's not enough close to Michigan/the people that own them won't send them. That's the big problem with the Bearcats and Tigercats, you can almost guaranteed count out Rod and Dan every year and they own a heavy fraction of these.
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Airplanefreak2000
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Post by Airplanefreak2000 » Mon Aug 09, 2021 11:40 pm

The problem is you can’t “choose a type anymore/theme aircraft” every year. Like last year, they tried German types (109,190, JU). However I think the P-40 would be a good as it would be the 80th anniversary of the 23rd FG’s creation from the AVG. I don’t think anyone’s had a themed p-40 that I can remember excluding the 6 at a reunion a few years ago. There are a lot of P-40s still around. 6 or so plus a few different Pacific birds.
Last edited by Airplanefreak2000 on Tue Aug 10, 2021 12:00 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by itsnotreddit » Mon Aug 09, 2021 11:43 pm

kalamazookid wrote: Mon Aug 09, 2021 4:30 pm I've been beating the drum for a Grumman theme for probably 15 years and I don't see any reason to stop. I know TOM likes the spectacle of "most __ since __" and that theme would probably make it tough to make a statement like that, but there are plenty of warbird operators that have supported Thunder recently that could stuff the ramp full of Cats, Avengers, Trader/Trackers and perhaps a Duck, Albatross, Goose, etc. They could even incorporate Gene Soucy in the AG Cat.

I'm a little surprised they didn't immediately announce the Blues for July 16-17 next year, so maybe the dates are changing. That would be nice so TOM and Selfridge aren't back-to-back weekends.

This year was fun. I was very skeptical of the drive-in format (and there were some aspects of any drive-in that I don't like), but they did an outstanding job this year and I really enjoyed the Saturday morning show.
User name checks out? The Grumman theme would be pretty nostalgic for those of us who grew up watching the AirZoo's cats.

https://www.johnweeks.com/aircraft/cats.html

Funny that this version was missing the Hellcat, I seem to remember that and the Tigercat being the most reliable of the bunch.
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Post by bigt512 » Mon Aug 09, 2021 11:59 pm

robert16627 wrote: Sun Aug 08, 2021 3:34 am Say or think what you want, don't wanna hear it nor do I care, but I think this is one of the best airshows I've been to in a while. Acts were back to back, Weather cooperated with us for most of the day, especially the morning with all the vaping done by most of the acts. My only complaint is that there was a scissor lift to the immediate left of our view and that thing served no purpose, sound wasn't playing, just pure static sound during the entrie show, ruined a couple of my potentially good pictures but other than that, They did a wonderful job getting everything together and can't wait to go back tomorrow!
I was parked right in front of the scissor lift and it did get in the way a lot. They fixed the sound for the afternoon show
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Post by RyanS » Tue Aug 10, 2021 12:04 am

It was a wonderful weekend with far more action and opportunity than I expected. From a personal stand point, having multiple shows means much more opportunity to catch pictures and videos. And of course it was a 100% awesome lineup. I am really thankful for the opportunity to do so much at the show! In some ways it was more productive than even Oshkosh this year which I would never have guessed. I'm flat out exhausted.

While the hybrid drive-in format was certainly understandable and excellently executed this year, I hope it does not return as it just has too many drawbacks to me. I sat with my parents in general admission for the full day on Saturday. They got parked directly behind one of the many speakers and since you only have your space we could not move away from it. The audio was WAY too loud and we couldn't even talk to each other. The massive airstair thing also ruined some great shots like the Blue Angels vapor cone - I am very salty about that one. There was already a radio broadcast so the speakers could have been turned way down and thinned out. Thankfully in the chaos of the show changeover we were able to move down the line between some speakers and we had a much better afternoon experience.

I saw many people from the back (who surely had a poor view with all the pickups and vans in the way) move up and invade the front row spaces that were supposed to be reserved. The people next to us had groups of strangers set up chairs inside their personal box several times.

Getting in was easy and I was very surprised the changeover went as well as it did - lots of credit there. The break was a really nice chance to walk around the statics and get lunch without missing anything. Also a shout out for the viewing platform by the B-25s! That was a great idea.

I think the 7am gate open was too early; several family members bailed on attending once they realized what sort of wake up time that translated to. With the Thunderbirds ending at 3:30 there was certainly time in the day to push it back by at least an hour and preferably more. A 5:30am wakeup for a show is fine for me (grumble grumble) but not exactly family or kid friendly. And since the tickets were so expensive and tied to one car, it's not like they could come join us partway through the day.

I also think the Blues saved YAM on the pricing. I do not think they would have sold out without the double jet team selling point and the discount codes offered. I know several people who were interested in attending but absolutely could not justify the price. I like to advocate for aviation and it is disappointing to see potential avgeeks shunned by the pricing and timing. Car pass pricing strongly penalizes people like a dad who wants to bring his kid to see some airplanes. Even my parents - who are nearly as hardcore as I am - would not have attended this year if they didn't get a show pass for free by virtue of pre-ordering their tickets. You might say the show is simply a fundraiser and YAM should go for profit over anything else, but I strongly disagree.

Hopefully this proves to be a one and done and a traditional format prevails. I was saddened to realize that TOM coincides with RIAT in 2022, which I desperately want to attend, so hard choices lie ahead for me.

One final thought that I always have about TOM is that it would be just SO much better if the runway was an actual part of the show. Obviously this year was bad because of the construction, but it was striking how things like the B-25 takeoffs and Blue Angel departure barely even registered as something to watch because they were just so far away. The thought of a TOM with seating 500 feet from the runway is eye watering. I continue to hope it can be done.
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Post by Xray » Tue Aug 10, 2021 2:00 pm

Wow, nice monster thread, have been looking forward to this show for months and went 5 days [field by Tyler, which I see is pretty well known here] In hindsight going Wednesday was a mistake, when I heard they were in town I thought they may start practicing, they didn't.

Practice days were off the hook, have never been to a show with both the Angels & Tbirds on the same ticket. Always look forward to watching fly-ins but was sorely disappointed there, alls I seen in 2 days were a couple 25's, and those landed from the Ecorse side. And of course having most mil jets based at Selfridge limited their exposure ,, So whatever came in must have came in very early before I got there or later after I left. Generally stayed in the field from 10 am to at least 4 pm [except SAT, makes sense to leave ASAP since no fly-ins are possible after the show]
Sunday I stayed until after 6 waiting for takeoffs, was treated to a final Angels takeoff over my head, and probably 8 or so B-25's. Was by far the only one there, had the field completely to myself which kinda surprised me, usually at least a few hard core guys like me waiting there.

Was surprised the Tyler field was open, years past it has been open on practice days and blocked off on show days. Guess since there was a limited amount of tickets and the shows sold out, there didn't care. I think the field is by far the best single spot around Willow and I have been going to shows for decades there and elsewhere.

Interesting to read the thread and see that nearly every prediction was shot down in flames, thankfully was a great show not soon to be repeated. Glad to see the Angels are on tap next July, someone told me that Selfridge is having a show in July as well, sure hope they are not forced to compete against each other with a show on the same weekend.

So props and kudos to show organizers and workers, even watching from off base I buy a ticket to support the show, but couldn't do it this year. Would have bought some merchandise or flat out donated but couldn't find a way to do that either. [One year maybe 4 or 5 years ago they charged $30 to get in the Tyler field on show days, which I thought was a pretty good idea] though lots of guys there were complaining since practice days were free - Quite a few folks snuck in via that unsafe entrance point next to the gate, which is next to a big, steep ditch.

I didn't take any pics, I have found out long ago that worrying about photography takes away from my enjoyment of the show so I stopped years ago, but did get a few stellar phone video clips on THUR. The Angles solo takeoff was nuts and IMO a very risky stunt. A steep, short climb on takeoff followed by a complete barrel roll, which causes their aircraft to quickly drop. Almost follows through the roll with a half roll, pouring on the power and doing a knife edge pass right over my head.
Wish I would have got some shots of that one.
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Post by RyanS » Tue Aug 10, 2021 8:21 pm

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Post by RyanS » Wed Aug 11, 2021 2:42 pm

Two photos I'm super thrilled to have!
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ClickJ
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Post by ClickJ » Thu Aug 12, 2021 1:59 am

Great pics guys.

This was my first Thunder and I had a blast! I did the photo pit on Saturday and Sunday and thought it was more than worth it, I'm hoping to be able to add on Friday and Saturday night to the package next year. I know the format had its drawbacks, but as a newcomer to aviation photography I really liked the extra opportunities to try different things and get some more practice in on the acts that flew all four shows.

It was also my first time seeing the Blues and F-35, and I was pretty excited about the A400 demo. Only disappointment for me was not getting a pass from Bert. Looking forward to next year!

If I end up with any photos that are a little different than what's already been posted I'll put a couple up.
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