THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN 2024

[JBavaition]

Kevin Coleman added as well.

[n33d4sp33d_85]

Latest Addition: US Navy Legacy Flight
https://navylegacyflight.org/schedule.html

[Bretten Bailey]

Latest Addition: US Navy Legacy Flight
https://navylegacyflight.org/schedule.html

That's what Louis Horschel's FG-1D Corsair was added for.

Ken & Austin Rieder (Redline Airshows) will also be performing.

[JBavaition]

Ken & Austin Rieder (Redline Airshows) will also be performing.

I think that’s a first for Thunder, don’t ever remember having redline perform there.

[n33d4sp33d_85]

Here's the map layout for this year's show.

Screenshot 2024-04-10 133416.png (652.91 KiB) Viewed 671 times

https://thunderovermichigan.org/plan-yo ... venue-map/

[miker5012]

$55 for parking and $70 to get in. The powers that be have destroyed a good show . Maybe eventually new board members will come along with a different mindset and make drastic changes. Until then, everything at TOM I can catch in BC or at selfridge

[FlyRed]

$55 for parking and $70 to get in. The powers that be have destroyed a good show . Maybe eventually new board members will come along with a different mindset and make drastic changes. Until then, everything at TOM I can catch in BC or at selfridge

That's just the cost of doing business. I wish people would happily attend this wonderful show knowing that they're supporting a museum that has one of the only flying B-17s left in the world along with of course Rosie, Joe, the Greyhound and the Tri-Motor.

It's amazing how much crap gets dumped on the team at Thunder without mentioning that their hard work directly supports the museum. Every time I see a so-called aviation enthusiast say "I'll just see it at Selfridge for free" I wonder how long until there aren't any WW2 bombers gracing our skies due to increased costs and lack of funding.

Sorry Miker that you're taking the brunt of this rant as it's not specifically directed at you, many have made similar comments here.

Support Aviation Museums!

[304thVAW Smokey]

$55 for parking and $70 to get in. The powers that be have destroyed a good show . Maybe eventually new board members will come along with a different mindset and make drastic changes. Until then, everything at TOM I can catch in BC or at selfridge

That's just the cost of doing business. I wish people would happily attend this wonderful show knowing that they're supporting a museum that has one of the only flying B-17s left in the world along with of course Rosie, Joe, the Greyhound and the Tri-Motor.

It's amazing how much crap gets dumped on the team at Thunder without mentioning that their hard work directly supports the museum. Every time I see a so-called aviation enthusiast say "I'll just see it at Selfridge for free" I wonder how long until there aren't any WW2 bombers gracing our skies due to increased costs and lack of funding.

Sorry Miker that you're taking the brunt of this rant as it's not specifically directed at you, many have made similar comments here.

Support Aviation Museums!

Agreed.

If I lived closer I'd be all over their photographer packages. Very reasonable prices.

[CultOfTheWyvern]

That's just the cost of doing business. I wish people would happily attend this wonderful show knowing that they're supporting a museum that has one of the only flying B-17s left in the world along with of course Rosie, Joe, the Greyhound and the Tri-Motor.

It's amazing how much crap gets dumped on the team at Thunder without mentioning that their hard work directly supports the museum. Every time I see a so-called aviation enthusiast say "I'll just see it at Selfridge for free" I wonder how long until there aren't any WW2 bombers gracing our skies due to increased costs and lack of funding.

Sorry Miker that you're taking the brunt of this rant as it's not specifically directed at you, many have made similar comments here.

Support Aviation Museums!

I appreciate this argument, and I think most of us enthusiasts understand that keeping warbirds flying is no trivial matter from a financial, manpower, material, etc. perspective, and thus are willing to open our pocketbooks a little more, provided we're given a quality product. But, while Thunder is often seen (and seems to see itself) as an "enthusiasts' show," the simple fact is that there aren't enough enthusiasts on the whole, let alone in Thunder's catchment area, to singlehandedly support an event of this scale - and the "keep 'em flying" argument might fall on deaf ears when preached to the general public, many of whom, sadly, may not care if there aren't any flying B-17s, B-25s, C-47s, Tri-Motors, etc. a decade from now, or at best, their cares have a monetary ceiling well below what TOM is charging for tickets.

To be clear, I'm not making a dig at Thunder or YAM; on the contrary, I appreciate and empathize with the tough spot they're in. The reality of human nature is that people value products - and yes, this includes air show tickets - based on what's in it for them, not what's in it for the people making the product. It's why Amazon was flooded with $0.99 e-books for a while. Consumers don't care that a good and ethical author will easily spend $1500-$3000 on editing even on a tight budget (usually more like $5000+ if they do it right), another grand or so on formatting and cover design, a pretty penny on marketing and promotion, etc., not to mention the Bezos cut, and thus have approximately a snowball's chance in the infernal regions of turning anything vaguely resembling a profit at that price point. The consumer sees it as a data file, nothing more, and assigns a corresponding value to it.

Likewise, there will no doubt be plenty of Michiganders looking at Thunder's prices, seeing it as nothing more than an air show that doesn't feature the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels, and come to that very same "I'll see it at Selfridge for free" conclusion. We can gripe all day about why that isn't right, but human nature is what it is, and if Thunder wants to get the GP through the gates, it needs to find a way to hone messages like FlyRed's, rather than some of the arguments we've seen here before, like comparing air show prices to the likes of sporting events, the fallacy of which has already been highlighted by other posters on here, so I shan't rehash it, but here's the thing: if I pay the combined price of parking and admission to TOM for tickets to a Cavs game (I can get cheap parking within five minutes' walk of the arena), unless we're playing the Lakers or Celtics, I know I'm getting good seats; not courtside or anything, but I'll have a reserved seat in row 7-8 behind the hoop, close enough to see the look on Evan Mobley's face when he throws down a dunk. For that same price at Thunder, I can't even be sure I'll get a seat on the crowd line, unless I get there at the crack of sparrows, rush to the fence and plonk my chair right up against it, and, because I'm a solo traveler, either not leave my spot all day or risk leaving my chair as a placeholder and someone next to me deciding that the seat is in fact vacant and may therefore be relocated. If I want to be sure I've got good seats, I've got to pay a lot more - and I'm already paying more for GA + parking than I would for premium seating at someplace like Dayton, where I am guaranteed a prime viewing location and priority parking is included. Apples to oranges, I know, but does the general public see it that way?

Eventually, the law of diminishing returns kicks in. While most of us indeed understand that a good chunk of our ticket fee goes to supporting the museum, and are happy to make that concession, that reasoning only carries so far, and our financial resources are finite - yes, that goes for the guys who show up with the GDP of Belize worth of camera kit in tow as much as it does for the likes of me, still using a ten-year-old Canon 6D and fifteen-year-old telephoto lens because (1) they still work and (2) I'm cheap. We also expect a product worthy of the price. Thunder got off to a good start this year in terms of participation, but since I bought my photo package tickets last month (Fri/Sat only; have to be back in the Burgh on Sunday), they've added: two aerobatic performers (two of my favorites, granted), the Super Hornet, and a few warbirds of types that were already attending. Meanwhile, I could make a short list off the top of my head of at least ten "famous fighters," examples of which exist in airworthy condition and mostly within TOM's vicinity, that would've made much more enticing options to fill out those TBA display slots than a bunch of duplicates and acts that I'll see plenty of times elsewhere for less money. Tell me I'm wrong all you want, but this is the ethos of most airshow spectators, whether general audience or enthusiast. Premium prices demand premium products, and frankly, this lineup is not a premium product; it's solid, and I am looking forward to the Great War machines and all the warbird solo displays, but it's WWII Weekend (complete with facing into the sun for the better part of the day) with a P-38 and some jets.

Like I said, Thunder is in a pickle, and by doing away with the ridiculous two-shows-a-day format it seems like they've realized that they were pricing out Joe Public and alienating some enthusiasts. I do sincerely hope that they've arrived at a pricing point that won't further deter either group from attending while making enough profit to keep the show running and the museum's aircraft flying, especially considering YAM's latest spate of ill fortune.

See yinz there.

[YummyT414]

I noticed that all the WW1 planes that where supposed to do a battle demo where taken off the performer list on TOM's website. Are they actually not doing the demo or is it just a mistake?