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PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 8:42 pm 
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I am curious about this two shows per day deal. I have not followed this air show stuff in any detail for a while, and even in the past seldom had to pay anything to get into these things, so I'm quite ignorant about this stuff these days.

So you pay how much money to sit in your car for half a day (would be 4 hours at best) to see half a day's air show? I assume you can get out of the car to some degree at least -- what kind of restrictions on movement? You pay by car rather than by person? What if you need to go to the bathroom? How do they manage vendors -- what if you want to buy your kid a T-shirt or a Coke? How close can you get to the airplanes?

Does the whole show just shut down for an hour or two while they evacuate the first shift and get a whole new set of cars into position for the second half of the day?

This all sounds really strange. This is not at all how I remember air shows working even a decade ago. Maybe I'm just really naive about the way the world works these days...

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 8:48 pm 
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Neal Nurmi wrote:
I am curious about this two shows per day deal. I have not followed this air show stuff in any detail for a while, and even in the past seldom had to pay anything to get into these things, so I'm quite ignorant about this stuff these days.

So you pay how much money to sit in your car for half a day (would be 4 hours at best) to see half a day's air show? I assume you can get out of the car to some degree at least -- what kind of restrictions on movement? You pay by car rather than by person? What if you need to go to the bathroom? How do they manage vendors -- what if you want to buy your kid a T-shirt or a Coke? How close can you get to the airplanes?

Does the whole show just shut down for an hour or two while they evacuate the first shift and get a whole new set of cars into position for the second half of the day?

This all sounds really strange. This is not at all how I remember air shows working even a decade ago. Maybe I'm just really naive about the way the world works these days...


Well... If you want to go to a 2 hour half a day show, you have to spend a small sum of $225.

A full show, you get an even better deal and only have to spend $395... :roll:


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 10:04 pm 
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airshowguy223 wrote:

Well... If you want to go to a 2 hour half a day show, you have to spend a small sum of $225.

A full show, you get an even better deal and only have to spend $395... :roll:


Not with my money.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 10:16 pm 
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You are serious about these prices? It's not even April 1st...

That is nuts!

I think I need to retire back into ignorance. Ignorance is much less disturbing than reality, it seems.

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PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 10:54 pm 
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Neal Nurmi wrote:
I am curious about this two shows per day deal. I have not followed this air show stuff in any detail for a while, and even in the past seldom had to pay anything to get into these things, so I'm quite ignorant about this stuff these days.

So you pay how much money to sit in your car for half a day (would be 4 hours at best) to see half a day's air show? I assume you can get out of the car to some degree at least -- what kind of restrictions on movement? You pay by car rather than by person? What if you need to go to the bathroom? How do they manage vendors -- what if you want to buy your kid a T-shirt or a Coke? How close can you get to the airplanes?


Last year was $225 per vehicle.
Movements are restricted, "social distancing" of both vehicles and people, though I assume some form of fraternization existed here and there [you can look up videos "THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN 2021" on youtube or some such to see some crowd shots to get a better idea of the setup] Did not pay to go in last year. I assume they must have had banks of porta-johns set up. Not sure about vendors, the only good thing about the entire concept is you can bring your own coolers/food ect and tailgate, so probably would not be much of a need to spend your last few remaining $$ on $5 hotdogs.

Should probably browse the TOM 2021 thread here, seems lots of folks were happy with the view, some not. Don't think getting very close to the aircraft was in the cards.

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Does the whole show just shut down for an hour or two while they evacuate the first shift and get a whole new set of cars into position for the second half of the day?


Yes, was quite an unbelievable spectacle seeing 1,000's of vehicles leaving while 1,000's were coming, they seemed to pull it off as good or better than can be expected. They used a large field [likely more than 1] for incoming vehicles to line up and wait while the 1st show crowd was evacuated, probably close to a 2 hour transition ,, And obviously no show activity at all while this was in progress, so quite a dull, tedious wait invoked.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 11:41 pm 
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Thanks for the replies. Maybe I'll try to find that 2021 thread, just for giggles. I literally can't imagine paying that kind of money for that sort of experience. It simply makes no sense to me at all.

At Ypsi how close are your vehicles to the airshow airplanes?

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:23 am 
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viewtopic.php?f=3&t=72022


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:37 am 
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Neal Nurmi wrote:
Thanks for the replies. Maybe I'll try to find that 2021 thread, just for giggles. I literally can't imagine paying that kind of money for that sort of experience. It simply makes no sense to me at all.

At Ypsi how close are your vehicles to the airshow airplanes?

We had a great experience at TOM last year. You are not confined to your car, and can go to all of the statics, vendors, etc. just like a normal show. We also had our car front row and at front row it's about the closest show line I've been to aside from shows on the beach.

We only went to the actual show on Saturday, but one of the best parts for us (and it's free) is being around the field on arrival Friday. It was a little lackluster with only B-25's and a handful of military statics last year, but assuming we will have a packed ramp of military static and a pretty healthy assortment of different warbird types, arrival day should be a blast next year.


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:47 am 
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Thank you for the link. It still doesn't make me want to go to one of these shows. There was a map that seemed to show the cars a long way from the runway and oddly oriented at an angle from the ramps -- hard to see how some of the parking places could get much of a view. The map did indicate a "shuttle"" area in the car parking area. Why do they need a shuttle if customers need to stay in or close to their vehicles?

There were some very nice photos of the show birds in that thread. How do photographers do their job if they have to be in their cars?

It just all feels so odd...

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:58 am 
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GRNDP51 wrote:
Neal Nurmi wrote:
Thanks for the replies. Maybe I'll try to find that 2021 thread, just for giggles. I literally can't imagine paying that kind of money for that sort of experience. It simply makes no sense to me at all.

At Ypsi how close are your vehicles to the airshow airplanes?

We had a great experience at TOM last year. You are not confined to your car, and can go to all of the statics, vendors, etc. just like a normal show. We also had our car front row and at front row it's about the closest show line I've been to aside from shows on the beach.

We only went to the actual show on Saturday, but one of the best parts for us (and it's free) is being around the field on arrival Friday. It was a little lackluster with only B-25's and a handful of military statics last year, but assuming we will have a packed ramp of military static and a pretty healthy assortment of different warbird types, arrival day should be a blast next year.


So you're not restricted to your car? How do they get everybody back to their cars in time to evacuate the area for the next group of cars? I assume that on arrival day you have to be outside the airport perimeter?

What's the point of the car business if you can wander and go to vendors and such like a normal air show? How does that fit with Covid restrictions when social distancing is the stated reason for all this?

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 7:27 am 
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The orientation of the cars to the ramp and runway were pretty normal when compared to the usual crowd line for Thunder. Spectators have never been close to the runway and, in the current layout, the only way to be close to the aircraft as they taxi is to be at the east end of the show line. There's also no guarantee that the aircraft you want to be close to would use that taxiway - oftentimes, aircraft are going out the south end of the ramp. The time to wander statics before flying started last year was totally inadequate, and we were there very early. By the time we got parked and walked through everyone else that was parking, many of the B-25s had already been towed out. We didn't even get to look at the B-25s we hadn't seen before. It was a very sterile experience. To each their own, though.

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 4:11 pm 
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Neal Nurmi wrote:

So you're not restricted to your car? How do they get everybody back to their cars in time to evacuate the area for the next group of cars? I assume that on arrival day you have to be outside the airport perimeter?

What's the point of the car business if you can wander and go to vendors and such like a normal air show? How does that fit with Covid restrictions when social distancing is the stated reason for all this?


No you aren't restricted to your car, you have a box that your car sits in and you can put chairs out, etc. We had a rental pickup truck we backed up to the fence - it was fantastic. I believe a part of this was since they already planned on doing a drive-in show, once the restrictions were changed it allowed for a hybrid show where spectators could walk around. This was not supposed to be the case like a month before the show. The point for the car business now is if you want to social distance then you can, just don't leave your car and bring all the food and water you need to the show. If you want to walk around, then you are free to do so.

The time gap in between the morning and afternoon show was more than enough time to get everyone out, and get the new people in. If you had tickets for both shows, you put them on your dashboard and TOM staff lets you stay where you are. I'm actually not sure how they got people back to their cars after the morning show, and I don't know what happened to people who were walking around that didn't have afternoon show tickets (I don't think they forced everyone back to their cars, and I don't think they towed cars either) - but TOM did an impressive job of handling this given the sheer amount of cars and people. I remember thinking there was no way to get everyone out and the new spectators back in, but it happened extremely quick and efficient.

Arrival day is outside.


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PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 8:59 pm 
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Neal Nurmi wrote:
Thank you for the link. It still doesn't make me want to go to one of these shows. There was a map that seemed to show the cars a long way from the runway and oddly oriented at an angle from the ramps -- hard to see how some of the parking places could get much of a view. The map did indicate a "shuttle"" area in the car parking area. Why do they need a shuttle if customers need to stay in or close to their vehicles?

There were some very nice photos of the show birds in that thread. How do photographers do their job if they have to be in their cars?

It just all feels so odd...


They have a "photo pit" for photographers on Friday/Saturday/Sunday. It was nice this year to be able to park next to the area instead of lugging our gear about 1/2 mile from the parking lot. We were not in the usual photo pit location that I am used to because of airport construction. The photo pit usually sells out fast.

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PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 11:23 pm 
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Boy, thanks for all the responses to my naive questions -- it's probably time to get back to our regular programming on this thread. The word Spitfire has not been uttered for nearly a page now.

I think one thing all this illustrates is how stunningly privileged and lucky I've been over the years. I have had press passes, or knew the organisers, or was with an airplane for most of the shows I've attended over the years. The scene used to be much smaller and aircraft owners much less wealthy in earlier times and everything was easier for everybody.

Thanks again for the look at how it is now...

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PostPosted: Fri Nov 19, 2021 3:05 pm 
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Neal Nurmi wrote:
Boy, thanks for all the responses to my naive questions -- it's probably time to get back to our regular programming on this thread. The word Spitfire has not been uttered for nearly a page now.

I think one thing all this illustrates is how stunningly privileged and lucky I've been over the years. I have had press passes, or knew the organisers, or was with an airplane for most of the shows I've attended over the years. The scene used to be much smaller and aircraft owners much less wealthy in earlier times and everything was easier for everybody.

Thanks again for the look at how it is now...

It's a fair enough point to discuss this stuff in this thread in the meantime. There is plenty going on behind the scenes right now outside of this thread.

TOM was one of the top warbird spectacles for a long time and that sorta fizzled for a few years before the Corsair gathering in 2019 brought it back. This year's B-25 gathering wasn't recording breaking, but it was still great to see them together. I'm under the impression that 2022 will be the largest US British warbird gathering in a long time, and will stay that way for a long time as well. It'll always be impossible to top the UK gatherings, but Spitfires and Hurricanes are about the only gathering they'll ever have us beat on :wink:


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