I dont know what category this fits into, so I'm sticking it in here for now. I want to share my experience with Thunder Over Michigan 2006. I posted this review on fencecheck and people were less that respectful/friendly. I hope I have a better experience here.
On with the "review"
To the organizers (Tom Walsh and Michael Luther) /fans/anyone who may be interested,
I'd like to reply with my thoughts on T.O.M. 2006. I'm not a big-name photography guy. I dont wield thousands of dollars of camera equipment. I'm just a big fan of aviation/airshows/aircraft, who's interested in "supporting the cause." I'm a local, Willow Run is 15min from me. Just an average college student with a love of aviation and history.
Looking at the list of planes, I was set to be in heaven. My dad, who lives out of state (and is also a plane junky) monitored the list every-single-day (as I did) for any changes/additions. We decided a while ago we were going to attend T.O.M. 2006. After last years turn out, we were confident that what the website said was going to be there, was accurate. He came from out of state, only able to attend Saturday's show. In reading the plane list, he saw it was indicated that the B2 was a saturday only. So, it'd make sense that if any other planes were going to be 1 day only, we'd be notified. He mainly came to see the Lancaster fly. It wasnt indicated on the site that it was exclusive to Sunday, that was very unprofessional of the Y.A.M. and the person editing the website. If a plane such as the Lancaster is exclusive to one day, that information needs to be put out there in some form. Obviously someone thought to put it up for the B2. Perhaps a ploy to get people in the gates?
From the word go, my experience was very mixed. I dont want people in this forum to dismiss me as "some dumb spectator." To all the people at the Y.A.M./all high-n-mighty people on this forum, with all do respect, without spectator money -- you dont have an airshow nor will you have a museum. Your spectators and supportis deserve some credit and some respect, not to be dismissed as merely "dumb spectators." To an extent, we are all spectators, so stop being so rude and disrespectful to your SUPPORTERS.
Where do I start?!
My tickets were in my camera bag. Not knowing that tickets would be collected while we were still in the car, I had to get out of the car and get into the trunk to grab my camera bag and my tickets for my family (who traveled in many cars) -- think of the nightmare this was. The whole time, I had T.O.M. staffers griping at me for not having my tickets ready, yet they had no signs indicating that I needed to have them ready. Perhaps next year, if this will be the manner in which tickets are collected, put up some signs. I heard of many people having to deal with this problem.
I understand that crowd control was a real quagmire for the event/security organizers. It was a nightmare for us spectators, I assure you. I enjoyed being so close to the planes as they started up, but trying to navigate the crowd was insane. A walkway that was approx 200' wide being condensed to about 12' was not a good move. And people sitting in this approx 12' walkway made it even harder. Another problem was that the areas of parked planes were cleared FAR longer than they needed to be. For example, both P-47's were over by the "photo pit" and people were still not allowed back near the planes (no planes were coming/going/starting, either). Keeping the crowds pent up longer than they needed to be only added to the nightmare of trying to get around and led to me being late or missing many things I wanted to see.
Another thing that really bothered me was not knowing which planes were static and which would be flying -- and which day they'd be doing anything, for that matter. Many of the aircraft (and gatherings of them) that were highlights for me either never flew or only flew one day. Thankfully I was able to attend the 3 days. I had to ask many pilots themselves if they'd be flying because staff either did not know or it wasnt indicated on the site or anywhere else. I know that things come up, but if you know a plane isnt going to fly both days, is only static, or is making flights on certain days etc -- you need to indicate this clearly to people. Perhaps by not indicating things clearly, you can sucker more people into the gates?
I was excited to see such a gathering of Spitfires. But what, 2 show up? I understand planes malfunction and that.. crap happens, we cant avoid that. But I think we, as your supporters (and paying customers) deserve to know what the heck is going on. Why are there only 2 Spitfires? Why didnt the Sea Fury make even 1 pass? Why didnt the A-10's do a demo like last year? And why werent we told what was happening? We deserve to know what's going on. Have a staff meeting to let people know the status of planes so that if people have questions, they can ask and get an informed/true answer. I dont believe supporters/spectators should have to ask the pilots if they're going to fly. Static planes should be labeled on the website or in some other fashion if they arent going to do a demo. I talked to one of the A-10 pilots about this. He informed me they werent doing a demo because they werent the demo team, but he was upset that people were not told in advance that the A-10s present would not being doign a demo team and why. He said that practicaly everyone he talked to expected a demo like last year and simply were not given any info, he seemed genuinely upset over it.
The seating was quite a horror for my family (and many others) including my grandfather, a vet. We sat over by the F-16s to start with. We sat in a place that we were told by staffers was a great place to sit and where we wouldnt be disturbed. We got out our chairs and got comfortable. No sooner did the annoucers say that we'd be getting moved soon, but only a few feet. A few feet. A few feet turned into sitting 50' away from the flightline and close enough to the P-51s/P-40/P-47s that we'd have to move all of our stuff every few minutes for many minutes at a time while they moved around. We ended up sitting over by the A-10's where we were not moved again, but good lord. If staffers dont know answers they should either say they dont know or be able to ask someone who has a clue about what's what.
Which brings me to the announcers. I've been to A LOT of airshows in my few years on this earth. More than many people twice my age. I've seen historic planes fly and sadly, I've seen them crash. But never have I come across such horrible announcers. Simply put, they couldnt keep quite for 10 seconds. And the DJ played music NON-STOP even during warbird demos. The combination of the two ruined home movies and destroyed the sound of hearing these one-of-a-kind planes fly. They were so loud and so interminable that it ruined the experience of seeing/hearing these planes. Many people around me (because of our proximity to the announcers stand) were shouting at them to be quiet, to shut up, and to stop playing the music. I cringed many times when they spouted off/made stupid jokes about Gene Hackman all day and when they gave info that was just plain false. Are there some kind of references that they possessed to make someone think they were qualified to "host" an airshow or did they win some kind of individual of questionable judgement lottery and this was their prize?
Also, seeing event organizers act as if they walk on water and rip people new ones infront of spectators is also totally uncalled for. I didnt pay $15 (x7) to see organizers be unprofessional and to see planes not show up. I understand that with airshows (especially warbird shows) that things change/come up. But I deserve to have information and to know why planes I paid to see, did not show up or fly.
I dont know how in the heck after last years great show, the Y.A.M dropped the ball so horribly this year. It really was sad and very poorly managed/coordinated/organized. I'm not saying this as if I'm some sort of mistro of doing these things, but as a spectator and a supporter, I'd like to think that by sharing my experience (and what I heard/saw) that improvements can be made. As an organizer/coordinator, your spectators and supporters are the best way for you to get unbiased feedback and you should take what we say seriously and work to make improvements. But as it stands right now, no way in heck would I come out next year. It's just too sloppy/uncoordinated/unprofessional and I feel like I was misinformed/denied info about planes simply to get money out of my wallet.
I appreciate all the effort/time/money/blood/sweat that went into this years show. I love and support the Y.A.F. which is why I'm putting this online anywhere I can. I want as many people to see it so that it has as many chances to be read as possible. I'd love it if the coordinators were able to read and take into consideration some of the things that people liked and disliked. The show was amazing. There's no way around that. I had a BLAST and I will be back next year, but I do hope there are some changes.
I dont know that I'll monitor this thread regularly, but please feel free to email me
TheNetwerk2020@yahoo.com
Sincerely,
Ben Sauter
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