Great show! Got to hear the mighty DB engine on the 109 for the first time, and what a sweet sound! The 109 flew a couple of passes with Butch Shroeder's P-47 chasing him around the pattern then broke off and landed while the 2 other T-Bolts joined the pattern. Dick Hanson's P-40 and the Tri Sate Warbird Museum P-51 arrived in formation shortly after and the B-17 "Fuddy Duddy" arrived sometime in the late morning. I went off to lunch during the A-10 Demo (yawn) but I got a good view of the Heritage Flight with Ed Shipley's F-86. I just got back in the gate when the Duck arrived. What a sweet plane, a real show-stealer. I was lucky enough to be standing right where he taxied in so I got a real good view of it.
Two of the B-25s, Briefing Time and Yankee Warrior flew, the YAF one particularly aggressively. One of the highlights of the flying was the FJ-4 which put on a very impressive display. After the Thunderbolts and the 109 flew again, 4 P-51s (Old Crow, Gentleman Jim, Sweetie Face and Cincinnati Miss) did a nice beat-up of the field along with the P-40.
The B-17 flight was very impressive. All 8 of them flew. They did some individual passes first and then did they did a mass fly-over of the field coming straight at the crowd. First were 3 in a kind of loose formation, then came 3 more in a tighter formation, and then the last 2 staggered formation. That was certainly a sight I will never foget! The B-17s were Chuckie, Memphis Belle, Liberty Belle, Yankee Lady (still my favorite), Nine-O-Nine, Thunderbird, Fuddy Duddy and Sentimental Journey.
The LB-30 was on static display only today. It is looking great, you would be hard pressed to find a speck of oil on it. Witchcraft got a nice workout giving rides. Some of the static planes included the Warbird Digest B-25, a Convair 440, the YAF C-47 and 2 TBM Avengers. Some of the trainer highlights included the BT-13 "California Girl", about a dozen T-6s, a nice PT-17 in Coast Guard markings, a couple T-34s, another PT-17, a couple T-28s, 4 O-2s, an L-5 and a Navion.
I heard from a Yankee Air Force official that they are considering adding modern aircraft demo teams and aerobatics next year which in my opinion would wreck the show. There are too few warbird shows of this size and it would be a shame to not continue with it, given the success they've had. I've been going to this show for 4 years now and in my opinion this is the best one yet! It will be a tough act to follow next year!
_________________ Matt
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