Warbird Information Exchange

We saw "Goodtime Gal" flying formation with another Lodestar at Topeka last August.

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Steve Turner, USAF aircraft refueler 54+ years ago.

Goodtime Gal sure will look nice with a P-38 off her wing. Flight of the Twin Tail Lockheeds.

3 months to the show and the first "aircraft list" has been posted on the show's web site:

http://www.yankeeairmuseum.org/airshow/aircraft-list

Looking good at this point and looking forward to seeing what other interesting vintage warbirds will be added over the next weeks and months.

Looks like its going to be a good show this year. I can hardly wait, but still holding on to some hope of a P-40 in attendance!

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A&P/I.A., A.A.S./Aviation Maintenance technology
Warbird salvage/recovery
One day I'll get that P-40!

Now that the aircraft list for T.O.M. 2014 has been posted, we are experiencing an increased interest in the Photo Tour/ Photo Pit.

I expect we will sell out of these slots by the first week in June.

This tented area is in my estimation, the best seat in the house.

Cheers,

Tom Walsh.

I agree Tom, no better seat from start to finish.

Never too early to mention also to those organizing.....please ask the T-6/SNJ/Harvard/BT-13 guys to not turn on their smoke systems until they have finished rounding the bend so to speak. With the typical hot, heavy, humid air it just wont dissipate in time for the next aircraft pass. I know it may seem like a small matter to most air show attendees but the folks that pay for the photo pit are not fans of the smoke messing up the next passes and photo ops.

Cheers,

Jeff

GOOD point, Jeff! The smoke from some of the airplanes can be way overdone at Thunder and some other shows. A good example was back in 2011 at the Centennial of Naval Aviation show where smoke from several airplanes (very well could have been the T-6's/SNJ's etc). really caused a problem with visibility for the passes of the Catalina and other aircraft making the circuit. If this can be controlled a little better it would be very helpful!

Just added,

The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum's TBM-3E Avenger.

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Michael Luther
Yankee Air Museum's
Air Show Director
THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN

Great Addition and the SECOND Avenger on the aircraft list for 2014! Keep 'em coming.

http://www.maam.org/aircraft/tbm.html

Which Avenger is the first one? The George HW Bush blue one that used to come a lot in the past?

Charlie Cartledge's recently completed TBM that is usually hangared at the Liberty Aviation Museum.

Nice picture at this link http://libertyaviationmuseum.org/tbmreunion.html

A thought for next year's show: Unique military aircraft. Featuring the Bell P-59, the B-29 DOC, maybe get the USAF's B-2 to park for a bit, the M-9M, F-5/T-38, O-2, and T-33. Of course if half of those I mentioned showed it would be unique and a heck of a show.

Oh and the ME-262!

Good luck with some of those

P-59? Planes of fame one airworthy yet?
B-29 DOC? Will it be ready? I haven't heard much
Good luck with the B-2 - the only airshow I ever knew about them being parked at was Nellis, usually you are lucky to get 1-2 high passes - with another sequester rumored next year highly doubtful
M-9M? You mean the Northrop N-9M flying wing? That thing never leaves Chino does it?
F-5/T-38? What's so unique about it? Very common both still flying - we've had both at Thunder in the past before the military did it's cuts
O-2? again a very common plane - we usually have a couple every year as a couple are locally based
T-33 would be nice, I have been asking for a Korean War tribute for a while

The P-59 is getting closer to being airworthy and according to Steve Hinton at Planes of Fame they are working hard to get it in the air by early next year. I am hopeful that we will see it fly in either the May 2015 or May 2016 air show at Chino. The problem here is I doubt that it will stray far from Southern CA. I suppose they might send it to Oshkosh one time but even that is not too likely probably.

The B-29 "Doc" is making GOOD progress toward being ready to fly and I think there is a reasonable chance it will fly by later this year or early in 2015. It may be a real possibility for Thunder next year or at least in 2016.

You are probably right about the Flying Wing at Chino - likely will be seen only at Planes of Fame or a few other air shows in CA.

The T-38 and or F-5 may still be flying in the military but they are RARE to see "flying" in air shows and would be most welcome as FLYING participants at a Thunder Over Michigan show.

It has been a while since a T-33 has made an appearance at Thunder and it would be nice to see a few of these fly in a future show!