Warbird Information Exchange

Thank you, John

Awesome to hear Jay's flying the Tigercat! Was hoping he'd get some seat time after getting checked out in the type last year. Thanks for the updates.

Today's schedule...Fifi was flying today.

Just back after attending Mon-Thurs, will try to post pics as I go through them. Had a good time, though not as good as last year.

Warbird turnout was exceptional as seen by tallies others have posted. Unfortunately, it was a static display situation only, as the themes of the Warbirds of America portion of the afternoon shows for the 4 peak days were:

Mon: Mass trainer formations.
Tues: Exact same mass trainer formations.
Wed: L-birds and Chipmunks.
Thu: Jets.

Not a single show featured piston fighters, bombers or transports. No matter how much the crews of the fast and/or large prop warbirds may have wanted to burn an hour of EAA's gas and display for folks, there was no opportunity for them, as there usually is Tuesday and/or Wednesday. Very poor decision IMO; a big missed opportunity considering what was on the field. The only piston combat types we got to see in action were the featured performers or anything that went joyriding during the day. I'll be interested to hear what they do with the segment today, but the pool will be depleted by now.

None of the afternoon airshows was very good, especially relative to last year when there were a couple of excellent ones. Thursday was the strongest of the four, with good demos by the 262, Vampire, T-33, and Mig-17s giving fans of early jet fighters little to complain about. Overall, pacing was slow, there were too many similar flippy flops although I did enjoy this new Northern Stars 3-Pitts team from Canada. Current military displays were on the tame side, and most of the solo warbird acts were familiar from the past couple of years.

I think I probably shot about half the pics as last year, partly because of the above, partly because threatened or actual storms interrupted the post-airshow departure frenzy that is usually one of my favorite parts of OSH from Wednesday onwards. But there were some great moments and all that general airplane goodness that makes it worthwhile.

August

August - even though I was watching online from Florida I agree with you 100% about the lack of warbirds flying in the show each day... I was so excited when I seen the number of different types that where arriving this year... Anyway I very much look forward to seeing your photos once you've gone through them.
. Thanks, Mike

Great day as always....likely took around 2k pictures today, will try and post the best of the bunch. All 7 Wildcats in the air was a sight to behold. Worth the price of admission! Can't wait to see the photos from their op over the lake.

Some pics.

More pics.

More pics.

More pics.

Last batch for now.

Is the F-86 in the Boeing Plaza a new restoration, a fresh repaint or one of the EAA's static aircraft ?

I think it is EAA's. They have their F-84, F-80, and LT-6 out there also.

August

Okay thanks August and also thanks for sharing your awesome photos for those of us that couldn't be there...
Mike

One of more artistic ones...