Thunder over Michigan ypsi airshow

Thought I'd start a thread about the upcoming airshow at Willow Run this weekend.
Appears that the only jet acts are the east coast F-16 & F-18 demos, buts lots of WW2 craft.

I rarely go inside the base at shows anymore, preferring to find a good spot outside the perimeter along the flight path.
Too many restrictions inside, when they banned coolers and made you buy $3 bottles of water, I pretty much called it quits paying to get inside.
Also, they made people bake out on the hot tarmac at Willow, not even any grass to sit on. Not sure if they still do, or if they changed the crowd line ,,, But I sure didn't appreciate having to stand on hot tar for 5 hours.

Last year I was right off Michigan Ave between Hagerty And Beck I believe,,, Right before west bound Michigan turns into a freeway I turned back east, and its the first factory looking building to the right. Just some factory parking lot, but right along the flight path, and with nice little hills and shaded spots to relax in between acts.
The year before they were using different runways, and I had another spot a mile away, by some big softball complex further east ,,, so I'll see how it goes Fri and will post back.
I plan on going all 3 days.

Freqs I have for Willow in my scanner:

118.175 - Used as Airboss freq the past few years, busiest freq by far, hopefully still active this year
118.95 Departure [I'm pretty sure this freq is tied into nearby Metro airport, so get ready to lock it out]
121.75 - Ground control primary
121.9 - Ground control secondary
122.775 - Yankee air force freq
123.45 - ramp control
125.275 - Tower
132.35 ?
256.9 - Tower
351.7 ?

Thats about it for now, anyone want to add any comments, observations, freqs whatever, feel free.
And if anyone has any known good east coast demo team freqs, post them please.

The MT2010 Airshow Guide has a few from the groups that will be attending. You might also search the forum here for last year's thread as a starting point. I'll be there Saturday.

You can bring bottled water in, just not the cooler. I've seen a lot of people freeze their water bottles and bring them in which seems like a good idea.

I've gone the last 4-5 years and there is plenty of grassy areas to sit in along the flight line if you're there early enough. But yeah, it can be hot sitting out there.

Here is what I had from last year, excluding the Blue Angels since they are not there this year:

118.175 Airboss (very active)
125.275 Willow Run Tower
256.900 Willow Run Tower Military
121.750 Willow Run Ground
384.550 F-16 Viper Flight
129.700 Mustang & F-16 Viper Heritage Flight
123.150 F-4 Phantom & Mig 17 Flight (discrete channel)
363.2000 "DEATH12" (B-2) & "SCOUT93" (B-52) talking with DTW
425.2125 DCS026 Film crew filming battle re-enactments

I see they have another B-52 scheduled for a fly-by this year again, so you should hear him on the DTW Military tower freq prior to his fly by.

True about bottled water, I've done it before.
You got 4 or 5 kids and a few adults in the group, mighty hard to lug around enough for everyone - And if I'm not mistaken, you can't even bag or backpack the water, only what you can visibly carry in your hands.
But I do see the point of banning coolers, and that prohibition is not unique to Ypsi.

I like watching the show from outside because:

* Its much more relaxing. You do what you want when you want, you eat and drink what you want, can sit in the shade when you want
* Its free
* Most often a much better, closer view of the aircraft. Aircraft, as is well known, are mandated to stay a certain distance from airshow crowd lines, for obvious reasons.
No such restrictions outside the base, and you can get right under them, though I prefer to be off to the side a bit for a better profile view.
Of course, the cops blocks off most of the prime spots in the immediate area of the airport.
Years ago we used to watch the Blue Angels from right on the other side of the perimeter fence, right at the end of the runway.
Not possible now, so you have to get a bit creative finding spots.
Can be difficult at Willow, since the facility is bordered by large trees in the immediate area.
I almost always run into others like me at these spots, military aviation enthusiasts with scanners, and have made a number of friends over the years.

The only downside to not going in is you don't get to see the static aircraft.
I can live with that, as there are usually so many people walking to and fro that its next to impossible to get a decent pic of an aircraft without people in the way.

Xray said:

True about bottled water, I've done it before.
You got 4 or 5 kids and a few adults in the group, mighty hard to lug around enough for everyone - And if I'm not mistaken, you can't even bag or backpack the water, only what you can visibly carry in your hands.

Click to expand...

Thankfully I've got a 1-yr old so my stroller will be filled with ice bottles if anyone wants a deal

Yeah here's that thread from last year including the spot xray talks about that "WE" both were at, ... at least on sunday.
http://forums.radioreference.com/mi...136736-thunder-over-michigan-frequencies.html

Oh yeah, Schooner road.
Glad you found the link, I was too lazy to look for it.

Assuming that they fly the same flight profile, I'll probably be there all 3 days.
You coming Ski ?

Xray said:

You coming Ski ?

Click to expand...

Rather personal arent we? HAHA!

But am thinking about going to the show.

Heres a .usd file I made for this and all airshows: Let me know of any discrepancies
View attachment airshows.usd

I'll be out there Friday, somewhere along the perimiter of the airport. I'm hoping they will be landing over Ecorse Rd. Just look for the scanner nerd in the Blue Impala.

The Viper East Demo team is already here.

384.550 A/A F-16 Viper East Demo 11:26am. I wouldn’t worry about it there’s some islands out here. Your just full of good news. 11:27am. Going to Willow Run rnwy 23L. They have time for a site survey. We can T/O on rnwy 9 & make a hard right, & the Heritage flight can hang out by these bridges, 11:42am.
256.900 YIP twr, 11:36am.
125.275 YIP twr, 11:37am.Site survey.

I might check out Ecorse & Beck, view typically is not so great as the cops keep everyone east of Beck, where you are a pretty fair distance away from the flight path.

Was golfing at Selfridge earlier and caught the B-52 comming in for the weekend.

Interesting about the B-52.
Didn't show at Ypsi, is scheduled for early flybys on the weekend [10:30AM].

Day started out at 12 noon with what for me was a shocking sight - An F-100.
Haven't seen one of those in years, and had no idea there was one in flyable condition.
Put on quite a show, did at least 6 or 7 good passes.

2 F-16's from what looked to be Alabama came in after than, one of them did half a dozen approaches before landing.
The F-18 did his demo, disappointing for me cause, except for his very last pass, his whole flight profile was away from where I was.
Same thing for the F-16 demo, some aircraft, like the F-100, did their act right over my head, and others were nearly a mile away, go figure.

I figured I'd check the Ecorse/Beck road area, and was surprised that they let people west of Beck road, right on the approach.
There was 100's of people there, and the view was much better.
A couple A-10's from Selfridge came in, one did half a dozen passes and sharp turnouts, pretty neat.

That was about it jet wise, B-17's were coming and going all day, along with a B-24 and a trio of Mustangs.
Freqs listed about are good, you'll have about all you need with those.
I'm going back for the weekend, I'm hoping Ecorse road will still be good to go, though my gut tells me the cops will block it off on show days.

If they do, theres an outfit called Mans lumber on Michigan Ave, west of Beck road and east of Denton.
Looks like the jet demos were flying right over that parking lot, so I'm gonna try that if Ecorse is blocked off.

No blocks on Ecorse between Beck & Denton, great spot.
You can literally get right under the aircraft on approach and as they do there passes.

Swarms of B-17's all day long, one time as many as 9 in the sky at once, along with 3 Mustangs.
B-24 took off, but landed immediately with engine problems.
Jets all put on a very good show, though the F-18 demo seemed abnormally short.
He had to wait in holding on the runway while a B-17 with paying flight customers took off, I heard the airboss apologizing to him for keeping him waiting, and saying it wouldn't happen tomorrow.

Wish there was more jet acts, but all in all a very good day, will be back tomorrow for the last day.

They were using 123.050 and 123.500 MHz as a discrete air-to-air frequencies.

73s

Ron

Great show, but the limited number of team acts really diminished the need for a scanner. Don't get me wrong - it was great listening to the Air Boss, and especially listening to YIP tower prior to the show - but there's nothing like hearing the T-Bird callouts and countdowns...

I was working YAM Security with another agency yesterday. Great time. We had our own UHF ops rptr along with YAF on their TDMA system. Great show. The incidents were kept to a minimum. Later in the day is when we started seeing some heat exhaustion. If your out and about, stop by and say hello at the YAM Info / Lost and found booth.
Jim-rcvmo

Thought I'd revive this for the upcoming 2011 show.
Naval aviation theme, the Blues will be there.
A load of aircraft for this show, both vintage & modern. V-22B Osprey will be there, will be the 1st time I have ever seen one of there.
Thunder Over Michigan™ - Performers & Attractions

Won't be able to get my killer spot from last year, as they are sure to block this stretch of road with the Blues there.
Got a few spots staked out, but always interested to hear of any more. They've been known to change their flight patterns at Ypsi as well, Blues flew totally different routes last 2 time I have seen them there, making it especially challenging finding a spot outside the base.
Though there are a few decent spots right off Michigan ave, the base in largely socked in by trees and residential areas on that side .... I might try exploring the 94 side for a better spot.
Anyone gets arrival/practice schedules, be sure to post.

Here is a detailed, monster thread on the show
Warbird Information Exchange • View topic - THUNDER OVER MICHIGAN 2011
[might need to be signed up to view, not sure]

Since show organizers post there, I feel a bit awkward asking about spots outside the base there, since they obviously are hoping for paying customers.

I'll be there on Sunday, and a friend of mine who lives near there has a spot that she says is pretty good. I'll get the details closer to the show and post them here.

I'm sure there will be Blue Angels practices and the like...does anyone have the arrival and practice schedule as was posted in the other airshow thread?

Matt

Here's the frequencies that the Blue Angels used in Battle Creek this past weekend:
275.350
237.800
284.550
142.6125 (NFM) Comm Cart-to-tower

284.550 I saw elsewhere it was used, but it was listed several years ago were only ones I saw. Or is that a typo for 284.250 ?