Some pics from Saturday at ToM...
 

Met up with a couple of my fellow BlitzPigs at the annual Thunder Over Michigan air show on Saturday and thought I'd share some of the pics with you guys.

This year's show was pretty light on planes though, but what was there was still very cool and well worth it...

OK, first star of the show...

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/4540/tom1ej.jpg
The CAF B-29, "FIFI".

Amazing to see her in flight and on the ground. We had an interesting discussion with the pilot as well. BTW, if you were wondering about operating costs... Total per hour for everything, fuel/oil/crew/maintenance etc... about $6800 per hour.

Now to the the plane that was at once the most interesting, and most disappointing aircraft at the show...

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/1581/tom4.jpg

http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/985/tom5v.jpg

The A-36. Fresh off winning the first prize at Oshkosh for best restoration, it was an amazingly beautiful aircraft. Just perfect in every detail. However, she did not fly. Seems it was sidelined by a problem that plagued the A-36 when they were in service. The dive brakes were lifting out on their own in flight, so the owner put safety first and grounded the aircraft.
A pity, but really the wise choice.

There was also a lot of these...

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/3897/tom3h.jpg

One of these...

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3416/tom2s.jpg

And these guys...

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3830/tom8.jpg

Who seemed worried about these guys...

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/2320/tom9j.jpg

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/5056/tom11w.jpg

And to top it all off a demo by the only Sea Harrier in private hands...

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/221/tom6o.jpg

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/526/tom7p.jpg

nice shots, thx for posting them :)

Dont worry, you will be seeing allot more sea harriers in private hands now. Seeing as the Royal Navy scrapped them.

Gorgeous pics El.

I'd so like to see that B-29 in the air. Thx for posting. ;)

Some times I hate you blokes living some where they have air shows like this. The only WW2 AC I have ever seen up close was a Beechcraft transport. I can only play COD an imagine what it must be like. The noise and smell on top of the scenery must be heaven on earth.

Great picks. The German tank crew looking up cracked me up.:grin:

You should get yourself across to Temora Aviation Museum in NSW! Its in the boonies... (middle of nowhere!) 5hr drive west of Sydney and just north of Wagga Wagga. There's modest hotel accomodation in town and the surrounding towns. Its pretty popular so accomodation can sometimes be a problem if you dont plan ahead.

Its a living museum where the aircraft are airworthy and flown on a regular schedule. You also get to go up close and actually touch them in the flesh and speak with the pilots.

They do regular flying shows with the below aircraft and often have visiting aircraft during a Showcase. I've been once and thoroughly enjoyed it! Im trying to get to the Sept 1 show which has a RAAF theme. If I cant get to that one Ill definitely be going to Dec 1 show which is a Pearl Harbour theme. :)
Get yourself along.... there's nothing like it in this country and there's only a small handful of museums globally that fly their aircraft and an even smaller number with WWII aircraft!

The Spitfires have one of highest logged flying hours for WWII aircraft in the world. :) They have a pretty heavy workload so one has its engine off for rebuild at the moment.

List of flying aircraft on rotating showcase:

Ryan STM S2
DH-82A Tiger Moth
CA-16 Wirraway
Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIII (unfortunately engine in US for rebuild)
Supermarine Spitfire Mk XVI
CA-13 Boomerang
Lockheed Hudson
DH-115 Vampire T35
Gloster Meteor F.8
English Electric Canberra
RAAF CA-27 Sabre
Cessna A-37B Dragonfly
Cessna O-2A
Cessna O-1G Birddog
T-28D Trojan

Aug 18th, 2012
Aircraft Showcase - Vietnam, Long Tan
A-37B, Birddog, Cessna O-2A, T-28 Trojan, RANHF Huey
Sep 1st, 2012
Aircraft Showcase - RAAF Fighters
Spitfire, Meteor, Boomerang, P-40 Kittyhawk
Sep 15th, 2012
Aircraft Showcase - Fighters
Spitfire, Meteor, Boomerang, A-37B
Oct 6th, 2012
Aircraft Showcase - Trainers to Fighters
Spitfire, Wirraway, Birddog, J-3 Cub, Harvard
Oct 20th, 2012
Aircraft Showcase - North American Aviation
Sabre, Harvard, T-28 Trojan
Nov 3rd, 2012
Aircraft Showcase
Spitfire, Tiger Moth, Hudson, A-37B
Nov 17, 2012
Aircraft Showcase - Korea
Sabre, Meteor, Harvard
Dec 1st, 2012
Aircraft Showcase - Pearl Harbor
Spitfire, Ryan, Tiger Moth, P-40 Kittyhawk
Dec 15th, 2012
No Aircraft Showcase
Jan 5th, 2013
No Aircraft Showcase
Jan 19th, 2013
Aircraft Showcase - CAC Australian Made
Sabre, Boomerang, Wirraway, Winjeel, Ceres
Feb 2nd, 2013
Aircraft Showcase - WWII to Korea
Spitfire, Hudson, Harvard, Meteor

http://www.aviationmuseum.com.au/
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?clien...d=0CKMBEPwSMAA

PS nice pics thanks for sharing! :D

Nice stuff! Would really love to see FiFi someday! The A-36 airbrake issue is quite weird though, if memory serves in many cases they actually wired them shut cos they weren't used operationally and caused issues, so I wonder why they bother having them still serviceable.

That Harrier is mint, I bet the running costs are not too different from the B-29 though!

Thanks for the share.
S~

I think, and it's just my opinion here, that they really wanted to win that first prize at the EAA show for best restoration, which they did, and that is why the dive brakes are still functional. When I mentioned to the ground crewman that was there with the plane that they typically wired them shut in service, well you should have seen the look of horror on his face.

teehehehe :-)

You know, what really surprises me is that a lot of these aircraft restoration folks normally don't have historians as part of the teams, which can often give them a better insight also on operational routines like that.

If memory serves the actuators are mechanic, so I suppose that the accidental opening is just part of a design flaw, one thing is for sure though, you don't want them to open when landing or taking off, nor opening asymmetrically, that would be a party pooper..