Thunder Over Michigan 2019 - Part I

I'm going to break this into three posts so as not to have too many pictures in one post.  I took quite a few again.  And there were quite a few that I ended up using.

 They didn't have either the Thunderbirds or the Blue Angels this year.  I actually don't mind that so much because they don't get as large of a crowd.  I'm used to the air show starting around noon but this year they broke it into two parts.  They had a morning part and an afternoon part.  I missed the morning part and it looks like it might have been pretty cool.  But that's okay because they had the afternoon chock full of stuff too.
This year's theme was Corsairs and they had a bunch of them.  I think they had 11 on the ground and they ended flying ten of of them.  There aren't too many places where you can see that many Corsairs in one place.

 This is a Corsair wearing the markings of VF-17 or the Jolly Rogers.  That squadron has gone through a few iterations but is still in service today.  Currently they are VFA-103 and fly the F/A-18.

 The Yankee Air Force's C-47.  Recently they repainted her to look like a C-47 from the Burma theater.  I'm still not entirely sold on the idea as I liked the old paint scheme because it was unique.

 I kind of like the fact that it was a little cloudy.  Since they didn't have the Blue Angels, it didn't really matter.

 The C-47 coming in for a landing.

 Unfortunately, it was a little on the warm side, so I was getting a little bit of heat haze.  At any rate, they were taking people for rides in her.

 The P-51 that was about to take off.

 One of the other planes owned by the Yankee Air Force, a Waco.  This is another plane that you can take rides in.

 And of course, the Yankee Lady.

 This is known as the Quicksilver Mustang and is owned by a man named Scott Yoak.  He and his dad Bill Yoak worked on restoring this plane.  Bill Yoak used to work on planes used by various TV shows and movies.  He flew some of the planes on Baa Baa Black Sheep and helped build the Blue Thunder helicopter. 

 He started working on this plane in 1994.  He would later die in 2013.

 Scott Yoak started flying the Mustang at the age of 20 (which isn't much younger than the people that flew them in the war).  Over the years, he has logged over 6000 hours in it.

 Whatever parts they couldn't get, they ended up making.  I will have to say it was a pretty impressive display.

 Another picture a little more cropped.

 One more before the display ended.

 And a wave from the pilot.

 They were having some issues with the F-16, that was supposed to go up.  So they started the ground demonstration.  Here is a group of Germans.

 Some Americans on a White Scout car.  I'm not sure what kind of 50 caliber machine gun they were using though.

 The Germans on their half track.

 Some Americans in a half track with a more normal looking 50 caliber machine gun.

 The White Scout Car pulling away.

 The Americans taking some shots at the Germans.

I think this was a 37mm cannon.