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.

Chasing the Yankee Lady

So I looked at the schedule for the Yankee Air Force to see when the Yankee Lady would be flying next and I found out that she was flying last Saturday.  I was going to catch her and then go catch the Wolverine at Chelsea.

 I got at almost the right time to catch her coming in but I wanted to get better pictures of her, so I decided to stick around to catch her for the next trip.

 As I was waiting for the return of the Yankee Lady, I saw the Yankee Doodle Dandy take off and then take a flight around the airport.  She was landing on the east-west runway which gave me a chance to get Metro in the background.  It turns out that light silhouette behind the plane is an MD of some sort.  In way, that plane is a descendant of the DC-3.

 The DC-3 was the result of a design process that started with an inquiry from TWA to Donald Douglas.  United Airlines was starting a better service with the Boeing 247 but Boeing refused to sell any to another airline until they completed United's initial order of 60.  TWA asked Douglas to design and build an aircraft that would allowed them to compete with United.
The first design was the DC-1 in 1933.  It was a promising design but not quite competitive.  The DC-2 was developed in 1934.  It was a success but could could use some improvement.  The DC-3 resulted from a call from American Airlines looking for a sleeper plane.  The DC-2 would work but it wasn't quite wide enough.
The DC-3 first flew on December 17, 1935 and was introduced to service in 1936.  The DC-3 was almost an instant hit.  A total of 16,000 variants of the DC-3 were produced.  In 1998, there were still 400 left in commercial service somewhere.  The oldest DC-3 in flight is called Flagship Detroit and was built in 1937.  It can still be seen at airshows.  There are still quite a few flying and it is an awesome aircraft.

 The Yankee Warrior which is their B-25.

 Just a Cessna.

The Yankee Air Force also owns a WACO YMF-5 which is a 1986 design based on the original WACO planes.

 It's a pretty neat looking aircraft and the red sets off well against the blue sky.

 Another angle as it comes in for a landing.

 Another Cessna coming in for a landing.

 But of course, the plane I was waiting for was the Yankee Lady.  I was able to find a decent spot to get some decent angles of the planes.

 The clouds were cooperative.

 And made for some good pictures.

 The almost straight shot.

As I was getting ready to return to the car, I heard a plane coming in for a landing and saw this plane.  It is a Beechcraft 500.