[MilCom] Willow Run

[Jesse]

John A. Collmer wrote:
> Good Morning, does anyone have any frequencies from last years Willow Run (Thunder over Michigan) Show? Also any insights/tips would be appreciated.
>
> Tony Collmer
> Niles, MI
>
> _____________________________________________________________
>
>   
Tower freqs 125.275 256.9 .
Went to todays practice and fly-ins ... Pretty slow. Other than the 
Blues, the only jet flyer was an F-16 demo.
Bunch of warbirds flying formation - At least 4 B-25's along with what 
looked to be a couple of P-47's, a Mustang and a batch of Texans.
A couple of A-10's flew in after the Blues landed, other than that the 
whole show seems to be stunt flying.
I have a good spot staked out off of Rawsonville road - Very likely will 
be hard to get to on shows days, as the law tends to block off access
to any roads that lead other than straight to the parking areas.
$20 admission per person & $5 parking I think is close to a rip off 
myself and, since there does not appear there will be a whole lot static 
wise anyhow, I am
going to stake out a spot outside the airport, somewhere along the 
approach line.
As most here know, the Blues or T-Birds do not allow crowds to gather 
anywhere near either side of the runway [approach or departure], so some 
improvising is necessary
if one wishes to have a decent spot outside of show.
Aside from the dearth of jet powered attractions, another thing that 
soured me on Willow Run shows is, last year they actually made the crowd 
bake out on the tarmac.
Thats right, with square acres of grass everywhere around, they made the 
crowd sweat it out on asphalt for half a day on a 90 degree day. There 
was 100's of people sitting under the wings
of an AWACS craft, the only shade around. I was about to leave until I 
found a rare vacant patch of grass for me and my girls by a building, 
with shade from a porta john.
I have been to dozens if not hundreds of airshows over the years, and 
have never seen this happen anywhere but there.
I personally can stand the heat, my young pre-teen girls can not, and I 
was fairly livid at a bone head set up like that, and still am.
Will they do it again this year ? Don't know, but really am not inclined 
to pay $100 to find out.
If you do go in, since they do not allow coolers, my advice would be to 
freeze some plastic water bottles overnight and bring them.
They price gouge on selling refreshments also.