USAF Thunderbirds at Burlington IAP Tuesday, July 17th

mikewmac · Post by **mikewmac** » 16 Jul 2007, 15:51

The USAF Thunderbirds are returning from Europe and will be flying into Burlington IAP, VT (KBTV) tomorrow morning, July 17th, for a one night layover. Hopefully the weather will be good for some great Thunderbird spotting.

Mike

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 16 Jul 2007, 16:32

That would be nice.

The Thunderbirds were at the "05" McChord Air Show. I was able to take some great pictures there. They were there performing July 30 & 31 then a week later the Blue Angels were performing at SeaFair. That was one great summer. I checked out the McChord web site & there next Air Show is in"08". I'll post some of the pics I took.

mikewmac · Post by **mikewmac** » 16 Jul 2007, 16:39

Paul wrote:That would be nice.

The Thunderbirds were at the "05" McChord Air Show. I was able to take some great pictures there. They were there performing July 30 & 31 then a week later the Blue Angels were performing at SeaFair. That was one great summer. I checked out the McChord web site & there next Air Show is in"08". I'll post some of the pics I took.

Paul,

The Thunderbirds were here in Burlington last summer for the 60th Anniversary Airshow sponsored by my old VT ANG 158th FW. The weather was great the day before for their spectacular practice performance, but unfortunately the weather was not as good for the actual airshow performance itself and they had to do their low show.

Mike

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 16 Jul 2007, 17:34

When they were at McChord in "05" it was sizzling for the Northwest, I got fried, to this day I still have a little scar on my shoulder from it & I was sick to my stomach the next day.

Hope it's nice for you tomorrow.

Paul

lee100359 · Post by **lee100359** » 16 Jul 2007, 19:15

McChord is hosting the AMC Rodeo 2007, starts the 22nd of July, great chance to get some photos of C-130's from diffrent countries also C-17's and KC-135's from across the US will be there.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 18 Jul 2007, 00:45

Hi Mike.

How did your Thunderbird spotting go?

Paul

mikewmac · Post by **mikewmac** » 18 Jul 2007, 11:24

Paul wrote:Hi Mike.

How did your Thunderbird spotting go?

Paul

Paul,

Thunderbird 15, a C-17 from Travis AFB, arrived around 10:00 AM EDT and the Thunderbirds themselves arrived around 10:45 AM EDT after a non-stop flight from the UK with 2 aerial refuelings enroute. Unfortunately after their long flight they did not do any type of arrival demo and just flew normal approaches and landings.

However, four of the VT ANG Green Mountain Boys' F-16C's from my old 134th FS, 158th FW had been out on morning training sorties in preparation for their upcoming deployment to the Middle East. They returned around 10:00 AM and two of them flew a 2 ship formation approach with one landing and the other flying a very low approach with a hard break to a full stop landing. The other two flew solo low approaches with similar breaks to full stop landings.

The Thunderbirds are scheduled to depart this morning to fly back to Nellis AFB, but unfortunately I am busy and won't be able to watch their departure.

Mike

JackP · Post by **JackP** » 18 Jul 2007, 12:32

Mike,
I saw the Thunderbirds story on the news last night and wondered if you were able to see them. Too bad you didn't. I think It's an honor that they think highly enough of KBTV and the VTANG to choose it for their stopover.
Jack