2014 Airshows
Titusville (Tico), FL   Spirit of St. Louis, MO   Youngstown Air Reserve Station, OH   Central Indiana Warbird Event Trilogy   Evansville Normandy Re-Enactment, IN   Dayton Airshow, OH  Warsaw, IN   Richmond, IN   WWI Dawn Patrol Rendezvous, Dayton, OH

Thunder over the Valley Airshow Warbird Photo Review
Warbirds at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Youngstown, OH - May 17-18, 2014 - Photos taken Sunday May 18.  

The name Youngstown Air Reserve Station is somewhat misleading in that normally an air station in Air Force nomenclature has no flying aircraft and is a support unit of some sort.  However, in the case of Youngstown, it is the home the 910th Airlift Wing with twelve C-130H aircraft, four of which are in the Aerial Spray Squadron, which is the only unit in the Air Force now equipped for aerial spraying.  Interestingly enough, Youngstown Air Force Base was dedicated in August of 1952 as a Air Defense Command Air Base to defend the north central US against the threat of attack from Soviet bombers and was initially equipped with an F-84C squadron.  Also stationed at Youngstown AFB over the years were F-102s, T-33s, F-86s, C-119s and finally the present C-130s. 

The water tower that is located in the center of the base is found on most of the literature pertaining to the base and the show.

Here is a photo of it from the ramp on Sunday morning

I stopped by the Warren-Youngstown airport one evening after a business meeting I had in nearby Warren about ten years ago and was surprised to find the Youngstown Air Reserve Station even existed.  In 2008 the base had its first open house or airshow in recent history and I was able to attend.  The base had a new commander that had come in from the Rhode Island Air National Guard, which has a long history of doing airshows.  Although it was too late in the year to do a flying show, the unit put together a static event in September to see if there was enough interest to do a show.  If you go back and look at my report you will see that in spite of rain the crowd was not to be denied.  The local population wanted to see "its airbase".  Based on 2008 Youngstown had a flying show in 2009 with the Thunderbirds.  Unfortunately I was unable to attend.  But I made up for it in 2014 which is the next one the base has had.

This is a photo of a photo that was on a poster board in one of the hangars of the ramp and Youngstown Air Reserve Station taken during the 2009 event.  Note the water tower in the center of the base and the huge ramp.  Several of the acts from 2009 were again present in 2014, including the USAF Thunderbirds, Dave Folk flying the F4U Corsair, The Yankee Air Force, Scooter Yoak in the P-51D Quick Silver, and Manford Radius.  In 2014 the static ramp and crowd line were extended to where the B-17 "Yankee Lady" was in 2009 with a KC-10 taking its place. 

As I walked in to the ramp at 9:15 in the morning I heard the distinctive sound of several R-1820s starting and running.  The Trojan Horseman were getting ready to go out and do VIP rides, which they were not able to do on Saturday due to the fact it rained most of the day.  My understanding is several acts were able to fly but the Thunderbirds were not.  In spite of the weather on Saturday the show had a good sized crowd.  On my way in on Saturday evening I stopped by one of the offsite parking lots and it was pretty much full.  Rain does not dampen the enthusiasm of the local airshow enthusiasts in the Warren-Youngstown area!

Not a cloud in the sky on Sunday morning.

At the far end of the ramp was a C-5.  All the static photos were taken early in the morning before the crowd arrived.  Everyone had to be bused in from two parking locations several miles away.

Some nice formation work by the Trojan Horsemen with their VIP passengers.

The KC-130 came from Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, OH.

George Antonell of nearby Warren, OH had his L-19 on display.

One of four C-130s on display.  This one and another were from the home base.

The A-10 came from Kansas City.

The Toledo Air National Guard brought in an F-16.  Two more were on display from Shaw AFB in South Carolina.

Another Youngstown C-130, but this is an Aerial Sprayer.

Here are its spray nozzles. 

And the interior tanks and plumbing.

Also on display was this C-17 from Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, OH.

C-123K "Thunder Pig" from Beaver Falls, PA was on static display.

And at the other end of the ramp was the huge KC-10.

Even early in the day a line had formed to tour it.  It would get longer as the day went on.

Looking back down the ramp at 11 in the morning.  There would be plenty of crowd to fill in the gaps along the fence later.

The C-47 from the Yankee Air Force was on display as it has been the past two events at Youngstown.

 
B-17G "Yankee Lady" was on display and would fly later in the day.  This would make two airshows in a row for me where a B-17 has flown in the show. 

This is the BT-13 that Michael Kennedy would be flying later in his Valiant Echoes aerobatic demonstration.

The B-25 "Yankee Warrior" would also fly later in the day.

Now this is one impressive Chevy S-10 truck from Flash Fire!

 Dave Folk fires up the Corsair.

It is always great to see Dave perform at an airshow.

As Dave passes over the Thunderbirds some clouds have moved in.

Once again the Trojan Horsemen are on the take-off roll.

While the Horsemen go and await there turn to fly, Third Strike Wing Walker Carol Pilon from Quebec, Canada rides between the wings on the take-off.

Dave Folk taxies back into the ramp.

This is not for the faint hearted!

The nice thing about most wing walkers is that they use a WWII vintage Stearman.


The Trojan Horsemen making their initial pass.

It is now 2:00 PM and three hours since I took a photo of this same area. The fence line and the area behind it are getting crowded.

The last series of flying before the Thunderbirds was this solo routine by Scott Yoak in his P-51D, then what the show called the warbird parade, which would include the Mustang, B-17, B-25 and BT-13.

Time for the warbird parade!  Note two of the vertical stabilizers from Youngstown C-130s that are over on the other side of the field.

This was interesting, as there were four warbirds of dissimilar speeds flying together, first giving us show passes from left to right as demonstrated by B-17 "Yankee Lady".

With Air Boss Ralph Royce shifting the down winds to behind the crowd the aircraft can do photo passes.

And one can take photos of the Youngstown ARS water tower and the P-51 and B-25.

The B-17 and water tower.

The BT-13 and water tower.

While the B-25 and B-17 were landing Scooter gave us some low passes in the Mustang.

On this low pass the B-17 is turning final and the gear is extended.

The last act before the Thunderbirds was Michael Kennedy in his BT-13 solo routine. 

For me, that ended the show.  There was about an hour break before the Thunderbirds flew so I took a bus back to the parking lot to beat the traffic.  Listening to the radio in the bus on the way back to the lot it was noted the parking lots were all full and no more vehicles could be parked.  The buses were just trying to get as many persons that arrived late to the field before several roads had to be closed for the Thunderbirds. 

I was on the road home before the Thunderbirds ever took off.  I was probably 3-4 hours down the road before they cleared the Air Station of all the spectators.  But I had seen what I came to see; the Youngstown Air Station and some of its aircraft, a large selection of USAF military static aircraft and some great warbird flying.  The selection of aircraft and the large number of passes and warbird aerobatics makes this a future show to consider for the warbird enthusiast, which is scheduled as of this writing for 2016.

Titusville (Tico), FL   Spirit of St. Louis, MO   Youngstown Air Reserve Station, OH   Central Indiana Warbird Event Trilogy   Evansville Normandy Re-Enactment, IN   Dayton Airshow, OH  Warsaw, IN   Richmond, IN   WWI Dawn Patrol Rendezvous, Dayton, OH