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Thunder Over the Valley air show was held August 8 and 9 at Youngstown Ohio.  This airport has an airspace called Terminal Radar Service Area.  When I fly to the north, I often contact Youngstown Approach, who is in charge of this TRSA, for flight following service.  But, I have never landed this airport before.

There was one strange thing about this air show.  Usually, an air-show organizer wants as many people as possible to show up.  However, this particular air show required a pre-distributed ticket to go in.

Youngstown was just about an hour and half from my apartment.  I wanted to go there both two days.  But, I could only secure the ticket for Saturday (8/8) show.  So, I went only one day.  Later I heard from my friend who arrived at the air-show parking later than me that nobody checked his tickets.  So, after some point they stopped checking tickets.  They did check my ticket though.  Well, thousands of people showed up.  If they were checking tickets one by one, they end up with building an uncontrollable traffic jam.  I was expecting that they were going to stop checking tickets some time.  But, because I went there early, they were still checking tickets when I arrived.

The weather, however, was not cooperating.  The forecast was predicting rain starting in the evening.  But, the sky was already cloudy in the morning.  Nonetheless, many historic airplanes performed fly-byes.  I had seen most of them in museums.  But, I saw some of them actually flying for the first time.  So, I had fun.

C-17 flew with nice bank angle and showed its back to the audience.

Light rain started around noon and became moderate by 2pm.  I expected Thunderbirds to cancel the flight.  But, to my surprise, they did fly in this bad weather.  Of course it was a low show.  I didn't hold my camera because I didn't soak it.  I just relaxed and watched Thunderbirds flight from the beginning to the end.  It is sometimes nice to see Thunderbirds without worrying about taking pictures.

Despite the bad weather, I enjoyed the show.  I liked those historic airplanes' fly-byes.

Jet Car by Air Force Reserve	Cessna O-2 Skymaster.  Used during Vietnam war.	C-123 Provider.  I've seen this many times in air shows, but I think it was my first time to see it flying.  Based at Beaver County Airport.
OV-1Mohawk.  Also based at Beaver County Airport.	B-25 Mitchell.	C-47 Skytrain, Also known as DC-3.
PV-2 Harpoon.  I believe it was my first time to see it flying.	C-123 landed.  See "Thunderpig" emblem on the side.	B-17 took off.
	B-17 and P-51 formation.	Then P-51 performed some aerobatics.
C-17 showed its back to the audience.	F-15E Strike Eagle.  It was getting darker and darker.	F-4U Corsair.  It was a different one from the one I saw in Dayton.

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