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Storm just hit SnF.

I am going to be staying here until I can get the airplane airworthy. We are going to have to figure out how to get my wife home. If anyone can assist please email me.
 
RVbySDI said:
Guys, I know there are other RV's in worse shape than mine but I am going to need to rebuild a left flap, possibly reskin a top and bottom left wing and not sure about a wing tip. That is all I could evaluate with the little time I had in trying to tie down again. If anyone can assist with materials to do that please email me. I am going to have to figure out how to get the plane back to OK.

For those speculating about the tie downs, the tie downs could not hold in the soil. It might as well been tied down in water for all the soil held.
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So sorry, Steve, and just three months out of the paint shop.

Here is a case where the tiedowns held...............

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For those who don't deal with SE USA weather, it may be difficult to imagine the violence of a tornado.
 
cjensen said:
Awful...just awful.

Couple of flipped airplanes in this pic...looks like Tony Spicers' RV-3???

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This is unbelievable...:(:(
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EAA has pics on Facebook and they have a close up of Tony's 3 yep it was upside down, I talked to another buddy earlier he lost his Rans
 
krw5927 said:
Steve, I'll be sending a PM shortly. I'm building my left wing now and may have parts to help.
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Please send any correspondence to me via email. I am not going to be able to see the forum much longer and will not be able to reply to any PM's here. I have an I-phone so will see any emails sent to me. I appreciate everyone's help and am going to reluctantly have to take you up on the offers for assistance. At this time I cannot get back out to my plane to thouroughly assess the damage. As soon as I do I can give you more details. Please contact me via cell phone 405 822-0621 or email steveingraham at hotmail dot com.
 
Fly 4 Life, SNF adventure...

There I was, having lunch in a camper with our Missionary Aviation Support Contingent when it hit. It can be best described as a freight train coming down a tunnel and you are at the other end. My ears popped then the first gust hit. The wind-meter on a neighboring camper pegged at 80 knots and froze there. Our camper leaned up about 45 degrees then got light on all 4 wheels. I looked outside just in time to see a porta pottie I had used a scant 3 minutes prior fly horizontally past our camper exspousing it's contents as it rolled and flipped. Our friend John, at the height of the gale in pure missionary fashion asked "anybody want a cup of coffee?"
I peeked out the drivers window and just caught the end of an Ercoupe's last stand against the gale as it flipped. No tie downs on earth could have stood the 100 plus knots near where the tornado touched down. The high winds continued for about 4 minutes then came a torrential downpour like none I have experienced, even in the Ecuadorian jungle. When all had finally subsided, the carnage was self evident.

We assembled our team of highly trained missionary pilots, (they do disaster relief for a living!) grabbed vehicles and golf carts and began searching for injured people and rescue. My wife and I headed straight for our feature tent, near the LSA Mall. As we rounded the corner, flattened tents, upside down airplanes and tree limbs were abundant. Miraculously our Fly 4 Life tent was unscathed as well as all of the missionary airplanes surrounding it, including our RVX. It sat there, almost smiling at me asking "why were you worried?"

The cleanup continues...

Smokey
 
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smokyray said:
There I was, having lunch in a camper with our Missionary Aviation Support Contingent when it hit. It can be best described as a freight train coming down a tunnel and you are at the other end. My ears popped then the first gust hit. The wind-meter on a neighboring camper pegged at 80 knots and froze there. Our camper leaned up about 45 degrees then got light on all 4 wheels. I looked outside just in time to see a porta pottie I had used a scant 3 minutes prior fly horizontally past our camper exspousing it's contents as it rolled and flipped. Our friend John, at the height of the gale in pure missionary fashion asked "anybody want a cup of coffee?"
I peeked out the drivers window and just caught the end of an Ercoupe's last stand against the gale as it flipped. No tie downs on earth could have stood the 100 plus knots near where the tornado touched down. The high winds continued for about 4 minutes then came a torrential downpour like none I have experienced, even in the Ecuadorian jungle. When all had finally subsided, the carnage was self evident.

We assembled our team of highly trained missionary pilots, (they do disaster relief for a living!) grabbed vehicles and golf carts and began searching for injured people and rescue. My wife and I headed straight for our feature tent, near the LSA Mall. As we rounded the corner, flattened tents, upside down airplanes and tree limbs were abundant. Miraculously our Fly 4 Life tent was unscathed as well as all of the missionary airplanes surrounding it, including our RVX. It sat there, almost smiling at me asking "why were you worried?"

The cleanup continues...

Smokey
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Just a note to everyone about Smokey's report above. The ercoupe he reports that flipped over is our very good friends from our airport. It was their first trip to Sun n Fun. Their Ercoupe is totalled.
 
Jay's Fine

Short but sweet from Jay: "Dozens of bent airplanes. We are fine."
 
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Rvs damaged

At least 2 of Team Rv planes destroyed. Your photo shows Tony Spicers RV-3. Here's hoping damage isn't as bad as it looks.
 
Team RV Planes

Just talked with Kahuna. They were on their way into the parking area to survey the damage when they were turned around for another storm line moving in. So far as they know for Team RV, Spicer's RV-3 flipped onto Japundza's RV, Stripes' RV-7A cartwheeled and landed upside down, and Speedy's RV-6 may have had some rudder damage. Also Mutha's RV upside down. Stangely, they had breakfast this morning with the underwriter that insures their planes. Team RV was gathered somewhere discussing the day. Stripes was jovial looking for an RV-8. No assistance needed from here.

Falcon
 
I just talked to Angie at TruTrak and everyone there is OK and they didn't take any planes down this year which is very fortunate.
 
Jay Pratt and Bob Avery OK

rv9aviator said:
Has anyobne heard from Bob Avery and Jay Pratt? Also, TruTrak's people.
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I just talked to Jay, (4:00 pm CDT) and he's ok. The metal display buildings were not damaged. Jay said that he was afraid the display building's door might blow in, but it held!

Jay added that several RV's were damaged but the airplane count was low because of the bad weather this week.

I'm so sorry for all those who suffered damage or loss to their pride and joy.
 
Stu McCurdy said:
Just talked with Kahuna. They were on their way into the parking area to survey the damage when they were turned around for another storm line moving in. So far as they know for Team RV, Spicer's RV-3 flipped onto Japundza's RV, Stripes' RV-7A cartwheeled and landed upside down, and Speedy's RV-6 may have had some rudder damage. Also Mutha's RV upside down. Stangely, they had breakfast this morning with the underwriter that insures their planes. Team RV was gathered somewhere discussing the day. Stripes was jovial looking for an RV-8. No assistance needed from here.

Falcon
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Muthas plane is upright. Stripes planes went airborn over Mutha's plane ~150' and onto its back.
Mutha has right wingtip and aileron damage and other various items. Not as bad as the others for sure.
Kahuna
 
I need a drink

And I'm out of beer.
A sun n fun to remember. I'm lucky just a bit of rudder damage.
 
AFS%20Sun%20n%20Fun%202011%2010.png

Notice the Tornado on the screen!

This screen capture from ForeFlight was taken about 15 minutes before it hit. I had just picked Jennifer up at the hotel and were headed back to the airport. We arrived at the vendor entrance gate just as it hit and rode it out in the rental car , for a while we thought the car was going to get blown over. There was a truck about 150ft in front of us that got hit by a falling tree.

After it blew through we managed to drive to Van's booth through the North entrance and runway taxi way, it was still raining very hard and we had been told a second wave was coming and we were trying to get Trevor and Travis. We lived in Alabama for 5 years and have been through a lot of strong storms and close Tornados, this is the worse that I have seen.

Rob Hickman
Advanced Flight Systems
 
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There's something poetically sad about the one legged cub on it's back.

Glad the injuries seem to be minimal, but I know there are a lot of heart broken owners out there.
 
I never thought that

I would be glad to be between planes but I am today. Our campsite was destroyed but my wife was so upset over the folks that lost their planes that we decided to leave after checking on our neighbor who flew his RV7 down. He reported that his plane appeared to be ok although I don't know if he was able to check for hail damage yet. His campsite was also destroyed but he did not want to leave his plane. I don't blame him. My wife and I are planning to return after we pick up some dry clothes. We will check VAF to see if anyone needs us to bring them any supplies before we leave.
 
I'm just downloading some photos now. We were right in the middle of it & took shelter in an exhibit hangar. It was fairly brief with violent gusts. We didn't observe any hail.

I think the news of a hangar collapse was false. There was no doubt at any time of the structural integrity of the hangars we were in.

It's the usual storm story - one tent gets torn to shreds with everything inside it damaged, while the one right next to it is just fine. We saw only two injuries, bit of blood around but nothing terribly serious. One was definitely hit by tent debris (we spoke to him), the other I'm not sure, but he looked like he needed some stitches in his head & was getting carted off to the paramedics. He was OK though.

My wife is of the "airplane tolerant & curious" variety, but nearly cried when we saw the wrecked planes near the tarmac. She knows how much work guys put into the homebuilts.
 
RV-3Bravo said:
Team RV member James Clark interviewed on the Weather Channel right now!!
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Just watched this, don't know who James Clark is, but he did an outstanding job of representing the homebuilt community, I mean, high degree of outstanding. Bravo Zulu Sir.
 
N130PM said:
Just watched this, don't know who James Clark is, but he did an outstanding job of representing the homebuilt community, I mean, high degree of outstanding. Bravo Zulu Sir.
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Yep, James is the real deal. I haven't seen the video yet but not surprised he was a great representative of our community.
 
I don't have a photo of it, but we saw one aircraft where it was still anchored to the tiedowns, except the wing had snapped anyway.
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This is the 1st SnF I have missed in 12 years. I just cannot find words to accurately express my sadness and condolences for those who have damaged and destroyed aircraft.

I spoke with "RocketBob" (Team RV Member) this PM after his plane was totaled. He was still in shock trying to come to terms with what had happened, but he was in great spirits and looking forward to getting this behind him. Though he was sad about loosing his flying RV, he immediately talked about the Harmon Rocket he is building and how now he can concentrate on it. The insurance adjuster will be there tomorrow and Bob was glad about that. His insurance was about to expire.....tomorrow. ;)

He also mentioned the dozen or more phone calls he received from VAF buddies and home town flying friends that have offered condolences, support, and help. He was a little overwhelmed by the support, but certainly not surprised.
 
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+1 on James Clark as a spokesman for owner built aircraft...he is a real gentleman and a world class RV enthusiast.


Lee...
 
This is just tragic , I was going to head on up in the morning. A question for all of you at hicks, has anybody heard from darryl (long ez N111DH) His hanger was next to me at arlington for years. he is usually at SnF at the start of the week and I hope he and his airplane are ok.
 
We were in our Jabiru booth when it hit. Ben and Pete (my boyfriend and my boss) hung on to the tent to try to keep it from going into the planes and hurting anyone that was out there, but it folded up and sent them both flying. (not far enough to create any injuries, thank God.) The storm might have been fairly brief but it was the most terrifying moments of my life as I laid there under the remains of the tent with the water rising, waiting for it to end, hoping Ben didn't fly away from me like a scene out of Twister. The collapsed tent protected me from the hail, but Ben and Pete were out in it and they said it hurt. Our new J230 demonstrator flipped onto its back into the street. I'm so sad for Roger and the guys at Zenith. It broke our hearts to see so many RVs and other homebuilts out there torn up, especially our friend Tony's RV-3. :(

And Dammit! I really wanted to see TeamRV's show performance!! :rolleyes:
 
Wow. My heart just breaks looking at the pictures of the mangled aircraft. I had hoped to fly my RV-8 to SNF this year, but work got in the way. I was a bit torqued about that, but not anymore.

I'm so happy that no one seems to have gotten injured though. Planes can be rebuilt (yeah, I know that is easier to say if it isn't your plane that got smashed).
 
Sun-n-fun Tornado

Here are a few photos that I took immediately after the disaster at Sun-n-fun. This is just a small portion of the damage. We took refuge in one of the big steel hangars near the Van's tent, which somehow survived with Mitch Lock and possibly other Van's folks inside.
 
Another one which shows a bit of a train wreck. You can see the tiedowns in the foreground just came straight out of the soil.
IMG_0174.jpg

The pictures show a terrible material loss for some people, but take heart in the fact that there were also many lucky tents and planes which survived unscathed.

We left shortly after. The authorities were pretty much just trying to get people out of the way.
 
We were in the BBQ tent next to the FAA hangar when it hit. Everyone in that tent was shuffled into the block building/kitchen where the BBQ was prepared and served (I'd estimate 100 of us, give or take). We were packed in there pretty tight, then the lights went out. Everyone remained calm. As we stepped outside 10min or so later, the first thing I saw was the yellow and black Avitat Husky on floats, upside down and totally destroyed. This all happened so unbelievably fast.

I'm happy that no one (to my knowledge) was seriously hurt, but am saddened by the loss of so many aircraft - many of which were labors of love.
 
As posted earlier, we're all ok here. Being an indoor exhibitor has an advantage of already being under cover. It was pretty scary with rain and wind noise. Being from KS personally, I've been through several tornadoes in my life. :)

I am saddened by the loss of so much property, but am very glad that no one was seriously injured.
 
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