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Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

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beauford

Joined: 25 Apr 2007
Posts: 127
Location: Brandon, FL

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 4:11 pm Post subject: Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

Kolbers:

 

This is dramatic video….   terrible damage.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNt1BKqF3a0

 

Sure hope all of our folks are OK…

 

Going down to the Manatee airstrip to check on the Fly tomorrow morning.  

 

Beauford

FF-076

Brandon, FL

 

Do Not Archive 

 

  [quote][b]

Dennis Thate

Joined: 18 Nov 2010
Posts: 362

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 6:51 pm Post subject: Re: Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

What a disaster...hope no one was hurt or worse ..........



Thanks for the post.

_________________
Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute. ~Gil Stern

captainron1(at)cox.net
Guest

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 6:44 am Post subject: Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

Man is this a pisser or what. I'll be up there tomorrow, I hope the Kolb trailer is back up. I'll post whatever I find up there. My impression was that it was going to be a real good expo attendance wise, it may still be. 



---- Beauford  <beauford173(at)verizon.net> wrote: 



=============

 



Kolbers:



 



This is dramatic video..   terrible damage.



 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNt1BKqF3a0



 



Sure hope all of our folks are OK.



 



Going down to the Manatee airstrip to check on the Fly tomorrow morning.  



 



Beauford



FF-076



Brandon, FL



 



Do Not Archive 



 

--

kugelair.com

Mike Welch

Joined: 13 Feb 2011
Posts: 272

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 7:35 am Post subject: Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

Ron, Kolb Co., and everyone,

  

   Pisser is certainly an understatement!!  To see all those beautiful planes rolled up

 in knots is heart-breaking!!!  The time, work, money, and labors of love of so many pilots

 utterly destroyed in seconds.  So sad!!

  

   Of course, some of the treasures can be rebuilt.  Other can not.  I'm sure in some cases it

 took years of some of these poor guys' time to complete their planes.  For some, they just don't

 have it in them anymore to do it again.

  

   Personally, after all the time, money and effort I've put into building my plane, if it were

 wadded up into a ball, I really don't know if I have it in me to do it all again.  

  

   I haven't heard of any injuries, and for that we are all thankful.  But the loss of their planes

 to many of these guys will never be replaced.  They have my sympathies, for what it's worth!!

  

 Mike Welch

 MkIII 

  

   

 		 	   		    [quote][b]

neilsenrm(at)gmail.com
Guest

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 8:19 am Post subject: Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

Just got home from Sun N fun last night.

 

I was in a forum in the Central Florida Aviation Academy building when the tornado went through. I stopped by the overturned Kolb trailer on the way back to camp. There was a inch or two of standing water everywhere. Brian Melborn was there rescuing things that might get more wet. The only visible damage to any Kolbs on the field was the left lift strut on the factory Firestar II. Brian said there was some damage to the tail but the rain was still beating down heavy so I didn't stay very long. The lift strut on the Firestar had a bent wing attachment but the strut itself looked fine. I would guess it was from a severe down draft. Seems like someone told me one time to not tie planes down too tight. Could leaving the tie downs with just a bit of slack saved some damage??? 

   

 When I got back to the van where I had been camping in the ultralight camp ground. I found that the shower building and porta potties looked like they had been blown up. The shower building was scattered all around the van but the van was untouched. It looks like it flipped over a few times and landed right side up just short of my van. There was a big diesel generator happily supplying power like it was powering the shower unit. With so much water around I gave it plenty of respect. There were four port a potties near by that had been ripped apart and literally shit all over.

 

 I decided it was a good time to leave the airshow but had to move a bunch of lumber to move the van.

  

  When I was watching the news last night there was a photo of my van with the remains of the shower in the background. 



 Everywhere around the airport there were airplanes flipped over with many flipped onto other airplanes. It is a good reminder that you have more to worry about than just getting your own plane tied down good. Every one around you needs to also. There was at least one ultralight that was rolled up in a ball. 

   

 Rick Neilsen

 Redrive VW Powered MKIIIC

 

 

  [quote][b]

Arksey(at)aol.com
Guest

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 3:34 pm Post subject: Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

Thanks Rick for the report...good that you are ok.  Hope the KOlb  folks did not suffer to much damage, do not need that when trying to run a  bussiness....report from John Hauck sounded like he was ok and that his plane  had not suffered any damage.  Would like to know what type of tie down  stacks worked the best in this situation?   what a bad thing to happen  at such a fun gathering for aviation people...thinking of you guys up here in  Michigan, thinking of getting the firestar out and ready to fly this  spring..  jim swan

  

 jim swan  firestar ll 503 michigan

  [quote][b]

ceengland(at)bellsouth.ne
Guest

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 4:22 pm Post subject: Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

On 4/1/2011 11:15 AM, Rick Neilsen wrote:

 	  Quote: 	
		   Just got home from Sun N fun last night.



 I was in a forum in the Central Florida Aviation Academy building when 

 the tornado went through. I stopped by the overturned Kolb trailer on 

 the way back to camp. There was a inch or two of standing water 

 everywhere. Brian Melborn was there rescuing things that might get 

 more wet. The only visible damage to any Kolbs on the field was the 

 left lift strut on the factory Firestar II. Brian said there was some 

 damage to the tail but the rain was still beating down heavy so I 

 didn't stay very long. The lift strut on the Firestar had a bent wing 

 attachment but the strut itself looked fine. I would guess it was from 

 a severe down draft. Seems like someone told me one time to not tie 

 planes down too tight. Could leaving the tie downs with just a bit of 

 slack saved some damage???

 When I got back to the van where I had been camping in the ultralight 

 camp ground. I found that the shower building and porta potties looked 

 like they had been blown up. The shower building was scattered all 

 around the van but the van was untouched. It looks like it flipped 

 over a few times and landed right side up just short of my van. There 

 was a big diesel generator happily supplying power like it was 

 powering the shower unit. With so much water around I gave it plenty 

 of respect. There were four port a potties near by that had been 

 ripped apart and literally shit all over.

 I decided it was a good time to leave the airshow but had to move a 

 bunch of lumber to move the van.

  When I was watching the news last night there was a photo of my van 

 with the remains of the shower in the background.

 Everywhere around the airport there were airplanes flipped over with 

 many flipped onto other airplanes. It is a good reminder that you have 

 more to worry about than just getting your own plane tied down good. 

 Every one around you needs to also. There was at least one ultralight 

 that was rolled up in a ball.

 Rick Neilsen

 Redrive VW Powered MKIIIC

Hi Rick,
	




Good to hear that you got out undamaged.



On the subject of loose vs tight tiedowns, I've heard the theory of 

loose, too, but never heard any supporting data. I'm no expert on 

physics, but I do know that if I push on a nail with a hammer, not much 

happens; if I swing the same hammer at the nail, it usually goes into 

the wood. My logic for snug tiedowns is that loose ones allow wind gusts 

to act like a hammer being swung instead of being pushed.



Loose or snug tiedowns seem like a minor factor if a downburst is strong 

enough to load a wing with that much negative G. On the other hand, if 

the ropes are really loose & the plane gets off the ground, there can be 

significant negative G when it drops back to the ground (see above...).



Sometimes it doesn't matter what you do. I lost a Thorp T-18 in Norman 

OK about 19 years ago in what the weather people called straight line 

winds of around 120 kts. A total of over 20 planes were lost that night, 

and most of them had the tiedown rings ripped out of the wings, left on 

the ropes at the tiedown spots with the planes 50-500 feet away.



Charlie

Dana

Joined: 13 Dec 2007
Posts: 1047
Location: Connecticut, USA

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 4:50 pm Post subject: Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

At 07:31 PM 4/1/2011, Arksey(at)aol.com wrote:

  	  Quote: 	
		  Would like to know what type of tie down stacks worked the best in this situation? 	


 This from the FLY-UL list:



  	  Quote: 	
		  Hey did any one notice that the planes using the 

 Claw-Aircraft-Tie-Downs appears to have weathered the high wind. I 

 got set of them but haven't had the chance to use them but I sure 

 feel much better about them now.

 jerryb



 What they are:

 http://www.pilotmall.com/product/The-Claw-Aircraft-Tie-Down-System/pilot-tools?r=GoogleTieDown&gclid=CJGWkoSu_KcCFcZi2godjVCbpw



 Now watch this video, you will see the yellow Claws at about 

 1:57-2:08 seconds in the video.



 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNt1BKqF3a0 	




 But I have no personal experience with them.



 -Dana

 

 --

 Things should be made as simple as possible, but not any simpler.-- Albert Einstein   

    [quote][b]

Richard Pike

Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 1671
Location: Blountville, Tennessee

Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2011 7:44 pm Post subject: Re: Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

On tie downs and straight line winds - 44 years ago (I was 21) and working as a line boy at MAC at Opa Locka when a hurricane came through. We put a bunch of airplanes in the hangar, and then tied everything else down snug with doubled nylon ropes. At the time I had just bought a Piper Colt, and it was tied down outside. Used two ropes for all the tiedown rings and tail, also tied down the mains and the nosegear to the ground rings as well. No slack anywhere. Made gust locks and put on all the surfaces. Zero damage with winds over 120. Blew in the door at Hangar One and wrecked a bunch of airplanes including a P-51.



Richard Pike

MKIII N420P (420ldPoops)

Rick Lewis

Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 122
Location: Kingston, Tn.

Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2011 12:03 pm Post subject: Re: Video of Tornado at Sun n Fun

It looks to me like the claw tie down would be great in dirt but do little in sand.  Really doubt that much of anything would do well in sand unless it's corked screwed down really deep.

_________________
Rick Lewis

(VW Watercooled Engine)

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