Tornado at Sun-n-Fun

[jrenwick]

This is tragic. I hope all our members are OK. Story and photos here: http://www.theledger.com/

[jrenwick]

Maybe not a tornado, but a severe storm in any case. Reports of 70 people trapped in a building may be untrue. There's an audio report here: http://www.avweb.com/podcast/podcast/Au ... 382-1.html

[mike roe]

http://www.youtube.com/user/grassrootsnewsintl
See if you can copy and paste this link. It is a video of the storm when it hits and its damage. Its scary.

[Flyfshr]

What a tragedy. I'm glad it sounds like no one was seriously injured but saw a lot of classics and kit planes among the totalled in the videos on youtube.

[webmaster]

The EAA posted a video at http://bcove.me/rk2tn0jj. Warning!! It will make you sick to watch it.

Dale

[GAHorn]

Looking at the damaged airplanes...versus the few intact ones properly-tied down....leads me to think again about the value of properly-designed, sturdy tie-downs compared to the many I see at fly in events which are totally unsecured or which are tied with not much more than shoe-strings and venetian-blind cords.

What a sad sight.

[jrenwick]

At breakfast this morning (a few of us Lake Elmo denizens breakfast together on Fridays) someone mentioned how sandy the soil is at Lakeville. That would present a challenge for many types of tie-down anchors. I daydreamed out loud that a duckbill earth anchor, such as these: http://foresightproducts.com/duckprod.html would probably work, but you'd have to carry some cable-cutters to cut them off below grade when you left. Lawnmowers don't like them at all! But there are some places, like northwestern Canada and Alaska, where the anchors we're used to placing in topsoil don't work so well. Could Lakeland be one of those?

I know, the winds there were extreme. But as a midwesterner, I've personally watched my J-3 survive 60-MPH or better winds and half-inch hail bullets while tied down by three of these: http://www.amazon.com/Midwest-Earth-Anc ... B000BO8VCY. I would never again recommend using these, because I've been able to pull them straight out of wet soil by hand -- I'm just saying the type of soil has a lot to do with how tie-downs work. What works at Oshkosh might not do the job at Lakeland!

[busav8or]

Hi all,

I'm here at Sun-n-Fun and was here during the storm. It was vicious to say the least! We hung out with the Whelen folks at their trailer and it was rocking for a few minutes. I talked to a gentleman after the storm who said his plane survived with the oft maligned "dog tie out" screw into the ground anchors, while other planes with different tiedowns didn't make it. I think it was largely a matter of luck in where your plane happened to be when the storm hit. I don't know if it was a tornado or not, but I sure as heck don't ever want to see another storm like that one! Because of the weather on Wednesday in NC we were forced to drive down instead of fly and on Thursday at noon, I was d@mn glad of it!!!

[flat country pilot]

I daydreamed out loud that a duckbill earth anchor, such as these: http://foresightproducts.com/duckprod.html would probably work, but you'd have to carry some cable-cutters to cut them off below grade when you left. Lawnmowers don't like them at all!

Instead of duckbills try these http://www.minntrapprod.com/catalog/ind ... 09_293_503 they have a retrieval boss that at least gives you a chance to remove them. Probably should carry the side cutter just in case.

In a storm this big and bad, concrete in the ground might not keep a plane tied down.

Bill

[Abe]

It's a shame what just took place at Sun-n-Fun and I feel for those folks who lost some beautiful aircraft. I agree with both busav8or

I think it was largely a matter of luck in where your plane happened to be when the storm hit.

and flat country

In a storm this big and bad, concrete in the ground might not keep a plane tied down.

But, this incident, like others in the past has brought tie downs to the fore front again. I'm going to share some of our testing info that involve several tie down systems that where tested in the same location on the same date and in the same soil type. Some of you may have seen this info on some of the other forums that I have posted it. This is not a sales pitch, but does include our tie downs as well as two other leading systems. Bear in mind what busav8or and flat country said above. Here is the link to our test results - http://www.abesaviation.com/pull_tests.asp

[ginbug92b]

Was just reading on the Av web site, the weather bureau confirmed that it was a tornado that hit the airport Thursday.

[blueldr]

If it really was a tornado that hit at Sun and Fun, I doubt that any kind of portable tie down would have precluded damages.
I've seen other pictures where a tornado bent the wings up at the lift strut/wing joint where the airplane was tied down with chains to an immovable anchor.