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Storm just hit SnF.

gnuse

gnuse

Well Known Member
A lot of damaged aircraft. RV's included. This just happen after 12pm.

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Not good-------

The value of a good set of tiedowns is illustrated vividly here.

Sorry to hear about this.
 
Oh this photo just makes me want to cry. So sorry to hear about this. Hope everyone's physically ok.
 
Anyone hurt?

Tampa WTSP 10 weather channel:

A hangar/building collapsed. 70 people inside trapped. Lots of damage.
 
The worst weather in the State today did just go over the airport. There was hail and tornadoes in the area not sure if it hit the airport. I saw it coming on the radar and tried to give friends I knew were there a heads up at 1130.


LEDGER STAFF REPORT

LAKELAND | The National Weather Service reported just after noon that a trained weather spotter has seen a tornado near Lake Wales and heading east toward Lake Kissimmee.
More Information:

At 12:25 p.m., the Weather Service reported the tornado was near Lake Wales and moving east at 50 mph.

The twister was heading east, according to the Weather Service, which has issued a tornado warning for all of central Polk County, including Bartow and Lake Wales. It last until 12:45 p.m.

Bay News 9 at 12:20 p.m. was reporting gusts of 75 mph.

There were reports at 12:15 p.m. of power, internet and telephone outages across Lakeland and other areas in western Polk.

Earlier, there were reports of a tornado in North Lakeland, particularly in the Kathleen, Gibsonia and Polk City areas, according to the National Weather Service.

Polk County Sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilder said a patrol sergeant scouring the area of Kathleen and Gibsonia reported no signs of damage and said that none had been reported as of 9:45 a.m. to either the Sheriff's Office or to county emergency personnel.

Polk County was still under a tornado warning this morning, but a tornado watch has been lifted, according to the National Weather Service.

Terri Smith, a spokeswoman with Lakeland police, said Polk County Emergency Management received numerous reports of a tornado touching down near Gibsonia, about seven miles north of Lakeland.

The tornado moved east about 40 mph at 9:30 a.m., Smith said.

Another storm is moving in from the west coast, however.

About 15 public schools north of I-4 were on high alert, according to Greg Bondurant, director of Safe Schools for the school district.

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Tie downs

Mike S said:
Not good-------

The value of a good set of tiedowns is illustrated vividly here.

Sorry to hear about this.
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Sorry Mike but I spent 100 bucks on The Claw tie down package last night, and double tied down my plane. It spun around. And is substantially damaged!
 
jthocker said:
Sorry Mike but I spent 100 bucks on The Claw tie down package last night, and double tied down my plane. It spun around. And is substantially damaged!
Click to expand...

Jon, very sorry to hear that, do you think they did any good at all???
 
tornado

Just heard this on national news. So sad to see. Thoughts and prayers.........



Doug, Seattle
(lots of rain here, no tornados)
 
Just got an email with a photo of my buddy's RV pretty much totalled :( it breaks my heart to see it.. I still can't believe my eyes
 
Just heard from Al Jesmer with Precision Airmotive. He said the carnage missed them by 200ft. Wrecked airplanes everywhere. He's going to send me some pictures.
 
Arrival notices

Let us know if there are arrival delays....we have plans to be there after the show this afternoon ( if there is one)..:(
 
Mike S said:
Not good-------

The value of a good set of tiedowns is illustrated vividly here.

Sorry to hear about this.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, there is a limit to what tiedowns can do......especially in wet sand.....they aren't microburst or tornado-proof.

Hoping nobody was injured...
 
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Wesael said:
Let us know if there are arrival delays....we have plans to be there after the show this afternoon ( if there is one)..:(
Click to expand...

I think the show will be probably be canceled

There are manufactures that lost their entire fleet. This is really, really, bad.

That first picture has a Zenith sitting upside-down on an Eclipse Jet!
 
Sam Buchanan said:
Unfortunately, there is a limit to what tiedowns can do...........they aren't microburst or tornado-proof.

Hoping nobody was injured...
Click to expand...

True Sam, but they are better than none at all-------if you cant prevent damage, you might be able to mitigate it.

Insurance claim probably asks about being tied down............
 
Lockwood lost all 3 of their Air Cams. Zenith lost most of their planes. Maule lost 2. Aviat lost a Husky (totalled) and had damage to at least three others. Saw at least one Citabria on top of another plane. Several planes in the field parking were upside down. An Air Camper was stack on and wrapped around a Pietenpol.

We'll see what they do in the morning. My partner saw what flipped them, and it looked like a small rain-wrapped tornado or a very strong gust-nado. I watched his cell phone video, and it looked like a tornado to me.

As it was coming in, the sky turned dark green just before it hit. I was in one of the exhibit hangars, and the roof was flexing until they closed the doors.

Dean Wilkinson
CTO, AeroLEDs LLC
 
1) Sounds like no people were injured which is great.

2) The yucky weather that kept perhaps hundreds of planes from arriving actually prevented far more aircraft damage. I counted about eight in the few pictures I saw. That number may have been in the hundreds had the airfield been at normal attendance.

If anyone from the area around Colorado needs help getting home if your aircraft was damaged, I may be able to help. My local commercial airport is Colorado Springs (KCOS)

My phone is 719-502 seven three one five
 
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I'm just sick.

I'm not sure what I can do to help from Nebraska, but I can be down there in the -10 to ferry people back home if needed, or I can bring down a truck and trailer.

Glad no one was seriously hurt. I am just SICK about the loss of aircraft.
 
weather

I just talked to a friend who is at S&F. He says people are being told to evacuate tents and campers and see "hardenend shelter", another wave is due at 2:15 which is 1 minute ago.

Info re: second wave is here:

http://weather.weatherbug.com/weath...s.html?zcode=z6286&region=8&region_name=NorthAmerica&country=US&country_name=USA&state_code=FL&state_name=Florida&zip=33801&city_name=Lakeland&stat=LKWHL&story=11963

If you are there and need shelter, I can put up some people in Orlando. Also have shelter available on the west coast of Florida in Treasure Island. PM me if you need shelter.
 
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If anyone can think of a way I can help from KS, please let me know. I'll also be in Bentonville, AR this weekend. Happy to do whatever I can, wish I was closer to do more.
 
Dont know what I can do--

from South Carolina---but able and willing to help. No Plane and no license, but a big heart.
Tom
 
i am only a few hours north by truck and 1.5 by air. if anyone needs anything please call me or pm me, truck trailer tools you name it!! we WILL get you home !!! 904-652-40twosix best of luck and blue skys to all !!!!
 
No major injuries ...... so far.

High winds from today's storms damaged a Lakeland Police Department hanger at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport.

Twelve to 15 police officers were inside when some beams fell, but there were no reports of injuries, police Sgt. Terri Smith said.

There are also reports of tents collapsing at the Sun 'n Fun fly-in, which is happening this week at the airport.

So far, no serious injuries are being reported, but there are reports of people with cuts and bruises, Smith said.

There are no reports of missing people, she said.

An undetermined number of airplanes suffered damage, including ones that had flipped in the high winds caused by today's storms.

??We do have another storm coming. We did get reports that the recent storm was said to have traveled right down the runway. We have about 40 planes affected, really mangled or upside down. There is significant damage," said James Bernegger, director of corporate marketing and communications for Sun 'n Fun.

All events for today are canceled.
 
Carol and I are planning on coming down in the RV-10 on Saturday for the day only. We will have 2 empty seats for the trip back if someone needs a ride back to Atlanta.
Call my cell 404-307-5133.

Vic
 
Available help

Diesel truck, 16' flatbed trailer, chain fall, tools.......

If you need help, I am 3 hours North, post here with contact info.
 
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We are in Texas but we are happy to help in anyway we can!

I have an employee at Sun N Fun right now. He has seen lots of damage to every aircraft type on the field. Tiedowns probably wouldnt have helped much as the rain was so severe and the grass areas so flooded.

My heart goes out to all affected by this storm! Its aweful seeing the pictures of destroyed aircraft, I cant imagine what it looks like in person.

While an event like this is unfolding, why must the news media fabricate a story of a hangar colapse and 70 injured and all the other crap? What ever happened to just reporting what happened, not what would make a sensational story?

Anyway like I said, we are willing to help anyway we can.
 
To the guys that got their planes beat up or destroyed, I'm just sick for you. If anyone needs to bail out to South Florida, my cell is 954-643-7686 I'll pick you up anywhere south of Palm Beach, recommend Pompano. I'm watching the weather channel right now, what's coming in from the west ain't stellar.
 
If there is a way for me to help here in East TN, please let me know...

I am in shock for those that have suffered damage!
 
Awful...just awful.

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

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This is unbelievable...:(:(
 
Van's Staff OK...

A big storm, possibly including a tornado, slammed into the Lakeland
airport about noon today and did significant damage to many aircraft and buildings.

We have had several calls inquiring about our people. We appreciate the
concern and are happy to say we have been in contact with our crew at Sun N Fun (Scott Risan, Daryl Sahnow, Mitch Lock, Mike Seager, Gus Funnell, and Van) and they assure us they are unharmed. RV-10/N220RV and RV-7/N477RV were at the booth when the storm hit. The wingtip on the RV-7 has a small crack.
RV-12/N912VA (New Blue) was over at Plant City and was unharmed.

Thanks everyone for your concern. Please also let us know how we can help you.
 
Homebuilt Camping area

I just got off the phone with Pat Lee (RV-7), who is in homebuilt camping with Dave Vanderbit (RV-4). Their airplanes are unharmed and they are fine...just their tents blown down. Pat says there are about 20 experimentals there in "HBC". Three are upside down and some others damaged by flying debris. The RV next to his airplane was turned around, but OK.

One experimental, located in another area, still had the wing tiedowns still attached to the ground, but the wings were collapsed and the fuselage separated...not an RV.
 
Wow... This SnF will definitely be remembered for a long time. Absolutely tragic :-( Glad to hear everyone is okay. Fixing aluminum is much better than fixing broken bones...
 
Help/Transportation Available from ZPH

At around 11:30 and encouraged by light rain, I decided to depart SnF and head home (by car). The green clouds described earlier were ominous and from previous experience here, small tornados were iminent. I turned west onto I-4 at about 12:00pm and all **** broke loose. Traffic was essentailly a standstill I was VERY concerned about friends exhibiting and others in the campground. About 45 minutes later, I got a call from good friend Russ Lepre describing the scene. Russ was working the Zenith display with the group from Mexico MO. They lost their demo plane (the yellow and blue 750 in the first photo) and another builder was displaying the 801 that is standing on a wingtip. The Can Am's from Lockwood nextdoor were a tangled mess. Breaks your heart to hear about - even worse to see the photo. This just scratches the surface of the damage.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.

There is a large contingent of RV builders as well as other homebuilts at KZPH just a few miles northwest of LAL. If anybody needs a hand in the form of tools, manpower or a ride, let me know. There is a lot of help nearby.
 
fl-mike said:
http://www.warbirdradio.com/2011/03/breaking-news-massive-storm-strikes-sun-n-fun/

Jon and others,

I think I can speak for the other FL RV'rs when I say we are at your disposal.
Anything you need: tools, parts, assistance, etc.

941-356-one three one eight

man this sucks.
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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.
 
It might be easier to borrow someone's unflying but built wing...anyone got one ready to hang?
 
From an AOPA Article just published...

http://www.aopa.org/sunnfun/2011/110331sun-n-fun_closed_violent_storm_destroys_many_aircraft.html

"On the flight line, many homebuilt aircraft, which their owners had devoted thousands of hours building, were tossed like dry leaves. Tad ?Stripes? Sargent of Charlotte, N.C., saw the RV-7A that he had spent two-and-a-half years building tossed aside. It tumbled about 50 yards before coming to rest upside down.

?I had a lot of love in that airplane, and my 14-year-old son helped me build it,? he said. ?But it?s only an airplane and I?m so glad that no one was hurt.? Sargent is a member of TEAM RV, a formation flying group that brought a dozen airplanes to perform at Sun ?n Fun. In a display of the random nature of the destruction, other airplanes parked nearby were untouched."
 
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