GA @ Nadi airport after cyclone Evan came to town

[propelled]

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j346/braddallan/evan10_zps0c737b2d.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j346/braddallan/evan7_zpsd5ac2baa.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j346/braddallan/evan6_zps3419010e.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j346/braddallan/evan5_zpsc18c067e.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j346/braddallan/evan4_zps51b28b62.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j346/braddallan/evan3_zpsb84ab36c.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j346/braddallan/evan2_zps6792d928.jpg

thanks to my friend David D @ hibiscus air (c337)for the pics..

[VH-XXX]

Very sad.

The winglets on the Caravan are an interesting addition.

[Trojan1981]

Ouch! :{

But the resident Bandit still looks ok; built like the proverbial :ok:

[empacher48]

Oh dear, sad to see so much damage!

Are sure the skydive 182 didn't run out of fuel again? Or taxi over the tie down drum?

[propelled]

yeh sure does look like massive winglets on the caravan!
sad to see such destruction, especially the sea plane and caravan.. there wasn't more room in the hangars for them i guess.
Caravan operator (air wakaya) is after something to lease - any ideas?

[propelled]

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j346/braddallan/evan1_zps0377aa84.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j346/braddallan/evan9_zps95aedc14.jpg
http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j346/braddallan/evan8_zpsef9e8d86.jpg

[iPahlot]

Oh no, that poor Beaver!!! :{

Did they not fill the floats with water to try to weigh it down some more, or was the wind that powerful that it launched it despite the weight?

So sad to see... :(

[Piano Man]

I think I want to cry seeing that beaver :{

[Ixixly]

iPahlot, someone is probably giving themselves an almighty facepalm if they didn't fill the floats.... It certainly wouldn't have occurred to me!!

I just don't entirely understand how the wing tips do that on the Caravan, incredible to see...

Hope the Insurers come through without too much hassle for them and all the boys and girls are back up in short order!!

[puff]

Where did they put the Pacific Sun fleet of ATRs and Twotters? Any idea with the threat map the way it was that more of the fleet wasn't moved to Suva?

Caravan and the beaver certainly the biggest $$ issues, can you replace wings on a C208? Did the chopper operators fare ok ?

[Lasiorhinus]

Very sad to see such destruction.

The Caravan intrigues me. I'm imagining it was tied down very strongly, yet the wind generated enough lift over the wings to rip them upward - the tiedowns (and possibly the struts also) were enough to keep the inboard sections attached.

[baron_beeza]

The Caravan go on tippy-toes in a wind. They rock about and the wheels slowly work their way inwards until the aircraft falls onto a wingtip.
It would have alternated banging wingtips into the tarmac, as the chains seemed to have been too light.

Much destruction alright and too much work to be repaired locally.

[spinex]

Sad to see, but rather intriguing all the same. The difference between the Caravan and the C337 is one that fascinates me, I'd previously heard about using sandbags on the wings to act as spoilers, certainly appears as if they may have done the trick here.

Also is the Beaver GWW? If so I've got a previous pic of it in apparently worse shape, being fished out of the water. If the money's there I'm guessing we may yet see it resurrected once again.

[The Green Goblin]

Lasiorhinus is onto it.

Which is exactly why I used to instruct other Pilots not to tie an aeroplane down like they were securing a load on a truck.

Leave a little slack in the rope so that the airframe can fly without it 'flying away (nor leaving the ground).

The airframe can handle cyclonic winds on the nose, that's what it experiences in flight.

It can't handle generating all that lift whilst it is strapped to the ground. The wing wants to fly, the airframe is glued to the ground. One will give, and that is the outboard sections of the wings.

Of course to mitigate this, a hanger or an evacuation is desirable. Sad to see these poor birds grounded for good.

[NGsim]

The beaver sure is GWW and yep you're right, she has had her moments of looking worse than that in the past!!!
Thinking of everyone back there and hope the clean up goes ok.

[Typhoon650]

I always thought strapping large chunks of timber to the upper surfaces of an aircraft wing would be a good idea. Would add weight and break the flow over the wing.

[baron_beeza]

There is a lot going on during a storm and this one was much more powerful than they expected.
Windblown debris does a lot of damage also so leaving an aircraft parked in an exposed area is subjecting it to risk.

I have worked on Caravans and seen one tip onto it's wingtip during high winds.
These machines were absolutely hammered.
Many guys make the mistake of tying the tail down, all that does is snap the fuselage. Getting the nose wheel tied down firmly so it cannot lift is the trick. The machine has to allowed to weather cock so they have used weights for the wings. The weights were too light for the job on this occasion and I think it has gone down onto the tips. The angle the tips are bent at would suggest that.

If it were my aircraft and we had sufficient warning I would even look at getting the wings off. On something like a Tomahawk it can be done in about 3 hours. A Cherokee possibly about 5 hours. The smaller Cessna would be in between.

It all comes down to the options, expected gusts and available shelter.

Did many aircraft escape unscathed ?

[solowflyer]

Is good idea not to lash the wings down tight. Have seen it befor where the tyre has gone flat over night ad droped a wing causing a lot of downward strain on the opposite wing. When yasi came through one of the local ag operators had an ag wagon tied down outside with a hopper full of water. It survived ok.

[travelator]

No expert but I can't see any scuffs or dents on the lower surface of those wingtips nor any damage on the ground that would suggest contact. Those chains look pretty tight as well.

[baron_beeza]

Yeah, you may be right. It does look like the wind has got under the wing at some point and lifted it. That would be just force though and not necessarily lift induced.

The chains appear loosened in the photos but that may even be after the machine has been moved. I was just saying that of the aircraft that fall over easily the Trislander would be first and the Caravan well up there also.
I had both types fall over on my companies.
They were in winds of up to 80 Kts.

It is a tough call bracing for a cyclone. I have worked at those hangars in the photos along with several in Darwin and have not yet had to prepare for storms or cyclones.

In NZ I would be evacuating the aircraft, with microclimates there is bound to be an unaffected area somewhere no too far away.

I have landed a Tomahawk in gale force winds and while the aircraft was fine, even with ground handling, it was the rubbish flying about in the air that was the concern. Even mooring in the lee of a building was not a guarantee of safety.


For the normal southerly blows in exposed locations I would be concentrating on getting the nose wheel tied to the ground as securely as possible. As others had mentioned I would never tighten the wing tie-downs either.

I have bought a storm wrecked aircraft in the past and have also had to organise repairs to two 146's that had a coming together at Luton.

Aircraft just don't handle strong winds very well.

[Howard Hughes]

The dihedral on the Caravan makes it look a touch Russian!:}