3 aircraft damaged yesterday

[Hairyplane]

A violent thunderstorm ripped through here yesterday. It appears that it claimed 3 parked Austers at Shotteswell, Banbury - all described as 'write-offs'.

A sad day for the owners...

HP

[Flyin'Dutch']

I am not surprised that some serious damage was done. I drove from home to Wellesbourne and set off in calm conditions but by the time we got near the M40 near Wellesbourn the weather was foul with very strong winds.

Sorry to read that about the aeroplanes.

FD

[LowNSlow]

Hairy lucky for me that I moved mine from there a few weeks ago. I'm sure Chris will rebuild his fleet but he'll have to go a fair way to find such a nice Autocrat.

[david viewing]

Very Sad about the planes.

It came through here (2mi N of Daventry town) about 17:20 and did a lot of damage in the village. Here's my front lawn:

http://www.viewing.com/DSCF0332_sm.jpg .

The rest of the tree is in the next field.

The trees appear to have sheared off in rotation, all about 6 or 8 ft above the ground, maybe suggesting a twister. My neighbour was there but said you could see nothing outside the window, just hear the terrific noise.

Is anyone re-considering their tie-down policy? It's regarded as chicken by a lot of instructor types to tie down in the UK, but with conditions like this....

Mind you, the skewer type would just uncoil and pop out of the ground and concrete blocks would behave like boleros. Only the tensioned steel cables favoured in the US would be any real use, IMHO.

[Pronto]

My club used to tie down aircraft to concrete blocks, a practice which ended a few years ago when they moved to the opposite side of the airfield where the aircraft could be parked in a more sheltered location.

I wonder about the utility of screw-in type tie-downs due to the risk of them pulling straight out if the ground isn't (to borrow the maritime term) good holding ground. The other aspect is, of course, that no matter how strong the ground anchor, you are reliant on the anchor points on the aircraft holding.

I hear (and I'm sorry to say that I can't remember where I heard of it) that in South Africa they strap timber posts to the top of the wings. These destroy the lift. Presumably they still have to tie the aircraft down, if only to prevent its brakes being overridden and the aircraft rolling into something.

[Brooklands]

I'm sorry to hear about the damage to the aircraft.

I'm somewhat surprised by David's remarks about instructors thinking its chicken to tie down 'planes. After all if the aircraft are damaged in strong winds there's nothing for them to instruct in, and they won't get paid.

At the airfield I fly from (Wycombe) the tie-down rings are actually 'built-in' to the apron, and all club aircraft parked on the apron overnight are tied down (its one of the Duty Instructor's jobs to make sure its done). If storm force winds are forecast then they always try to get as many aircraft into the hangers as possible.

There was a report on the local TV news last night that a mini-tornado had been reported in the vicinity of Northampton, so I wouldn't be surprised if something similar had blown David's tree down.

Brooklands

[Vick Van Guard]

This is particuarly sad news for Auster fans. :(

L n S
Am I correct in thinking it was Chris's Aiglet, Autocar and Autocrat that was damaged or did you aquire the Aiglet ?

[BEagle]

Quite how the weather-guessers missed the violence of the storms, I don't know. Looking to the west of BEagle Towers late yesterday afternoon I have never seen scud cloud rolling with such energy - and it looked for al the world as though a revolving storm was building. As it all tracked NNE it was certainly on the way towards Banbury.....

The danger to aviation was obvious - how does the Met Office keep getting it so wrong?

Hope that the Austers will soon be repaired - sorry to hear of your disaster.

[Mike Cross]

Tie-downs at Popham are 3 foot lengths of angle iron hammered into the ground at an angle. I doubt that they would have been effective if the thing that hit David's tree hit us.

We carry the screw-in ones simply for temporary use.

[Whirlybird]

Here in the wilds of North Wales we knew nothing about any storms...until I heard from the garage that was supposed to be fitting a new clutch on my car today that Ford wasn't delivering any parts anywhere due to all the damage around Daventry. :(

[ShyTorque]

We were airborne behind the storm, watching it on the wx radar. It seemed to be about 10 miles across and was quite sharply defined. Thankfully it didn't affect our flight as it had gone through our destination half an hour or so earlier. There was a great trail of fractostratus behind it and we could easily identify the path it had taken. I had commented to my colleague earlier in the day how tropical the air felt; it was extremely humid and no better in flight so I wasn't really surprised to see such a big cell. It was thankfully quite isolated.

Terrible shame about the Austers. One of my favourite aircraft types.

[LowNSlow]

Vick VG Chris sold the Aiglet and bought his Mark 6 back. It was a lovely aeroplane. I haven't been able to speak to him yet. I'll post when I find out more.

[Man-on-the-fence]

From EwenT on the Flypaper forum

Hi all

I have just received this mail from a friend who was at Shotteswell today;

Quote:
*** G-ASDL Terrier & G-ARKG Autocar,both ripped from their picketing,here is a picture that I took today,the Terrier is a write off the Autocar G-ARKG will need a new starboard wing and a lot of inspection,the tornado ripped across Northampton,Banbury and straight through Shotteswell,the aircraft apparently live outside and must have cratwheeled more than once judging by the damage,I have never seen a tail twist like that ! please promise me that you will never ever leave your ***** outside to the elements.


I will not post the picture (not my copyright) of 'DL but believe me it is not a pretty sight - the fuselage is twisted and both wings broken (snapped).

All very sad.

[BoeingMEL]

Remember flying into and out of Shotteswell over 30 years ago.... even helped instructing for the parachute club (WASPS). Met Freddy years later working as a sim instructor for Cabair at Elstree. Is dear Freddy still with us? bm

[AusterDoctor]

Just to put the record straight I am the owner of one of the two Austers involved in the storm damage. To those of you who have posted your condolences thank you, however to Hairyplane I would say that it would have been good manners to check with the owners that they did not mind before posting the event on PPrune. Those of us affected are all pretty upset about it (I really loved my Autocar and if it is written off it will be hard to replace as there are very few left in this country) and could have done without a weekend of phone calls from people asking about it and a lot of rubberneckers calling in to the strip - it just goes to rub it all in a bit further. I also would have liked to be able to contact my insurers about the matter BEFORE it appeared on Pprune. Yes I know Pprune is an open forum but a bit of consideration towards a fellow strip member would not have gone amiss.

[Hairyplane]

Hi Ad,

So you really aren't going to buy me that beer after all?!

I have already expressed my condolences to you. At least the thing was insured. I also believed from you that you had contacted your insurers before I posted?

There are many pilots around - less responsible than you and I, who don't insure their aircraft. My personal view, expressed in writing in Pilot Magazine a while back, is that along with cars, 'no insurance' should be criminalised.

So, instead of exploiting a wierd anomaly, I would urge all those who have no insurance to consider the consequences of an uninsured loss, especially if it involves injury.

FInally Ad, if you are stuck and need a whizzer for a trip you cannot now make as a consequence of the accident, let me know.

HP