windy thursday
 

what are you lot on about.... try 130/20G40 in a sandstorm, dodging RPGs and small arms at night, in a Seneca, into Basra... (well they didnt tell me it was that bad when i took the job) even Centreline wouldnt put you through that.

Wise advice - bless 'em.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b2...s_herts416.jpg

It took me just over 5 hours to get home last night (the journey usually takes less than an hour). On this occassion, however, I didnt think that I could have got home quicker if I had flown!

In our office we were trying to see who were the worst affected by it all - and I thought my "five hour" journey would have been it - but a colleague took eight hours to get home, and and another four people gave up and stayed in B&Bs and hotels for the night.

Excellent work by all those pilots who managed to get those big birds down on the ground safely - the news footage showed that it was really very challenging indeed. I will never moan about a crosswind again.

One of the aircraft damaged at OB is one of mine!

Will post some pix tomorrow once I've been to see it.

Stik

Sorry to hear about that Stik...

I hope its not too "unwell".

Pity the guys at St Michael's microlight strip (near Preston, Lancs) where their steel frame hangar collapsed yesterday. The place looks like a scrap yard:

http://nwmac.our-info.org/index.php?...orm%20Jan%2007

:eek:

Sorry to hear that Stik, I just saw the pictures in the paper.

I've just helped fish a glider out of a plowed field at our airfield. It looks like a micro burst or mini-tornado picked one glider trailer out of a row of four and literally tore it apart. The other trailers parked only a few feet away were untouched and hadn't even moved an inch!

Thanks everyone. It was damaged seriously and we are now negotiating with loss adjusters a mutually beneficial outcome. It could have been worse, it could have been the Pitts:E :E

There are 3 aeroplanes that look really sad in the hangar today, I don't have the heart to post pix!:ooh:

Stik

I saw the picture of the flying clubs cherokee minus roof. very sad looking. Best of luck getting airborne again, Sticknruda. JC

Yeah - G-NINB weas one of my "mounts" while I'm doing my PPL - very sorry to hear of the dame to youir aircraft. This is the story from the Eastern Daily Press:

Pilots said yesterday that up to £350,000 of damage had been done when this week's gales ripped the roof off a hangar and destroyed some of the aircraft inside.

Three planes have been written off and another six badly damaged after gusts of about 80-90mph ripped into the hangar at Old Buckenham airfield, near Attleborough, on Thursday.

Only three planes escaped unscathed after the metallic doors of the hangar were sucked by the wind into the hangar itself, causing huge damage to the planes in their way.

Yesterday the three mangled planes had been left in the debris-littered hangar, propellers twisted off and wings bent out of all recognition.

The managing director of the airfield, Paul Layzell, described the scenes of devastation he encountered on returning to the airbase when the storm died down as similar to the pictures he had seen of hurricanes battering Florida.

He said: “At about 11.30am on Thursday there was the most massive gust of wind that I have ever experienced, it must have been about 80 or 90mph and just like a hurricane.

“It all happened in seconds. My son William and I were driving around the airfield in our car, inspecting the hangars and we were literally by the side of it as the roof came off, no more than 10 or 12 feet away.

“We saw the roof lift off and the doors flying around the hangar like they were as light as paper clips. There would have been serious trouble if anyone had been in there but fortunately no one was injured.

“But if you look at some of the planes now, they're like convertibles.”


This aerial picture shows the badly damaged roof of the aircraft hangar at Old Buckenham Airfield.
Four fire crews spent the afternoon helping to make the hangar safe and yesterday airfield staff wheeled the undamaged and slightly-damaged planes from away from the precarious remains of the roof.

The three planes destroyed include a Rockwell Commander 114 owned by a prominent businessman living in Little Cressingham, near Thetford, and a Mooney M20K registered to an owner in Lancing, near Brighton.

A 1973 Piper owned by the Old Buckenham Flying School was also destroyed and Mr Layzell said the school will remain closed for the moment. The airfield will reopen after the weekend.

Despite many insurance companies refusing to pay out for storm damage, claiming it was an act of God, Mr Layzell said an insurance assessor had visited the airfield yesterday and had said that in this case they were still covered.

Bae146
 

My CFI was listening to gatwick approach and a 146 pilot reported a wind on the ILS as 108kts. It was roughly 2000'. (at 270 degrees)