Florida aircraft owners w/outdoor tiedowns.

francisco collazos

francisco collazos

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Just wondering what aircraft owners that live here in Florida with planes that are tied down outside when a hurricane is coming through? Do you move the planes or tie them down extra sturdy?
 
If you can, move the plane. Usually your insurance covers some of the cost to move. Where to move can be a challenge. These storms are unpredictable.

If you can't move it, get additional ropes to tie down with.
 
I have seen planes with sand bags on the wings to help break the air flow over the wings.

I am not from a hurricane area so I don't know if it helps or not.
 
I've evacuated my aircraft even though it's in a hangar. I figure if it's that bad, I want out of town along with it. Insurance company paid expenses for the fuel and hotel.
 
francisco collazos said:
Just wondering what aircraft owners that live here in Florida with planes that are tied down outside when a hurricane is coming through? Do you move the planes or tie them down extra sturdy?
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There's only one sure answer: move the aircraft. If you can't there are a number of variables that come into to play based on your location in reference to storm surge, wind potential, and storm category. So if you can't move the aircraft do your best to protect it with what you have.
 
Many FBOs either require it to be moved or stored in a hangar.
 
Seems like you could evac with your plane to somewhere that isn't getting hit by a storm?
 
Best is to build relationships with the FBO and try to wedge into the corner of a corporate hangar or find an empty personal one. The line guys can usually play Tetris with wings and tails and double the aircraft that will fit in a structure.

Dodging hurricanes can be tricky. For one, the tracks are unreliable. I have gone to bed thinking we were going to get a direct hit, and woke up the next morning to see it missed us by 100 miles.

There is also the opportunity window. Weather sometimes closes that window before you have enough information to make a decision and take action. Hurricanes have outer bands of nasty weather that can make a departure unsafe. You see that all the time with boats in Florida. By the time the owners realize they need to GTFO, there are 6 foot swells pounding the coast.

Happens to the best of us:

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midcap said:
Seems like you could evac with your plane to somewhere that isn't getting hit by a storm?
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Easier said than done. At my home field, over a dozen planes were destroyed by Michael. About half were undergoing maintenance and the other half had moved here from where the storm was “supposed” to hit.
 
Zeldman said:
I have seen planes with sand bags on the wings to help break the air flow over the wings.

I am not from a hurricane area so I don't know if it helps or not.
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Yes it does. Think about it, frost is enough to disrupt the airfoil to cause issues.

A lot of times if you see assembled gilders tied down, they have 2x4s on the wings for the same purpose.
 
Stewartb said:
What was the windspeed that destroyed these airplanes?
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To be fair, the "wind" didn't destroy the airplanes. The hangars falling on them did. ;)

Although there were three airplanes on tie-downs (all destroyed).

It was a Cat 5 hurricane, so 137kts (sustained). Can't tell you what they were at the airport as the weather equipment departed long before that.
 
Been in Florida my entire life. I have 2 planes - one in a hangar and the other tied down outside. Thankfully away from the coast but I have seen first hand the meandering that a hurricane can do so unless you take it out of state then you really are not safe anywhere.
 
note that being in a hangar isn't necessarily a guarantee of protection. A friend's cherokee suffered significant damage when inside a large hangar while airplanes outside didn't - go figure. Hurricane Bob (no relation) ripped open the side of the hangar and a toolchest was blown into the side of the plane. Admittedly a freak accident.
 
Now I'm curious. What is done in Tornado Alley? Less warning than a hurricane and much higher winds.

Anyone here that lives in that part of the world?
 
2-Bit Speed said:
What is done in Tornado Alley?
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We're too busy hiding in our basements. I certainly haven't heard of this.

Honestly tornado forecasting is not good enough to strategically move airplanes in advance. Some days we expect them and there are none - some days there's little chance and we get an outbreak. It's a whole different kind of storm altogether.

Edit: forgot the context of the thread. We do try to keep airplanes in hangars in advance of any severe weather. On XC's in the midwest, I try to plan in advance where I might get a shed or hangar before staying overnight.
 
Tornado damage is very concentrated. Like only a few hundred feet wide, unless you get a monster. It's big sky theory on the ground.
 
I live in the FL Panhandle and unfortunately the Warrior is on the ramp waiting for a T-hangar to become available. My plan is to fly north if we have one coming this way. I just took a look at my insurance policy from Old Republic (brokered by Assured Aerospace) and this is what it says regarding hurricane evacuations:

==========================
Hurricane Expense Coverage

If you have purchased Physical Damage Coverage and the U. S. National Weather service issues
a hurricane watch or warning for the area where your aircraft is principally based, and the aircraft is
relocated to avoid damage, we will pay reasonable costs incurred provided:

The aircraft is relocated to another airport which is at least 100 nautical miles away from its
principal base and not under a hurricane watch or warning.

Original documentation and receipts are furnished within 90 days from the warning or watch
date for all costs to be reimbursed.

Reasonable cost reimbursement will be limited to 50% of the direct operating expenses incurred for
fuel, hangar or tie down, and the cost of a ferry pilot meeting the requirements of the Pilot
Qualification Amendment.

The reimbursement is further limited to $1,000 per aircraft for any one hurricane and $1,000 per
aircraft per policy year.

The deductible will not apply.
 
Ed Haywood said:
Dodging hurricanes can be tricky. For one, the tracks are unreliable. I have gone to bed thinking we were going to get a direct hit, and woke up the next morning to see it missed us by 100 miles.
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Yep.
My sister in Panama City Beach went to bed with a #1 (predicted), but she woke up with a #5 (Michael). She had just moved to Florida 2 months prior. Fortunately, they built their new house and made sure it exceeded current hurricane codes so they just had a few shingles ripped off. But the whole city was traumatized for months/years.

A few years ago a hurricane (I forget which one) was headed north towards Miami and predicted to tear up the East coast of Florida. Many locals evacuated to the West coast of Florida, but overnight the hurricane shifted west and ripped up the West Coast and smacked Tampa, where most of my friends wound up. I stayed home and enjoyed the summer breezes.

If I were to evacuate, I would take the plane North out of Florida, but I have a fairly new T that is theoretically "hurricane resistant". We were fine during Matthew, but the local FBO main hangar was trashed.
 
This was the community hangar after Michael. There was usually one or two planes in it. On the day Michael hit, it had about six planes that had relocated here. I think some were from Pensacola.

I think the birddog was salvaged. It was owned by the Friends of Army Aviation up at Ft. Rucker. I don't know if they ever got it flying again.
 

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JOhnH said:
Yep.
My sister in Panama City Beach went to bed with a #1 (predicted), but she woke up with a #5 (Michael). She had just moved to Florida 2 months prior. Fortunately, they built their new house and made sure it exceeded current hurricane codes so they just had a few shingles ripped off. But the whole city was traumatized for months/years.

A few years ago a hurricane (I forget which one) was headed north towards Miami and predicted to tear up the East coast of Florida. Many locals evacuated to the West coast of Florida, but overnight the hurricane shifted west and ripped up the West Coast and smacked Tampa, where most of my friends wound up. I stayed home and enjoyed the summer breezes.

If I were to evacuate, I would take the plane North out of Florida, but I have a fairly new T that is theoretically "hurricane resistant". We were fine during Matthew, but the local FBO main hangar was trashed.
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I've been in Tampa for 20 years. Ridden out at least a dozen Cat I direct hits or near misses. The ones that cross from the east coast are non-events. Maybe lose a few trees due to soggy ground. Only real danger would be a storm that moved into the gulf and then button hooked back east. But weather patterns make that very unlikely.

Closest call was Charlie in 04. That was headed our way but a last minute change of a few degrees heading moved the landfall to Port Charlotte. The eye passed maybe 30 miles from my house, but by then it was just a Cat I.

Now if God rolled a perfect strike, the destruction would be biblical. A hurricane from the Gulf hitting St Pete at high tide with the right eyewall lined up on the mouth of the bay would push a wall of water up the bay. With nowhere to go, it would squirt into downtown Tampa like the nozzle on a hose. Disaster movie stuff.
 
Interesting, I didn't know about the insurance paying moving expenses. I guess it makes sense to pay for moving instead of for the damaged plane.
 
francisco collazos said:
Interesting, I didn't know about the insurance paying moving expenses. I guess it makes sense to pay for moving instead of for the damaged plane.
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Not all of them do. Read your policy. And you have to document that you moved it from a hurricane zone into a non-hurricane zone.
 
most of the models have it turning north at or before the DR.

It's the middle of September and we haven't even gotten to "F" yet. So that's the new definition of "above average" now. <LOL>
 
donjohnston said:
Easier said than done. At my home field, over a dozen planes were destroyed by Michael. About half were undergoing maintenance and the other half had moved here from where the storm was “supposed” to hit.
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?????

I get being in MX

But like fly away to Georgia
 
midcap said:
?????

I get being in MX

But like fly away to Georgia
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Lots of damage in Georgia from Michael. Bainbridge, GA lost aircraft. To really get clear, sometimes you have to get a couple hundred miles away.

And you need time. By the time Michael upgraded from a Cat 1 or 2 and it looked like we were going to get hit, there's no way I would have gone up in that stuff. And I had a wife, MIL who we had just picked up because they shut down the assisted living facility and our 100lb dog.

Leaving my wife to deal with just so I could fly my airplane to someplace safe was not something I was going to do. And keep in mind, it wasn't just an airplane. It's an airplane that spent 8 years building. And had only been flying for 3 years.
 
There's more to consider than just the plane.

I'll take my chances with my plane in a T-hangar. If I leave, I might not be able to return for a week or more, depending on damage to the area and airport closures. I want to be here to minimize damage to my home and to deter looters.

It's tougher if you're on an outdoor tie-down, but give some thought to the bigger picture before you decide to fly it out.
 
JOhnH said:
Climate Change! It can mean almost anything you want it too, as long as it's bad. Practically no hurricanes is quite a change.
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I remember after 2005 all the "experts" said that 2006 was going to be way worse, damage was going to be super extensive, more than 2005, and it was all climate change doom and gloom for Hurricane Season and it was going to be this and that and...

...not a single hurricane made landfall.
 
One hurricane that almost hooked back after entering the gulf in that kind of nightmare scenario was Irma in 2017. Some family moved inland from Tampa area to stay with other family in Lakeland only to get it direct. I thought for sure the house I just bought that year was going to flood or be damaged because it looked as if it could creep up to enter florida around St. Pete/Tampa at points in the forecasts. If I remember correctly it hit around Naples and went right up the middle of the state.


Ed Haywood said:
I've been in Tampa for 20 years. Ridden out at least a dozen Cat I direct hits or near misses. The ones that cross from the east coast are non-events. Maybe lose a few trees due to soggy ground. Only real danger would be a storm that moved into the gulf and then button hooked back east. But weather patterns make that very unlikely.

Closest call was Charlie in 04. That was headed our way but a last minute change of a few degrees heading moved the landfall to Port Charlotte. The eye passed maybe 30 miles from my house, but by then it was just a Cat I.

Now if God rolled a perfect strike, the destruction would be biblical. A hurricane from the Gulf hitting St Pete at high tide with the right eyewall lined up on the mouth of the bay would push a wall of water up the bay. With nowhere to go, it would squirt into downtown Tampa like the nozzle on a hose. Disaster movie stuff.
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Half Fast said:
There's more to consider than just the plane.
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Bingo!

It's always easy to sitting in the recliner and say you should do this or that. But when NWS upgrades that storm from a Cat 1 to a 4 overnight and the landfall isn't 100 miles away, priorities change.
 
Half Fast said:
There's more to consider than just the plane.

I'll take my chances with my plane in a T-hangar. If I leave, I might not be able to return for a week or more, depending on damage to the area and airport closures. I want to be here to minimize damage to my home and to deter looters.

It's tougher if you're on an outdoor tie-down, but give some thought to the bigger picture before you decide to fly it out.
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Screw that. Property can be replaced. About the last way I want to die is to drown trapped with a tree on my head, or shot in a gunfight by a looting meth head. Last time I evac'd in the plane, I got out of town with no headache while all of my peers in cars were stuck in huge traffic jams running out of gas. I also went further, and got back before they did, because there were still traffic jams and fuel shortages (power outages). Like a day sooner, and I was five times further inland than them.

That said, both of us are pretty much "safe" from a direct hit from heavy winds and flooding where we are. When I lived in Tampa proper at 8' MSL it was GTFO mode.
 
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JOhnH said:
First threat of the season. (so far it seems minor - - so far)
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I can't ever see those maps in the same way again.

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Salty said:
Property can be replaced.
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So can airplanes.

Our place is relatively safe from flooding, being on the ridge, and the house is built like a fort. We can ride out any storm in the basement safely. But a broken window or door, etc., can lead to more extensive damage if there’s no one around for a week to tend to them. We’ve weathered four ‘canes here so far.

And I haven’t yet figured out how to get SWMBO’s Thoroughbred into the Beech.
 
Half Fast said:
So can airplanes.

Our place is relatively safe from flooding, being on the ridge, and the house is built like a fort. We can ride out any storm in the basement safely. But a broken window or door, etc., can lead to more extensive damage if there’s no one around for a week to tend to them. We’ve weathered four ‘canes here so far.

And I haven’t yet figured out how to get SWMBO’s Thoroughbred into the Beech.
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Like I said, we aren't in a real danger zone, but if I were, I'd use the plane to evac myself and let the insurance pay the expenses for it. I'll sit up in NC sipping tea and watch the news until it's over. And I can get back in to deal with the aftermath far faster with the plane than I can by driving.
 
This was 2004. Each storm was 3 weeks apart. We live a little south of Haines City, so we got pounded that year. Charlie was the worst, but the other two were pretty rough, too. We lost power for a week or more with each one.

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