Wind Damages at Wiscasset, ME KIWI

[TangoWhiskey]

Jerry (Lawreston) asked me to post some pictures he was having trouble getting here on POA. I can put them directly in this thread, but have included them in a web album link simply to avoid having to click "attach" about 30 times.

Here's Jerry's story, then DJ's; the only text I've changed is adding links to the pictures on PicasaWeb. All pictures are credited to DJ Merrill of EAA 87.

I think Jerry has some other pictures to add on to this thread, that show how far some of the parts traveled.

Suffice it to say I'm glad mine was in my hangar. I was there the day after the wild storm -- had to take my cell phone and shaver to the hangar to get re-charged because "home" Georgetown was out of power from late Thursday
afternoon to late afternoon on Saturday.

JC

Hi all,

I took a few pictures of the airplanes damaged by last week's wind storm, and thought some of you might be interested:

http://picasaweb.google.com/troy.whistman/KiwiDamage#

Some minor damage to my plane, too:

http://picasaweb.google.com/troy.whistman/YankeeDamage#

I've been trying to piece together the events to figure out what kind of damage my plane might have.

I believe the wind was coming from the left, and slightly to the front of my plane. If 12 o clock is straight ahead as the plane is facing, best guess is the wind was coming from about 10 o clock.

The Searay was tied down to the left of my plane, which is the aircraft that got loose. A Cessna 150 was tied down behind, and to the left of my plane. A Cessna 170 (I think a 170, might be a 180 or similar) was tied down behind, and to the right of my plane.

It appears that the Searay hit the edge of the left plastic elevator tip on my aircraft. We know that something, probably the Searay, bent the trim tab on the rudder, and put a slight dent in the side of the rudder. We know that something caused the rear tie down ring to bend backwards significantly, and we are guessing that the Searay landed on the rear tie down rope causing it to tug on my plane really hard. This is a reasonably good guess considering that the Searay sheared the tail off of the Cessna 150 that was tied down behind me and to the left, and ultimately ended up on top of the Cessna 170 that was tied down behind me and to the right. It had to cross over my rear tie down rope in order to end up where it did. It is probably reasonable that there was a lot of force being applied in a rearward direction from that rear tie down rope given the sharp angle that the tie down ring is bent, and the two wing tie downs were being stressed pretty tightly as they were being held by the ropes tied in front of the wing. I am concerned about possible stresses in the wing structure, and the wing to fuselage attach points due to this significant rearward force being applied. It is entirely possible that there is internal damage that we do not know about yet.

-Dj

--
Dj Merrill - N1JOV
Glastar Sportsman 2+2 Builder #7118 N421DJ - http://deej.net/sportsman/
Grumman Yankee Driver N9870L - http://deej.net/yankee/

 

[Lawreston]

Thanks for converting the images, Troy. Below are two images of KIWI. Each is old as sin but if one looks at the maintenance hangar at the left of the photo with two hangars, the East wall of that hangar is where some of the plane parts "flew" to get wrapped between the "vacationing" front loader bucket and the hangar wall. Sad stuff.

HR Jerry Lawreston (pick one; same horse - different stalls)

 

[TangoWhiskey]

Sure glad your bird was in a hangar, Jerry.

 

[flyersfan31]

Ugh. That's brutal.

 

[Teller1900]

Wow Jerry, I'm glad your plane avoided the destruction, I think it's gone through enough repairs for one lifetime. I hope everything gets back to normal before too long. Sounds like northern New England has been shorted on snow this year, but still managed to have a rough winter anyways.

 

[Lawreston]

Hey, I thought of you tonight. My friend and I had just come onto the 'pike at Augusta, heading for Topsham, when I looked skyward and there was a bright light with strobe lights at left and right. You know where it was headed, not more than a few nm away.

WX-wise today -- fantastic, with bright sun and 5½ feet of new snow; just fabulous! Oh, the new snow was at Sugarloaf USA, Kingfield/Carrabassett Valley. And to those to whom that means nothing, think Olympic Gold Medalist(twice) Seth Wescott, and Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medalist Bode Miller. Carrabassett Valley Academy was their home turf, along with Sugarloaf. The skiing was terrific but we didn't have time to eat at The Rack, Seth Wescott's restaurant on the access road at Sugarloaf.
We waited and ate at Slate's in Hallowell.

HR