many of you may have heard we have had earthquakes the past three days here in OK, which is far from normal. largest recorded in OK history two days ago. it has some people here on edge. well to add to it, we had severe thunderstorms and tornadoes last night. there are people here now thinking it is the end of time, which seems amusing for a couple of minor events in weather/mother nature. NO, i am not one of these people.

Well at the moment, I am far from am amused. I just received an email from the hangar manager at my home base airport, KOUN (home of the OU Sooners), stating a tornado or wind shier or something hit the airport last night around 11pm causing significant damage to property and airplanes. They said they were evaluating the situation and asked that we stay area from the airport till the ramp was safe and clear. So I call the lady. She went to my hangar and informed me I was one of the lucky ones and I did not have a hangar door on top of my plane. some planes were blown all over the ramp. She told me my hangar was damaged though, and she was not sure if there was damage to my plane. She just said you are one of the luckier ones. I told her I wanted to come down there, and she said they have security people at the ramp and gates are closed. However, when I get off work I can call and be escorted to my hangar. There is debris everywhere.

So much for going for a flight tonight to test out my nav and VOR indicator. oh well.

Hurry, everyone go grab their tin foil hats!

Hope the C172TW is unharmed, looks like you might be going hunting?

Hope your bird is OK!!!

can't go out there till 7:15am to check for damage? Hopefully I can sleep tonight.

I will take pics in the morning. it was on the news tonight at 6, but I didn't see it. When it comes online I will post a link.

This sucks. I may just be hunting this weekend instead of flying.

Best of luck - hope your airplane got through unscathed.

Hearing about OUN brings back memories. Got my private ticket out of David J. Perry and my instrument rating at Westheimer when I was at OU (early/mid 80's). Great place to fly. Had a great independent instructor - old hand named Bob Huff. Really made me work for it.

That Oklahoma wind sure can blow! Again, I hope your airplane survived (and that the damage to others' wasn't as bad as it sounded).

Regards,
--Tony

PS - I envy you the hunting too. Got a lifetime OK hunting license, and make an annual trip down to the home place near big Mac for whitetails. But haven't made it for the last two years (family started growing too fast). Good luck!

PS2 - After learning to fly in OK then moving to the Pacific Northwest, you realize that most folks aren't used to real winds or real turbulence like you've got. Then again, we've got pretty real icing up here, so I guess it's a wash...

Was safe from the wind (but I did put the pins in the hanger door) but so worried after the Saturday quake that I drove to Riverside (KRVS) to make sure all the prized possessions my hanger landlord has hanging from the rafters was indeed still hanging and not impaled in my wing.

Oldcrowe: I fly at KRVS often. I have several friends there, and did my private there back in 2006. Unfortunately, KOUN was not as lucky as KRVS. We had what was called a Bow echo or Bow line, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_echo, hit our airport 11pm Monday night. It is very similar to winds of a tornado. it tore up hangars like crazy, and tossed debris around a lot.

I went to the airport this morning to see if I had any damage. I would have to say I was lucky. the airplane does have some minor damage to the right wingtip and possibly other areas (not a lot of light to see) from debris but nothing a little duct tape and spray paint can't fix. just kidding. my insurance agent is coming in a couple days and it will all be fixed at no expense to me. I didn't see anything that would ground the airplane though. For the most part, it missed my airplane by inches.

However my hangar is destroyed, and the plane on the other side of my hangar wall had some serious damage and was thrown through it's front door. It was a bad sight this morning. Most airplanes were severely damage. I saw at least 8 or so with hangar doors lying on top of them. One with a prop jabbed through the metal hangar door. One airplane was on the ramp and the word is it "flew 75ft" and it is now rested inverted and crumbled under a large twin. Structural engineers are coming out today to see if the hangars are even safe or repairable. Then some state insurance adjusters are coming out tomorrow. Everyone is suppose to coordinate coming to the hangar and meeting their own adjusters sometime in the next couple of days. My hangar doors can't even be opened at the moment. Those with open doors are because the door is laying on top of the plane.

I will post pics from this morning when I get home from work.

What a crapper....

Sounds real bad for a lot of folks.

Hopefully they can get your plane out of the hangar with no further damage

Here are some horrible IPhone pics from this morning. The airport real estate manager was with me so I did not get pics of all the planes. This was also after a full day of debris cleanup from a large crew. Many more larger aircraft were damaged as well.

my bird and hangar...






airplane on other side of my hangar wall...


airplane on ramp...




doors on top of planes...






Some of us were lucky it seems, some of us definitely weren't. I was fortunate.

Wow, what a mess.

On the bright side, the plane looks great with the new tires!

WOW and OUCH.

I'm a tenant on the East side of RVS (that way I'm not behind the Spartan parade in the run up area) likely we know some of the same airport rats.

I'm scheduled to be in Norman next week for a convention/trade show for work Tue evening-Thurs late afternoon but I have to run back to Tulsa for a Thursday morning meeting so I was thinking on flying the S Cub back and forth vs. the 2.5 hour drive and the weather looks good at this point. What is the ramp situation? Is there any reasonably secure tie down room available or any ideas if there would be FBO hanger space maybe available?

OC

OC:

I will be at the airport Wednesday to meet my insurance guy. He is coming up to look at 7 different planes. I will find out more about the FBO, ramp situation, and structural situation. The ramp should be cleaned up from most debris. There have been some planes coming and going. Not sure if there will be hangar space available or safe to use, but I would call Cruise aviation and ask. The airplane that was on the ramp in the pic above that was upside down and wedged under another plane I heard belonged to the FBO. If that is true, it would lead me to believe the FBO hangar space is limited or they would have brought in their plane. I may be way off, just assuming. It could have been left late on the ramp after hours by a student. I have no idea.

I am sure tiedowns would not be a problem though on the ramp by next week or now even. The ramp has a security gate and access code. I would say it is probably fairly secure.

If you want to meet up Wednesday, I would like to see your cub.

btw, my friend kevin has a stearman on the eastside at KRVS. also, my friend mark stevens instructs there.

I'm in Norway right now, any word of problems at KLAW? Any damage to the CAP birds?

Finally got repairs on the plane a couple weeks ago. Minimal damage.
HOWEVER, still missing a hangar wall, and doors. its been three months, no repairs. kind of frustrating

The airport is crediting hangar leasers from Nov-Feb... so 4 months free rent. I guess that makes up for it