Heavy weather at Oshkosh...eveyone OK?

[Ztex]

I saw on Face Book that there was some damage from a storm this afternoon at Oshkosh....a few airplanes tossed about...

No reports of injuries...hope all is well.

Zane

[Boeing666]

Oh geez,

I hope this isn't like the 2011 Sun N Fun tornado with 50+ planes destroyed. That would suck if you attended both shows with your plane to have it survive there but lose it here or worse yet sustain damage at both shows.

[Warbird Kid]

From Facebook:


Sure looks like Sun N Fun.

[Boeing666]

Did this just happen within the past hour?

Nothing on the official website and I can't find any news sites in google on it.

Hopefully it will be a much smaller scale than Sun N Fun - you can never tell this time of year though in the great lakes region as this is the peak of the storm season up there.

I'm always worried about some freak storm at Thunder Over Michigan with all those warbirds being there, some one of a kind like Fifi (which I am sure is at OSH too right now). Last year they dodged a bullet - as storms kinda danced around the area. I got hit by a good one the next day returning from Dayton Airshow that would have for sure caused some aircraft damage.

[51fixer]

I was talking with someone there an 1 1/2 hr ago. Said a nasty looking wall was moving in.
Hope it isn't too bad.

[Boeing666]

For those of you not familiar with the Sun N Fun storm 2011 in Florida, here are a couple youtube videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nbWt0eUy5U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzQUwZe1 ... ure=relmfu


I am thinking that since we aren't hearing a lot and that is the only picture so far the damage is isolated. Right after the Sun N Fun storm we were hearing rumors of a hangar collapse that injured 80 people - which never happened - but as you can see in the video a tent gets blown away but it looks like the worst that happens to people is they get drenched.

I am sure that this storm isn't enough to cancel tomorrows events at OSH. As bad as the storm was at Lakeland in 2011, the show went on Friday and the clean up crews did such an excellent job there wasn't much evidence of the damage on the main show grounds (and weather that weekend was perfect.)

As long as no one was injured at OSH and minimal aircraft damage - I am sure that OSH has a stellar clean up crew that will have the show ready to go by tomorrow

[JohnTerrell]

The storms moved out just before the start of today's show - blue skies and sun and great flying ever since.

[Chappie]

Wow, hope everyone is ok. I went to Oshkosh '82 with my grandparents when I was 11 y/o. I remember a horrendous thunderstorm driving back to our hotel in Appleton. My grandfather pulled into a gas station and lightning was banging away and eventually knocked out power at the station.

Chappie

[kalamazookid]

I met the owner of that Thunder Mustang at a fly-in in Niles, MI last year. Hopefully all the damage is reparable and everyone made out ok with no injuries.

[Boeing666]

Could the little German WWI replica biplane just not have been tied down that it got blown over? All it takes is a 40 mph wind and it will blow an untied airplane over, especially one that small. I don't see any evidence of tie downs on it - ie frayed ropes, ropes dangling from wings etc.

[spookythecat]

Definitely no Sun'n'Fun, thank god. I was out shooting while the ominous wall approached. I was very impressed with the Warbird Flightline people who were tearing around the field telling people to seek cover as the storm was coming in quick. I made it to cover just as it began and when I saw a tent fly by me I was expecting things to be real ugly. It passed in under 15 minutes and from what I heard in Warbirds, there were a few planes that moved and some canopy covers blown off. Unlike many years ago everyone does an excellent job of tying their planes down. Hell, I noticed a few Mustangs that were already tied down yesterday which you very rarely see. I was honestly most concerned for our own Chris Henry (aka Mustangdriver) since he has his Warbird Rescue tent set up and the open side was the one that took the brunt of the wind. He made it just fine along with his crew.

It's 1:41am as I type this and I can hear thunder. Hopefully it won't amount to anything.

[TAdan]

I watched the storm roll in on the webcam. It looked pretty wild. Glad to hear the damage wasn't worse.

[dj51d]

Here is the view from the Warbird Radio tent a few minutes before the storm rolled through.



Thankfully we got the tent closed up before it hit, keeping it that way was a team effort.

[Boeing666]

Here is the view from the Warbird Radio tent a few minutes before the storm rolled through.



Thankfully we got the tent closed up before it hit, keeping it that way was a team effort.

Hopefully that L-17 got tied down.

[Randy Haskin]

Hopefully that L-17 got tied down.

Fortunately, the wind wasn't really *that* strong. There was one single 30-second microburst in the middle of the front passage (itself lasting only about 10 minutes) that tossed tents and that Fokker.

It was very ominous and ugly looking for a few minutes, though.

That single WWI replica is the only aircraft damage I heard of.