Warbird Information Exchange

Prayers from Wisconsin as well. Mrs. K has family in Galveston, so she's pretty anxious for y'all.

Double check the straps on your hipwaders, head for high ground, and we'll see you on the flip side.

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

We took the CF TA-4 up to Cavanaugh Flight Museum. Thanks to Doug for making room for us.

The UH-1 is in a hangar in Conroe. The T-33 and F-4 are in Southwest Services new hangar at Ellington alond with the Lone Star SBD.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

It's 7:54 and I just saw a helicopter shot of Scholes Field, Galveston the surge is creeping in. The back runway at Scholes now has bay water on it. The main runway is still open but they anticipate closing thae airfield shortly.

The storm is still 230 miles out.

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"You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass..."
Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto

I've lived in a Hurricane zone before and had to evacuate. It's no fun knowing that you're going to lose your home and everything in it. Everyone please be safe and evacuate if told to do so. No human life is worth anything material, including airplanes. I wish Lone Star and all of her volunteers, workers and employees the best of luck in surviving the hurricane safely.

Hold on to your hat Rick!

Our prayers are with you folks down there.

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Zane Adams
There I was at 20,000 ft, upside down and out of ammunition.
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Just for reference - here's the area we're talking about from 2005.









And this will probably affect everyone in the country gas prices wise - Texas City is just a few miles away.





And I hope that some treasures in Houston (and a bunch of friends there) are ok.



Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

Yikes! I didn't realize that was so close to the bay. Prayers for everyone down there!!

Prayers for everyone in Ike's way!

Off topic question - what are those pyramids in Ryan's photos?

Zack

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Volunteer Coordinator/Curator - Military Aviation Museum - Virginia Beach, VA
"America's Flying Museum"
http://www.militaryaviationmuseum.org

Hey RickH, where are you? and are you leaving? Who all is staying [police, fire, rescue, etc...] and where are they planning to ride it out? Just be safe!! Our prayers are with you and all our freinds in the path of this MONSTER.

Hang tight everyone! I'm hoping for good news after all this is over.

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-Al Sauer
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spookythecat

I am not sure if RickH is still able to answer. I talked with him at about 10 AM central today (the 12th) and he was in the process of putting some wood on his windows at home, and at that point they were not being told to evacuate. a big thank you goes out to Rick and the rest of the volunteers down there in Houston to spend yesterday getting the hangars and aircraft ready for the storm before taking care of their own houses.

Ellington Field is 32 feel MSL, and about 10 miles from the closest point of the bay, so hopefully it is safe from the majority of the storm surge. They are still expecting 100+ mph sustained winds, so we are hoping that the hangars hold up for the aircraft that could not be flown out.

It's 1:32 p.m. and its getting ugly.
Lynn-we ate all the tin roof to save it. sorry.
Zachary-the pyramids are Moody Gardens literally right across the fence from Lone Star and about half an hour ago, Moody Gardens was declared "..to be totally awash." Sixty first street causeway that I use to travel to LS is impassable.
Museum member and P-47 plane captain Mike Esslinger lives walking distance away from the museum. I'm concerned about his home.
This thing is 12 or 13 hours away and the surge is backflushing up the storm drains into the city.

Lone Star pres. Larry Gregory posted a couple of msgs this a.m. before he and the last ones bailed out while they could.
The B-17, B-25, Corsair, Hellcat, P-47, SBD, Stearman, DC-3 and Bearcat have all flown to safety. I believe Rick Sharpe got his SPAD and Huey out too.
Scholes Field airport where LS is located was getting sloshy early this a.m. The ramp in front is probably awash now. Two feet up to the museum floor. I don't know the procedure for deploying the flood shield but the system is designed to hold back 13 foot surge. The building as a whole is designed to take a cat 3 like Rita. All the damage we had then was a torn up canvas awning and a big drainpip blew off and dented the battery shed.
Trae-'Elroy 13" said he was signing off for the weekend. His job and residence are directly in the line of fire. His parents and daughter also live in the Houston area but I don't know exactly where.
Tom Crawford may get a hard blow from it but it's moved slightly away from me.

I will keep updated coming. I'm sitting at home watching the tube and thats what I did for about half the morning at work.

I just hope the rest of the world doesn't think the morons who "didn't think it was this bad," on tv are representative of the rest of Texas. It's like a Redneck video. "We just can't keep the most ignorant among us off the tv!"
Your prayer would be appreciated and keep pulling for the F-100!

sittin and waitin

Doug

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"I love the smell of 100LL in the morning."

Those are the Moody Gardens buildings - I'd not want to be there today.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

You can say that again - they should check and see if they're really Texans - maybe their leftover Katrina evacuees... or, nevermind. That does tick me off a bit.

Ryan

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Aerial Photographer with Red Wing Aerial Photography currently based at KRBD and tailwheel CFI.
Websites: Texas Tailwheel Flight Training, DoolittleRaid.com and Lbirds.com.

The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the LORD. - Prov. 21:31 - Train, Practice, Trust.

This thing is unbelievable. The sheer physical size of this storm is the big issue. It's got cat 2 winds but its so big the storm surge is like a cat 4. The newsmen on the Galveston seawall keep moving back. This morning Seawall Blvd. was full of trash and plastic drink bottles. Now it's full of chunks of piers and pilings and dangerous for emerg. vehicles to traverse. Except for a few years away at college I've spent most of my life near the Gulf Coast and I've seen a lot of flood events but never the violence of wave action like this. Several witnesses commented on the sound of the wave hitting the seawall.
Doug

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"I love the smell of 100LL in the morning."