N201MKTurbo Posted August 12, 2015 Report Posted August 12, 2015 Last night a bunch of planes were damaged. http://www.abc15.com/news/region-southeast-valley/chandler/almost-a-dozen-planes-flipped-over-after-storm-hits-chandler-airport Here is the cool part. Last night a friend who is doing some maintenance on a Rocket 231 called and asked if I could help him move it to a hangar in Tucson. After work we flew both planes down to AVQ and put the Rocket in a hangar and flew back. The Rocket was parked outside right in the epicenter of the destruction. Another Mooney lives to fly another day! I think my plane is OK. I will go out after work and see. I'm sure the airport would have called if there was a problem.
Joe Zuffoletto Posted August 12, 2015 Report Posted August 12, 2015 Nasty storm, lucky outcome! My home drome, Denver Centennial, was hit by a major thunderstorm on Monday. Over 2" of rain in one hour. Several hangars in a corporate row had their roofs collapse. This year's monsoon is a doozie. http://www.9news.com/story/news/local/2015/08/10/centennial-airport-hanger-collapse/31430269/
KSMooniac Posted August 12, 2015 Report Posted August 12, 2015 I dodged a bad one in late May... I was in a row of T-hangars and just south of us WAS a big corporate hangar. A microburst flattened the big hangar that had 6 brand-new King Air 350's inside. It ripped doors off of our T-hangar row, including the one next to me, but fortunately mine was spared.
StinkBug Posted August 12, 2015 Report Posted August 12, 2015 Looking at the pictures I see 5 PA-28s all with the same paint scheme, 4 of them in a pile. 2 of the tail numbers come back with the same owner LLC and a third goes to chandler air service. Methinks one flight school is really hurting right now.
N201MKTurbo Posted August 12, 2015 Author Report Posted August 12, 2015 Looking at the pictures I see 5 PA-28s all with the same paint scheme, 4 of them in a pile. 2 of the tail numbers come back with the same owner LLC and a third goes to chandler air service. Methinks one flight school is really hurting right now. That would be TransPac flight training. It looks like it got the whole fleet. It was a very busy flight school that trained pilots from Asia.
N201MKTurbo Posted August 12, 2015 Author Report Posted August 12, 2015 I hope the Walkup's (Chandler Air Service) can survive this. They have been the hart of the airport for a long time.
kellym Posted August 14, 2015 Report Posted August 14, 2015 There is a lot more damage than what the news photos show. On the Mooney side, Chandler Air Svc, MSC had its hangar door blown in and all planes inside, including one Mooney damaged. A Mooney outside suffered gear collapse and some other damage. A King Air backed into the one and only Tshade row, damaging a Cessna. A Baron was blown under nose of a Jet Commander and collapsed gear. Three airport derelict aircraft suffered mortal wounds. In total, last count I head at the airport commission meeting last night, 41 aircraft with significant damage, more with lesser damage. Probably over 20 aircraft totaled. Chandler Air Service lost 21 of 27 aircraft, as well as both hangar doors blown out. All aircraft returned to right side up, most of clean up done. Two City hangars with doors blown off. Trans Pac apparently brought a couple planes down from their DVT operation to keep training going, as only one or two of the planes blown around have any potential for repair. They are still working on recovering wind history from the AWOS computer since the storm hit maybe 15 min after the tower closed. No private hangars damaged. From fences blown over looks more like tornado than micro-burst, but data isn't available yet.
kellym Posted August 14, 2015 Report Posted August 14, 2015 There is a lot more damage than what the news photos show. On the Mooney side, Chandler Air Svc, MSC had its hangar door blown in and all planes inside, including one Mooney damaged. A Mooney outside suffered gear collapse and some other damage. A King Air backed into the one and only Tshade row, damaging a Cessna. A Baron was blown under nose of a Jet Commander and collapsed gear. Three airport derelict aircraft suffered mortal wounds. In total, last count I head at the airport commission meeting last night, 41 aircraft with significant damage, more with lesser damage. Probably over 20 aircraft totaled. Chandler Air Service lost 21 of 27 aircraft, as well as both hangar doors blown out. All aircraft returned to right side up, most of clean up done. Two City hangars with doors blown off. Trans Pac apparently brought a couple planes down from their DVT operation to keep training going, as only one or two of the planes blown around have any potential for repair. They are still working on recovering wind history from the AWOS computer since the storm hit maybe 15 min after the tower closed. No private hangars damaged. From fences blown over looks more like tornado than micro-burst, but data isn't available yet.
Piloto Posted August 14, 2015 Report Posted August 14, 2015 Most of this damage is due to poor or weak tie downs. Nose wheel tie down helps on keeping the plane from flying. The problem is that your neighbor may not be as concern as you and his loose plane damage yours. On some ramps they park the planes so close that a tail swing can cause damage to others with moderate winds. Hangars are the best option. José
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