Charlie took an old friend...

[Ditch]

Well,
Getting more and more news from Florida.
The company I flew for, Warbird Adventures, lost two of their SNJ-6's during
the storm. They put them inside a new hangar for protection, but the best they
can tell a tornado hit the hangar and it collapsed. If you go the Orlando
Sentinel website and do a little searching around, you can see a photo of the
collapsed Ranger Aviation hangar and just pick out the yellow nose of the
SNJ's. They also lost their Bell 47 helicopters.
Reilly Aviation's hangar took a hard hit. The B-25 "Killer Bee" and the B-17
"Liberty Bell" came out ok. The the flyable Stearman that Bush senior flew in
his Navy days suffered some minor damage, but is expected to be repaired.
Mission Air's DC-3 took a hard hit as well..it was apparently blown into a few
trucks and the wings and tail are bent up.
Stallion 51 and the Mustangs (as well as a P-40, F-86, T-6 Spitfire, and some
others) came out ok.


-John
*You are nothing until you have flown a Douglas, Lockheed, Grumman or North
American*

[Orval Fairbairn]

In article >,
(Ditch) wrote:

> Well,
> Getting more and more news from Florida.
> The company I flew for, Warbird Adventures, lost two of their SNJ-6's during
> the storm. They put them inside a new hangar for protection, but the best they
> can tell a tornado hit the hangar and it collapsed. If you go the Orlando
> Sentinel website and do a little searching around, you can see a photo of the
> collapsed Ranger Aviation hangar and just pick out the yellow nose of the
> SNJ's. They also lost their Bell 47 helicopters.
> Reilly Aviation's hangar took a hard hit. The B-25 "Killer Bee" and the B-17
> "Liberty Bell" came out ok. The the flyable Stearman that Bush senior flew in
> his Navy days suffered some minor damage, but is expected to be repaired.
> Mission Air's DC-3 took a hard hit as well..it was apparently blown into a few
> trucks and the wings and tail are bent up.
> Stallion 51 and the Mustangs (as well as a P-40, F-86, T-6 Spitfire, and some
> others) came out ok.
>
>
> -John
> *You are nothing until you have flown a Douglas, Lockheed, Grumman or North
> American*


Sorry to hear about the damage. All the planes at Spruce Creek came out
fine -- some hangar damage, a lot of downed trees, some demolished pool
cages, etc. The eye came overhaed about 11:30 PM; AWOS reported 90kt
winds here.

I am going to check New Smyrna Beach this afternoon.

[Ditch]

>Sorry to hear about the damage. All the planes at Spruce Creek came out
>fine --

That is good to hear.
Kermit Weeks musuem took a little hangar damage, but the airplanes came out ok.
Even the Shorts Sunderland came out alright, and it was parked outside.


-John
*You are nothing until you have flown a Douglas, Lockheed, Grumman or North
American*

[vincent p. norris]

John, do you have any idea why those a/c weren't flown out before the
storm arrived?

vince norris

[Ditch]

>John, do you have any idea why those a/c weren't flown out before the
>storm arrived?

From what I have been told, the storm was supposed to track up the west coast
of FL and not be a problem for the Central FL area. The forcast winds were
supposed to peak out around 50-60 kts.
The hangar that the airplanes were in was rated for winds up to 130mph.
When they saw the storm started to track more eastbound, it was too late to
move them so they parked the SNJs and the helos in the hangar.
All would have been well..as best they can tell a tornado is what took the
hangar out.
Similiar hangars housing the Mustangs just 200 yards away were untouched and
also another T-6, B-25 and B-17 were on the ramp 200 yards away..NOT tied down
and came out without a scratch.

Just one of those fate things I guess. Who knew a tornado was going to touch
down on the hangar? The hurricane itself wasn't the problem.



-John
*You are nothing until you have flown a Douglas, Lockheed, Grumman or North
American*

[Bela P. Havasreti]

On 17 Aug 2004 03:19:31 GMT, (Ditch) wrote:

Do you know which T-6s/SNJs were "lost"? I saw reference to the
"yellow" one, but was wondering which the other one was....

I had some fun in the polished one (SNJ-6) a couple of years ago.

Bela P. Havasreti

>>John, do you have any idea why those a/c weren't flown out before the
>>storm arrived?
>
>From what I have been told, the storm was supposed to track up the west coast
>of FL and not be a problem for the Central FL area. The forcast winds were
>supposed to peak out around 50-60 kts.
>The hangar that the airplanes were in was rated for winds up to 130mph.
>When they saw the storm started to track more eastbound, it was too late to
>move them so they parked the SNJs and the helos in the hangar.
>All would have been well..as best they can tell a tornado is what took the
>hangar out.
>Similiar hangars housing the Mustangs just 200 yards away were untouched and
>also another T-6, B-25 and B-17 were on the ramp 200 yards away..NOT tied down
>and came out without a scratch.
>
>Just one of those fate things I guess. Who knew a tornado was going to touch
>down on the hangar? The hurricane itself wasn't the problem.
>
>
>
>-John
>*You are nothing until you have flown a Douglas, Lockheed, Grumman or North
>American*

[Ditch]

>Do you know which T-6s/SNJs were "lost"?

The number one airplane and the number four airplane were lost. The last time I
saw them both was in December and were both yellow at that time, but I think
they may have done some work for the number 1 machine. Not sure tho...




-John
*You are nothing until you have flown a Douglas, Lockheed, Grumman or North
American*

[bob scola]

(Ditch) wrote in message >...
> Well,
> Getting more and more news from Florida.
> The company I flew for, Warbird Adventures, lost two of their SNJ-6's during
> the storm. They put them inside a new hangar for protection, but the best they
> can tell a tornado hit the hangar and it collapsed. If you go the Orlando
> Sentinel website and do a little searching around, you can see a photo of the
> collapsed Ranger Aviation hangar and just pick out the yellow nose of the
> SNJ's. They also lost their Bell 47 helicopters.
> Reilly Aviation's hangar took a hard hit. The B-25 "Killer Bee" and the B-17
> "Liberty Bell" came out ok. The the flyable Stearman that Bush senior flew in
> his Navy days suffered some minor damage, but is expected to be repaired.
> Mission Air's DC-3 took a hard hit as well..it was apparently blown into a few
> trucks and the wings and tail are bent up.
> Stallion 51 and the Mustangs (as well as a P-40, F-86, T-6 Spitfire, and some
> others) came out ok.
>
>
> -John
> *You are nothing until you have flown a Douglas, Lockheed, Grumman or North
> American*

I had the privilege of flying with you in Texan 3 - 453WA, back in
October 2001. Have a 2 x 3 foot poster of us going vertical in my
office.

Very sad news...


Bob

[Ditch]

>I had the privilege of flying with you in Texan 3 - 453WA, back in
>October 2001. Have a 2 x 3 foot poster of us going vertical in my
>office.
>
>Very sad news...

Hi bob,

The good news is that Texan 3 and Texan 2 (now painted white) survived as they
were up in the Chicago area.


-John
*You are nothing until you have flown a Douglas, Lockheed, Grumman or North
American*

[vincent p. norris]

>The good news is that Texan 3 and Texan 2 (now painted white) survived as they
>were up in the Chicago area.

I flew 452 WA at Geneseo a couple of years ago. I hope that one
survived. First time I had flown an SNJ since 1950.

vince norris

[Ditch]

>I flew 452 WA at Geneseo a couple of years ago. I hope that one
>survived.

Yup...452 and 453 survived.


-John
*You are nothing until you have flown a Douglas, Lockheed, Grumman or North
American*

[vincent p. norris]

>>I flew 452 WA at Geneseo a couple of years ago. I hope that one
>>survived.
>
>Yup...452 and 453 survived.

Thanks, John. Perhaps one day I'll have a chance to fly her again.

vince norris

[Ditch]

>Thanks, John. Perhaps one day I'll have a chance to fly her again.
>

You are welcome, Vince.
I hope one day to fly on those airplanes again, as well. It was one of the best
jobs I have held in aviation. I miss it terribly.


-John
*You are nothing until you have flown a Douglas, Lockheed, Grumman or North
American*

[vincent p. norris]

>I hope one day to fly on those airplanes again, as well. It was one of the best
>jobs I have held in aviation. I miss it terribly.

I wish you good luck.

vince norris