Here comes another one

[Dan Luke]

Hurricane, that is.

Last September I moved airplane and family to Houston to escape hurricane
Ivan. That turned out to be a good move, since the steel shelter I parked
'87D under was destroyed by the storm.

This time I'm staying put. The new storm is forcast to be a minimal
hurricane at most, and the airplane should be fine tied down in the open
(they never rebuilt the shelters). The airport is right on Mobile Bay, but
it's at the north end, about 22 nm from the Gulf, so it's unlikely that any
hurricane force winds will be felt there.

This will not be the first minor storm that Delta has weathered at Brookley,
so I'm not too worried. Sunday morning will reveal if I was right to be so
sanguine about this one.
--
Dan
C-172RG at BFM

[W P Dixon]

Used to work there at Brookley At Mobile Aerospace. Loved the company but my
wife hated Mobile so took a contract outside Nashville , TN and on the
Myrtle Beach SC. I never really noticed much GA at Brookley, but I was
always over on the MAS side. Did see some pilots set down a Boeing before
they got to the runway! Those big birds sure kick up a storm of stuff when
you do that!!!
Good Luck with the hurricane season, Brookley can get hairy. Check out the
seafood rest. on the island out from USS Alabama, they have pictures of what
it looked like 22 nm inland in the bay. And the food there is dang good!
Can't recall the name of the place?
Patrick
student SPL
aircraft structural mech

"Dan Luke" > wrote in message
...
> Hurricane, that is.
>
> Last September I moved airplane and family to Houston to escape hurricane
> Ivan. That turned out to be a good move, since the steel shelter I parked
> '87D under was destroyed by the storm.
>
> This time I'm staying put. The new storm is forcast to be a minimal
> hurricane at most, and the airplane should be fine tied down in the open
> (they never rebuilt the shelters). The airport is right on Mobile Bay,
> but
> it's at the north end, about 22 nm from the Gulf, so it's unlikely that
> any
> hurricane force winds will be felt there.
>
> This will not be the first minor storm that Delta has weathered at
> Brookley,
> so I'm not too worried. Sunday morning will reveal if I was right to be
> so
> sanguine about this one.
> --
> Dan
> C-172RG at BFM
>
>

[Dan Luke]

"W P Dixon" wrote:
> Check out the seafood rest. on the island out from USS Alabama,

What seafood restaurant on what island?

> they have pictures of what it looked like 22 nm inland in the bay.

??

[Mortimer Schnerd, RN]

Dan Luke wrote:
> Hurricane, that is.
>
> Last September I moved airplane and family to Houston to escape hurricane
> Ivan. That turned out to be a good move, since the steel shelter I parked
> '87D under was destroyed by the storm.


I flew the night of Hurricane Hugo from Raleigh to Charlotte in an Apache.
Since Charlotte was directly along a straight line between Raleigh (where I was)
and Charleston (where the hurricane was) I flew along at Mach 3 and made the
quickest time I'd ever done for that leg. Smooth air, too... until I got down
to about 2000 feet on the approach into Charlotte. I went ahead and tied the
aircraft down as best I could (yoke wrapped up in the seatbelt, one wing and the
tail). The other wing was missing its tiedown ring so there was nothing I could
do about it. Oh, well... que sera, sera.

I woke up around 0400 when the power went off and my ceiling fan stopped. There
was no leaving the neighborhood for the next 30 hours or so due to fallen trees
but then I got out and drove to the airport. Absolutely amazing... that Apache
was bulletproof. Nothing wrong with it at all. Couldn't say the same for some
of the hangared aircraft; several hangars collapsed and wiped out what they were
supposedly protecting.

Anyway, good luck tomorrow.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

[W P Dixon]

Hey Dan,
There is a good seafood joint going across the bridge from Mobile over to
Daphne, past the USS Alabama park . It sits like on it's own little island
( if it's not an island it is just a small strip of land with the main road
going over it.)before you reach the Daphne shore. They have pictures in
there of the area when the last real hurricane came through and went up
Mobile Bay. It makes you want to go take swimming lessons no matter how good
of a swimmer you are! ;) Sorry for the confusion... I believe the place was
called Original Oyster House ,....I looked it up and it comes up as a
Spanish Fort AL address at 1175 Battleship Parkway. GOOD FOOD!!! ;)

Patrick
student SPL
aircraft structural mech

"Dan Luke" > wrote in message
...
>
> "W P Dixon" wrote:
>> Check out the seafood rest. on the island out from USS Alabama,
>
> What seafood restaurant on what island?
>
>> they have pictures of what it looked like 22 nm inland in the bay.
>
> ??
>

[Morgans]

"W P Dixon" > wrote

..I looked it up and it comes up as a
> Spanish Fort AL address at 1175 Battleship Parkway. GOOD FOOD!!! ;)

I second that!
--
Jim in NC

[Morgans]

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" > wrote

> Since Charlotte was directly along a straight line between Raleigh (where
I was)
> and Charleston (where the hurricane was) I flew along at Mach 3 and made
the
> quickest time I'd ever done for that leg.

> I woke up around 0400 when the power went off and my ceiling fan stopped.
There
> was no leaving the neighborhood for the next 30 hours or so due to fallen
trees
> but then I got out and drove to the airport.

Glad your plane turned out all right.

Ahh, Hugo! Where I am in NC was in that straight line, also. We still had
power and I was watching the radar on TV, and saw the eye wall approach
Lenoir; then the power went out. Massive destruction, everywhere.

Later, I saw a replay of the radar, and as the eye hit the mountains, it
broke up the circulation. As an observer, that was exactly right. We had
the building wind, the wind suddenly switched from East to North, then the
wind suddenly stopped. Sitting blind, I was expecting the other side of the
eye wall to hit, but it never did.

For about two weeks afterwards, anytime you went outside, you could hear the
sound of chainsaws running, in all directions. Life slowly returned to
normal, but it was slow.

The ironic thing was that lots of folks like you fled Charleston, and came
to Charlotte, only to be trapped here, with nearly as much damage as
Charleston.

One rule of hurricanes still holds; you can't out guess them.
--
Jim in NC

[Dan Luke]

"W P Dixon" wrote:
>... I believe the place was called Original Oyster House ,....I

Yep. It's one of our regular lunch spots. Pretty good food.

[Jim Fisher]

"Dan Luke" > wrote in message
> This time I'm staying put. The new storm is forcast to be a minimal
> hurricane at most, and the airplane should be fine tied down in the open
> (they never rebuilt the shelters).

So have you checked to see if the neighbors tied theirs down as securely as
yours? ;)

--
Jim Fisher

[Dan Luke]

"Jim Fisher" wrote:
> So have you checked to see if the neighbors tied theirs down as
> securely as yours? ;)

Yep.

I'm on the end of the line. My buddy Filipo's 182 is tied down tight in
the next spot.

[Aluckyguess]

Why wouldnt you fly it somewhere where you know it would be safe?
"Dan Luke" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Jim Fisher" wrote:
>> So have you checked to see if the neighbors tied theirs down as securely
>> as yours? ;)
>
> Yep.
>
> I'm on the end of the line. My buddy Filipo's 182 is tied down tight in
> the next spot.
>

[Dan Luke]

"Aluckyguess" wrote:
> Why wouldnt you fly it somewhere where you know it would be safe?

It's a major production to fly far enough to make a difference: you have
to arrange ground transportation, overnight accommodations, etc. For a
minimal storm like this one, it's not worth the bother.

The airplane has weathered a couple of similar sized storms with no
problems.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

[Dan Luke]

TS Arlene turned out to be nearly a non-event for Brookley Field.
Highest wind recorded on the METAR was 26 mph, and that was several
hours before the storm made landfall near Pensacola. A quick scan of
other stations in the storm area shows nothing much stronger.

So we kick off the season with a wimpy storm, but there's a long way to
go.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM