It wasn't Katrina, but it was enough for me....

gibbons

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Feb 12, 2005
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Rogers, Arkansas
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iRide
It was nothing compared to what’s happened along the gulf, but my little home airport got hit by a tornado last night. The Extra was in a hangar on the south end of the field, the Citabria was in the maintenance hangar on the north end. The tornado split the middle and took out the FBO and a couple of hangars. I counted 11 airplanes damaged. The maintenance hangar sustained light damage but the Citabria apparently slept through the storm. My hangar, and the Extra, was untouched.

More photos can be seen here:
http://www.eaa732.org/eaa_display_g...ado Damage at Bentonville Airport - 3/12/2006

I left the airport about 5:00 pm that night and everything was fine. By 10:00 pm I was back out to take inventory and see the damage. The Eagle Med helicopter crew has 7/24 quarters on the field in a mobile home. Three of them dove into a drainage culvert just as the t-hangar took flight. Fortunately, no one was injured.

I am very, very fortunate.

Chip
 
Wow Chip. Glad that your planes made it through ok. Even more relieved that YOU made it through ok. Sad to see the wrecks but metal can be replaced.
 
gibbons said:
I am very, very fortunate.

Chip

Chip, I was wondering if you guys were OK up there. Friend of mine was moving to Bentonville.... end of last week. Nice welcome.

Glad to hear that there was no damage to your planes. Your home come through OK?

Anybody hear from Diana?
 
wsuffa said:
Chip, I was wondering if you guys were OK up there. Friend of mine was moving to Bentonville.... end of last week. Nice welcome.

Glad to hear that there was no damage to your planes. Your home come through OK?

Anybody hear from Diana?
The house was way out of the path, no problem. I shot a couple of emails back & forth with Diana this morning. No problem up there as far as I know.

Bill, PM me about your friend coming up here. Is he a pilot?

Chip
 
Ended my midlife crises and started my aviation career at that FBO several years ago. Met alot of good folks, have alot of interesting stories and made alot of good friends at that field. Chip and I were out there Sunday afternoon visiting with Pat (tripacer) and supervising the prop install on the Comanche.:D

I hope they build it back bigger and better and that each one of those pilots that lost their aircraft will replace them as soon as possible/able and they get back to what they do best .....fly planes, talk about flying, think about flying and making friends in the aviation community.
 
Chip...I know what you are going through. We had almost the same thing happen at RDU back in September 2004, but instead ours were straight line winds. I have a picture in the photo gallery of one of the planes that ended upside down. I know a few people that lost airplanes that day. My old flight instructors airplane ended up in the ATC parking lot.

Then last year (almost a year to date) we had a tornado go through our neighborhood around 9:30 am. It happened the day before I was to go to the Women in Aviation Convention in DFW. The day I left for DFW the mayor of Raleigh, NC (Charles Meeker) was on my flight to ATL. He told me that he sends his condolences to the people in my neighborhood.

Glad you are ok.
 
Geesh Chip!! Glad everything seems to be under control. Saw the news but it focused more north of you. Looked pretty bad.

Best,

Dave
 
I heard on the local news that you guys had one down in Bentonville. We stayed out of it barely, We just got heavy thunderstorms all day.

Glad everyone is O.K.
 
wow thats horrible, but at least it sounds like you made out ok! i hope everything gets back to normal soon for you guys
 
wsuffa said:
Anybody hear from Diana?
Hey Bill, thanks for asking. :)

We just have hail damage to our car from the weekend storms. It sure pales in comparison to what happened at Chip's airport. Those sure are sad pictures of wounded birds.

Isn't it time for you to make another visit to Twin Oaks? Although, we offer no guarantees about the weather this time of year. ;) We have had tornadoes pass though 1/2 mile south of the farm house, and 1/2 mile north, so we feel very fortunate. It would be nice to have a basement on days like that!
 
Chip, glad you came out OK. I'm sorry for your friends loosing their planes...sad.
 
Diana said:
Hey Bill, thanks for asking. :)

We just have hail damage to our car from the weekend storms. It sure pales in comparison to what happened at Chip's airport. Those sure are sad pictures of wounded birds.

Isn't it time for you to make another visit to Twin Oaks? Although, we offer no guarantees about the weather this time of year. ;) We have had tornadoes pass though 1/2 mile south of the farm house, and 1/2 mile north, so we feel very fortunate. It would be nice to have a basement on days like that!

Glad you guys came through OK.

May is my usual trip back east for the annual property owners meeting. Hopefully I'll be able to do it this year. I'm due for a prop overhaul late spring, and frankly, if I can't get a break on the job search I may have to think about selling the plane at some point. I can only hope for good weather next time...

bill
 
Mike Schneider said:
Bill, remind us of what kind of work you do and what area of the country you are considering. Thanks. -- Mike

Area of the country is easy: just about anywhere.

I'm aiming for a couple of key areas:

1) M&A/capital development - I've most recently been in a couple of companies that grew fast through M&A and organic growth... essentially, I invested the capital and worked with the businesses to grow and operationally integrate the acquisitions (I was in senior management).
2) private equity - working with private equity groups and their portfolio companies to invest money and operationally improve the businesses
3) business turnarounds/interim management - one characteristic of the companies that we acquired was the restructuring we did to improve profits. Heavy cost control, revenue improvement. I worked with the businesses to create efficient operating structures and helped 'em become profitable and grow.

I've also worked extensively in the corporate real estate arena, managing a portfolio of real estate holdings, striking new deals for space, unlocking capital from those holdings, and making a corporate real estate group much more efficient.

Suggestions and contacts are welcome.
 
wsuffa said:
Suggestions and contacts are welcome.
Bill - sounds like you need to acquire my company and work your magic on it!!! :)

I guess it's only fair to qualify that - I'm a small consulting firm - 2 employees. :)
 
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Oh man, that sucks. I hate to see those poor airplanes!:( The only consolation is no one got hurt.:)

Missa
 
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