Sun-N-Fun Tornado?

TangoWhiskey

TangoWhiskey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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3Green
Just got this off one of my homebuilder forums:

Just off the phone with a T-18 owner, parked in homebuilt camping

He suspects a funnel cloud, says planes all over are upside down. Feels 1 in 7 are upside down, some stacked on top of each other.

Beyond hope and concern all the way to prayers.
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Picture posted on FB:

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Polk County officials now say no one is trapped at Sun 'n Fun, though there are minor injuries... hopefully that's accurate news.
 
"The Aviators" crew is there; just posted that the police just came around telling everyone to hunker down again--another cell is rolling through. I imagine they, AvWeb, and Aero-News all had cameras running.
 
TangoWhiskey said:
Is your boss there?
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My boss is based in Lakeland...he happens to be in meetings in Houston this week, however...I checked in with him and he's been talking to his family, a house down the street got hit...
 
Anyone heard from Steve? Was he down there this year?
 

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On-scene report:

Richard Bently, walking through the homebuilt display area observes a signifcant advantge to ROBUST tie-downs. That being said, one bird moved about, but was struck by another aircraft that broke loose.

Report from a friend, long time resident and sea-plane instructor, who is at the sea-plane parking (berthing?) said he's got seaplanes upside down all over the place here, and signed off, because he has lots of responsibility and work to do.
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EAA got their trimotor when a tornado (or T-strom, don't remember which) came through, picked it up, and destroyed it. Took 12 years to rebuild.
 
What a horrible news. At least that no one was seriously hurt.

I feel like a very anxious parent waiting to hear the status of N307HL which is at Glasair display area. I am scheduled to fly down to Florida by Jetbue and fly her to NY afer the show on Monday. Originally I had thought of going regardless of what happened but if my plane is damaged and not flyable, I will just let insurance company handle it and will just cancel my flight, hotel and car booking!

Hai Longworth
 
My airplane partner Lenny is in the middle of that, working for Pilot Mall. Fortunately he took the tube down, sparing the Free Bird a dance with a tornado.
 
Man, I just got back from my hanger. I've packed my plane to leave at dawn tomorrow. May have to reconsider. What a shame.
 
FYI airports in St. Pete are also reporting and showing damage. This is a pretty large storm with multiple funnel cloud sightings. The Sunshine Skyway bridge is closed and a semi tipped over on the Howard Franklin near Tampa.
 
30703 said:
I feel like a very anxious parent waiting to hear the status of N307HL which is at Glasair display area. I am scheduled to fly down to Florida by Jetbue and fly her to NY afer the show on Monday.
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I hope it wasn't damaged. :fcross: Let us know what you find out.
 
tonycondon said:
interesting to note that the yellow leftovers of an airplane in that slideshow is still tied down. at least the wings are.
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No kidding. Especially when you compare it to the relatively unscathed tent across the taxiway.
 
Plane is loaded and ready to go early in the AM, but these pictures scared me off. I can't imagine the camping area being dry enough by tomorrow.
Very sad for those that lost planes.
 
In Lakeland, where several hundred people had gathered for the annual Sun 'n Fun aviation festival, a tent collapsed and injured seven people, authorities said. Authorities said all of the injuries were minor and six were taken to a local hospital.
"The worst injury was a fractured hip," said Polk County Sheriff's spokesman Scott Wilder. He added that 70 people were under the tent when it collapsed and that some crawled out.


"It wasn't like a mass of people trapped in a building or anything like that," he said.


CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS


Read more: http://www.bradenton.com/2011/03/31/3077190/wind-rain-bring-tornado-warnings.html#ixzz1IDMaiKJy
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Looking at a friend's web cam near where my folks used to live it is pretty wet and icky.
 
A fractured hip is "minor?" :eek:

And "several hundred people" is a pretty low number for Sun 'n' Fun. Yay, media. :rolleyes:

Twitter folks like to name these events - The big snowstorms the last couple of winters have been named Snowpocalypse, Snowmageddon, and SnOMG... Of course the ultra-rainy Sun 'n' Fun a couple years ago was "Mud 'n' Scud" and it appears that we now have "Storm 'n' Fun" or "Splash 'n' Twist."
 
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