Vintage aircraft in FL, Hurricane Jeanne

Hurricane humour –

Tnx for naval post

M2,

Tnx for posting the note from the museum director.

Nice of him to provide comforting details of their plan and level of protections.

Nice score!

Glad to know they were well prepared in so many ways!

Link to the WIX thread. http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=1431
mmitch.

I don’t know if you have the same problem in UK as we experienced from Belgium. Since 11th September 2001, all access to US Military organizations is denied.

Would you post a link Crazymainer

TIA

CM

Hi All,

Just a quick note, over on the wix forum Buddy Macon the Dept Director of the Naval Musuem post a note on the coundition of the musuem.

Cheers Crazymainer

Stewart1,

I hear Florida is changing its name from the Sunshine State to the Plywood State and the new state flag is a blue tarp!

Speaking of Mustangs, seems Capt Blair, who owned the Short Sunderland in the Fantasy of Flight Museum was also an adventerous aviator, and a Mustanger (over the North Pole no less): 😎
Did I mention he was very happliy married to the famous and good looking movie star Maureen O’Hara!? 😀

His Mustang hangs in the Smithsonian!!! (I did not know until a few minutes ago!)
http://www.cooksley.org/mophotos.nsf/Blair?OpenPage

Pan Am Capt (AF General) Blair’s bio: interesting!!
http://www.users.qwest.net/~aknot/blair.htm

It is amazing how the web can bring us all together on stuff like this.

yes wonderful museum hope she survives better than the miami museum

Thanks for the update on the Fantasy of Flight museum, China Clipper. Glad to hear they have survived another onslaught.

FL hurricane update, Homestead memory

Just got an amail from the mktg director of the Fantasy of Flight Museum. All is well there… so the Sunderland is fine..

(I looked up the history of the Sunderland at the FoFM, and my dad used to fly with its former owner Capt Charles Blair, when they were in Pan Am, Miami, FL).

John B, My mother lived in Homestead at the time of Hurricane Andrew. Luckily her nursing home was evacuated up to Kendall, but it was still baaad there…To fly over that mess so soon after it happened must have been gut wrenching.

I remember how Homestead AFB was creamed. Since it was under consideration for a base closing, Andrew sealed its fate…

Once at Homestead AFB, a defecting Cuban pilot landed his fully armed MIG while Nixon’s Air Force One was on the apron… Quite a stir!
I bet the base and wing commanders there had a cow! 😮 😮

I suppose it will take a while for all the damage to vintage planes to be compiled from the various museums, hangars and owners after this onslaught!
🙁

Hi Guys,
I was one of the vol. who went down to help Kermits effort to pull stuff out of the mess. Not only had the 17 been pulled out of its tie downs and FLOWN 2km the B-23 was also planted in the same swamp.
Cheers Crazymainer

Back in 92 I was sent by the USAF to work with the news media after Hurricane Andrew. I was “given” a HH-60 PaveHawk (and crew) to fly media around to various locations. We flew to Tamiami (sp?) where the helicopters were based and saw the B-17 pushed into the trees. I was amazed at its overall good condition. The only thing I could think of is those battle damage photos we’ve all seen from the war. Boeing makes tough ships!
As I recall a DC-4/6 was also damaged…flipped if memory serves correctly.
After landing, I walked over to Week’s hangar and they were lifting a roof truss off the tail of a Corsair that amazingly received only light damage.
I saw aball of wreckage, I asked a volunteer what it was (it was too badly damaged for me to ID it) and was told it was Week’s P-12/Boeing 100 fighter.
I also saw a mangled A-26, but the J2F Duck was in fairly good shape.
His Ford Trimotor was wrecked when its hangar at Homestead came down. On the base I saw a static F-100 with extensive damage and a few wrecked F-16s that were undergoing maintenance (or were maintenance trainers) and couldn’t be flown out in time.

My day also started off bad…I asked the helicopter pilot to “Fly us to Homestead”, as I had reporters who wanted to check out the refugee city established by the USMC in the city of Homestead. The pilot assumed I meant Homestead AFB. So as we landed at the AFB I suddenly realized I committed a faux paus…bringing media to a base without alerting the unit commander. My fears were realized when a staff car pulled up and a gruff looking, unshaven, ill-manered Colonel asked “When will you be getting out of here?” “Right now, sir” was my reply. He said “Good” and drove off. Poor guy looked like he hadn’t slept in days….and his base was a total wreck.
Though it was a bad day for me, it was a worse week for him.

Swiss military airports for FL???

Main(e) Man!

Tnx for the updates!

REgarding the Sunderland, the pictures on website show it indoors. Not sure if that was a current picture.

If it weren’t for the FL water table, maybe underground hangars like the Swiss military uses, would be a fantastic idea! Especially if FL is going to have a decade of bad hurricanes, due due to changed WX patterns.

CM, It must have been gut wrenching to go to Miami and the Kendal Tamiami airport after Hurricane Andrew. A friend lost his private plane there, and I recall piles of stacked wrecked aircraft. Granted most would be insured, but still….. Especially for the historic aircraft, it takes years and tons of $$ to restore them, and if they are totalled, that’s it, scrap and parts city. I caught a few pics of the Weeks B17 after Andrew on B17 survivor sites.

What a Bad time……………..

Glyn,

I agree, visitor/customer access in FL is great, especially near Orlando…

I hope the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston has good evacuation plans! They are very near the Gulf edge and backwater area.

I saw a lot of their aircraft before they were ever restored, when I lived down in Friendswood. Some were at Hobby Airport, a few were at Clover Field in FW.

I am from Miami, and luckily did not live there when Andrew hit. I just read online that as part of K Weeks’s museum bashing there, his B17 was “flown” 2Km by Andrew and wrecked… Amazing force to “fly a B17 2 KM!!!!”

NO thanks to hurricanes in Houston, even if I live about 80miles inland!!!!!

Hi Guys,

I was one of the vol. who went down to help Kermits effort to pull stuff out of the mess. Not only had the 17 been pulled out of its tie downs and FLOWN 2km the B-23 was also planted in the same swamp.

As for the Pensacola I try the Musuem today and trhew lines are still down what I understand is 90% of the area is still with out phone service.

Eglin seems to have survived with moderate damage I should have a report soon since my little sister has to fly in some water to them on Wends. I gave her some marching orders to go check out the Musuem stuff.

I talked with David T. today and it was his replica 51 that got pick up and flip over he said he would send out another sometime next week.

Cheers Crazymainer

Glyn,

I agree, visitor/customer access in FL is great, especially near Orlando…

I hope the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston has good evacuation plans! They are very near the Gulf edge and backwater area.

I saw a lot of their aircraft before they were ever restored, when I lived down in Friendswood. Some were at Hobby Airport, a few were at Clover Field in FW.

I am from Miami, and luckily did not live there when Andrew hit. I just read online that as part of K Weeks’s museum bashing there, his B17 was “flown” 2Km by Andrew and wrecked… Amazing force to “fly a B17 2 KM!!!!”

NO thanks to hurricanes in Houston, even if I live about 80miles inland!!!!!

CrazyMainer… taken from the palmbeachpost.com website:

An historic airplane on display in front of the 391st Bomb Squadron restaurant at Palm Beach International Airport was seriously damaged.
[I think this is the replica damaged I saw from the air, but I still think what I originally saw was a flipped mustang… not convinced this is what I saw on the tv news.]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/shared/weather/storm/photos/jeanne/0926p4/05.html

http://img.coxnewsweb.com/C/05/59/10/image_910595.jpg

The 4 hurricanes that have hit Florida in the last month are highly unusual – the worst season on record. While Florida does get whacked every 10 years or so a major weather event it is not something that is guaranteed on a yearly basis.

I think there are a couple of reasons that Florida is so popular as a base of aviation operations. First and foremost is the fact that for 99% of the year the weather is fantastic – CAVU skies, nearly year-round comfortable temperature etc. While proximity to the water does make for humid conditions that aren’t so great for 60 year old airplanes it certainly beats the major temperature shifts that planes in more northern latitudes go through as seasons change.

Secondly, Florida is a major international tourist destination. How many of you folks have squeezed in a visit to the Kissimmee/Polk City aircraft locations while taking the family to Disney World?

I think Kermit Weeks decided after Hurricane Andrew hit his Miami base that a more inland, central Florida location would be better suited to ride out future storms. As noted, the land is pretty cheap in central Florida and having the chance to fly planes year round has to be a big bonus. While Miami may be more glamourous it definately gets hit by hurricanes harder and more frequently than central Florida.

There really are not many geographic areas in the States that offer the same balance of good flying days, availability to the outside world, and lack of weather risk. We’re pretty lucky in Texas and have plenty of flying days but it can be god-awful hot in the summer and hail/tornados are a big risk EVERY year. While the CAF’s Midland facility is perfect for their needs, it ain’t exactly as easy to get to as Orlando.

Thanks for the update on Pensacola, CrazyMainer… (I prefer the more southerly Conch Republic… : ) )

I guess what I had seen earlier was a preliminary comment after Ivan from the Museum before a full physical site review…

The official naval air museum site seems to still be down.

Here are some links and news info to FL vintage aircraft and museums, if you are interested…

http://www.warbirdmuseum.com/ in Kissimmee FL
http://www.vacwarbirds.org/index.html (valilant air museum) in Titusville
http://www.fantasyofflight.com/ it’s between Tampa and Kissimmee
their post Hurricane Charley news release: http://www.fantasyofflight.com/pr_07.htm
Now, we wait to hear more after Jeanne…

http://www.sun-n-fun.org/content/news/story.asp?newsid=177&section=yearround&body=news in Lakeland FL

http://www.seaplanes.org/cgi-bin/briefs/index.cgi#159 (planes news in FL, airports, etc)

Eglin AFB Air Force Armaments museum: no operational official website found.
http://www.florida.flyer.co.uk/airforce.htm many aircraft, mostly outdoors…near Hurricane Ivan’s path last week… in Fort Walton Beach, FL.

Hey, sorry, it was only meant as a joke, that’s all. But, no, I don’t want to start any stupid political arguments, politics is boring and politicians are all idiots.

I’m praying for the Sunderland, how many more of its nine lives are left? I wish it could be sent to a safe haven, away from the hurricanes of Florida. Lake Karapiro just down the road from me would be great. I’ll look after it. 🙂

I’m sure God’s trying to wipe out Florida so there won’t be any more dodgy elections to get Bush back in through the back door again!

Now Dave,

Do really want this on this board its bad anothe the Military Board has to start stuff. 🙁 As for the Election right or wrong we have a system that works and besides this isn’t the first time that a person who lost the Popular vote won the election. 😮

S for the Sunderland Kermit doesn’t have room inside for it right now. The last two have missed the Polk City area completly.

Cheers Crazymainer

What about the Sunderland? Is it still outdoors? Has it been damaged this time around? Man, I hope not.

If I had a priceless collection of aircraft (or anything for that matter) there’s no way I’d want it situated in Florida. The place is far too risky. I guess land must be cheap there or something for people to stay in the constant cycle of harm’s way.

I’m sure God’s trying to wipe out Florida so there won’t be any more dodgy elections to get Bush back in through the back door again!