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Up in the air, barely

plehrke

Well Known Member
Patron
Well this is not how I expected to do my summer flying. RV up in air on 8" of blocks. Our airport is behind a 500 year levee but unfortunately flood gates get closed when the Missouri River is high and then the lake nearby can not drain out to the river. The levee district has not bought the pumps that are required to pump the lake over the levee and into the river. If the gates are closed over a prolonged time and we get rain that raises the lake, we get flooded. It is slow pain watching river rise. Started getting water in the hangar on June 12. I planned for 8" of water and we maxed out at 7". What I did not plan for was how long this would take thinking water up and then down. Did not help that the hydro dam up river decided to release water last week and we had an entire week of rain. We are hoping to start getting drainage off the airport this week. Looks like maybe 2 more weeks, depending on rain, before my hangar floor is dry.

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Here is looking down our taxiway. My hangar is on the far right. There is about 14" of water on the taxiway.

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Lesson learned, I should have flown the plane out in the several weeks before the water made it to my hangar. I fretted everyday for several weeks about if I should or not and came to the conclusion that best left in the hangar since the water was not going to get high, The airplane goes out of condition inspection tomorrow and did not want to do that at another airport, and thought water would go down quickly.

Now not looking forward to the cleanup.
 
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Those elliptical wings in the background could pass for Emeraude or CAP 10 wings.

You could put the RV on a pair of Aerocet amphibious floats.
 
Looks familiar

Phillip that?s a nice job. I did almost exactly same thing when Hurricane Florence was bearing down on us last year except I got my up 16?. A stream runs right behind my hangar and I didn?t want my project to become a submersible.
A little effort before a potential storm can sure save a lot of headaches later.
Next time I?ll use your garbage bag method also. Good idea. :)
 
Praying for you and everyone affected by all this bad weather and flooding. Stay safe!!

Roberta :(
 
Glad you are o far able to keep the airplane high and dry. I have been getting some pictures from my “Dawn Patrol” friends at Liberty Landing, and their hangars are all underwater, with water up to the bottoms of the fuselages of their WW1 replicas.

Hope the water recedes soon for all of you!
 
Wow, great job getting it up. Your insurance company should give you a discount next year for caring.
 
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