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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 18, 2014 16:04:39 GMT 12
I just heard on Radio New Zealand National's 4.00pm news that the storm that is heading down the country has destroyed aircraft and hangars at Greymouth, as well as other buildings in the own.
Sad news.
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Post by baz62 on Apr 18, 2014 16:16:00 GMT 12
Hell it's been a hell of a storm. Still windy and grey here but currently not raining. Gave the dog show a miss this morning but may be ok for tomorrow.
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Post by thomarse on Apr 19, 2014 20:08:13 GMT 12
Any news on what was in the hangar?
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 19, 2014 21:00:07 GMT 12
There was a very quick clip on one of the TV3 news breaks last night, looked like several light aircraft but I didn't get time to recognise anything.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Apr 22, 2014 19:37:35 GMT 12
There is extensive storm damage evident in Westland.
Many trees down, some blown to bits others uprooted. Some have been blocking the roads but now seem to have been largely cut back, but the debris still lingers.
Many sheds, garages and barns deroofed or destroyed. We saw a motel that has its roof blown off.
Power poles uprooted and the power and phone cables left in a tangled mess at the side of the road.
Due to bridge damage, the main highway SH6 between Fox township and Haast is currently closed every night.
Even a lot of the little white marker sticks at the side of the road have been bent double or blown out of the ground.
Apparently there were extensive power cuts throughout the region. Some areas are still without power.
Must be a great time to be a chain saw retailer in the area.
Little of this seems to have been reported in the media - obviously professional airhead Peaches Geldof is considered far more important.
flyernzl is currently in Hokitika
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 22, 2014 19:57:58 GMT 12
Did you have a look at the "destroyed" airport Peter? Just wondering what the actual situation is there.
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Post by Peter Lewis on Apr 23, 2014 22:43:13 GMT 12
The storm damage seems to extend the full length of The Coast.
I have reports that Karamea is still on generator power.
Locals at Westport showed us the large window in the town supermarket that was blown in, and a car dealers yard in the main street where the neighbouring brick wall was blown down, badly damaging several of the cars.
Large trees uprooted or with fractured trunks litter the fields.
Several damaged trees at Westport airport and the 'Wecome to the Buller Region' sign there has been blown flat.
Quite devastating.
For those that are familiar with Greymouth airport, the hangar that was destroyed is the last one of the row on the western (ocean) side of the field. The first bay of the building has been completely demolished, the second bay just has a couple of walls left standing.
Some of the debris has been blown straight through the perimeter fence, across the access road, and onto the beach area on the other side.
A 'Usually Reliable Source' at Hokitika airfield blames the destruction on a faulty hangar door design, but I think the building would have been demolished anyway, judging by the other damage I have seen.
I could see no apparent aircraft remains among the debris at the time I was there. A local said that the hangar was occupied by four or five aircraft at the time, the local newspaper says eight.
I did see the damaged fuselage of Pietenpol Air Camper ZK-JQN being loaded on to a trailer at the site, so that is apparently one victim.
Apart from this localized destruction, Greymouth airport otherwise appears undamaged and is operating normally.
Cessna ZK-COY and Piper ZK-DGI were active, so they escaped the storm.
flyernzl is currently at Murchison
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Post by Dave Homewood on Apr 23, 2014 23:29:43 GMT 12
Sounds pretty bad. There has been a fair bit on the news the past few days showing the devastation. I hope the Monteiths Brewery is ok.
Amazing how we had about five days of warning of the last so-called cyclone which was a mere whimper and a bit of a joke, and no warning of this ferocious storm that has damaged everything in its path through the North and South Islands. And when I saw one weather forecaster asked on TV why they never warned NZ about this weather coming, his answer was "Well, weather is unpredictable." Ha! Right there he puts himself out of a job.
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Post by TS on Apr 24, 2014 14:18:08 GMT 12
True !!! But you do realise Dave, that being a weather forecaster you can never get the sack for making a mistake. It's the only job on the planet that you can repeatedly do wrong, week after week be complained about almost as often and still have a job to go to the next day. Try that in anything else......  Neat ha. |
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Post by hardyakka on Apr 24, 2014 16:15:48 GMT 12
True !!! But you do realise Dave, that being a weather forecaster you can never get the sack for making a mistake. It's the only job on the planet that you can repeatedly do wrong, week after week be complained about almost as often and still have a job to go to the next day. Try that in anything else...... Neat ha. Economists? They always have an escape clause / excuse about why things didn't go as they predicted. |
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Post by kiwithrottlejockey on Apr 24, 2014 17:06:42 GMT 12
I escaped from South Westland in the nick of time. It was starting to get pretty hairy as I left the area. See my post in the Warbirds Over Wanaka thread. Trees were starting to become horizontal missiles in a couple of places as I was travelling enroute to Wanaka from Fox Glacier.
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Post by kiwi172 on Apr 28, 2014 11:45:12 GMT 12
Ah Gentlemen.
Quick to criticise the Weather forecasters for being incorrect
Have you ever tried doing it ?
AND have you ever given them thanks for when they get it correct ?
Especially when you need a five day spell to drop the hay and gather it in !
We used to talk direct with the forecasters at Kelburn and they would phone us back when there looked like a three or five day dry period approaching.
We never bitched when they got it wrong and never threatened to sue then for loss.
And they never came at us for a share of profits when they got it right - which was more oft than not.
We were the winners !!
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Post by suthg on Apr 28, 2014 12:50:21 GMT 12
It seems that earthquake engineers and civil authorities can have arguments and the respective engineers have been taken to court I believe in Italy and other places, and lost their jobs!!
Forecasters - well they tend to traditionally rely too heavily on the US GFS data and NZ is slowly managing to get the most out of their new Super Computer which gives much closer and shorter span increments in the spatial calc field for actual NZ geographic elevation profiles and vegetation and lake specifics, which can cause quite considerable differences in local micro weather patterns. They should be getting better at it and make a step leap in accuracy. In the worst case, go outside and use a wet finger... (it detects wind direction...) and look at the sky!
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Post by Bruce on Apr 28, 2014 12:55:31 GMT 12
And as far as aviation weather is concerned, now we have to pay for it, we are allowed to have higher expectations!
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Post by Peter Lewis on Apr 29, 2014 21:50:08 GMT 12
I await the day when an aircraft operator suffers a financial loss from acting on an incorrect aviation weather report and goes the Met Office for the loss.
Under the Sale of Goods and Services Act, they would be liable and are legally unable to contract out of that liabilty.
Mind you, have you ever actually listened to the wording the use - full of ambiguity and cop-out phrases.
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Post by thomarse on May 23, 2014 18:37:28 GMT 12
Did anyone ever hear which aircraft was/were involved and how badly damaged?
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