Gusts +56kts and the E-145...(pics)
 

So we get into TUL this morning before a cell craps on the field. Everything is looking allright for departure so we board up the pax and I tell the FA that we will probably have to wait 10 or so minutes for a cell to pass through. Boy was I wrong...

We are about to hand out the paperwork when some wicked winds, rain, and thunder+lightning batter the airport. The airplane we were in had the older mechanical gust-lock so the yoke was jumping all over the place. The yoke was fluttering back and forth. It was moving at least 8 inches backwards before slamming back forward... and the gust lock was on. The airplane is rocking back and forth, rain is moving horizontally, stairs are moving on the ramp, etc. The one report I get from tower was "winds in excess of 56kts..." I say to to hell with this, we are getting off the plane. After everyone is off the plane, the gate agent pulls the jetbridge back just in case.

Even if there wasn't a 50kt limitation for us, I would have still called MX because the tail took a beating.



A destroyed fiberglass fairing that covers one of the hinges
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...w/DSCN1733.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...w/DSCN1734.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...w/DSCN1735.jpg

These next pics were taken by the ramp supervisor. I wasn't about to get up in the de-ice bucket while the winds were up there. I apologize for the size and quality for I did not take them.

Torn aluminum on the bottom surface of the elevator
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...Picture022.jpg

Peeled/folded metal as a result of over-extension of the hindge
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...Picture023.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...Picture024.jpg

This was from underneath the elevator. You can see daylight where the fairing is supposed be covering.
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...Picture026.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...Picture030.jpg

Good call with getting everybody off the plane. You have one for the grandkids now :)

Well done foxcow

what was the tail number?

Check your PMs

PM me the tail too, if you would.

Damn Oklahoma and their winds/tornadoes/thunderstorms. I flight instructed in OK..... that was an experience

just for clarification, you offloaded via the air-stair in 50kts winds?

I bet people were STILL taking off in that stuff......

Nope, not a wise course of action.

Good call Fox. If the plane was getting that beat up it could have been a matter of time before the pax were getting hurt too.

I don't know...I woulda flown it....

A few weeks back I was arriving into Omaha and we had been in touch with dispatch and flightwatch and thought we would be ok... while on the approach the field reported 55+ gusts. Needless to say we did some creative vectoring of our own and after a liitle while landed in vrb @ 3 winds

Landed in DEN not too long ago with reported 50 kts of wind...I certainly believe it! I've never seen the CRJ yoke displaced from neutral because of wind...! They were back to their full travel...I remember from my days on the ERJ that the yoke, in that situation, could conceivably break a wrist or two or three.

I suppose the hydraulics dampen the wind/gusts enough that you don't get the same jarring as the JungleJet...