Golf Ball Hail at the Flying X

[GAHorn]

Thought I'd post a pic of the aftermath of the hailstorm we had last week. Here's a shot of my front yard from our breezeway of golf-ball sized hail that had fallen about 5 mins earlier. The bucolic photo belies the ferocity of the event. In the photo the rain is now gently falling but only 5 mins earlier it was 60 mph gusts and horizontal hail. That martin-house sitting on 4x4 post was swaying 4-feet in the wind. Anyone flying in that stuff would have died, pure and simple.

MVC-001S.JPG

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Was that parenthetically bucolic?

[HA]

you sure wouldn't want to run into that in one of our airplanes, for sure. just not stout enough, you'll lose the windshield and worse. however, I can show you several airplanes that are testament that you can fly through very large hail, not that it is a pleasant experience. I personally haven't run into anything larger than golf balls, but a couple of our Cheyennes (if there is anything to recommend them, it is that they are built like tanks) have encountered baseball hail. these are not normal operations for any other pilots, however, and I'm not telling anyone to fly around thunderstorms with impunity - I'm asked to give talks on tstm avoidance often and glad to do it. in any case, our shop is very good at reskinning due to the occasional mistake.

if they tried, you can tell which direction the pilot turned to escape the hail by the way the dents wrap around one side of the airplane - a little tip for your next pre-buy

[GAHorn]

Was that parenthetically bucolic?

Realizing the anticipatory fervor with which our members log onto our forums, that was my contribution to today's vocabulary excersize, parenthetically speaking.

[blueldr]

George,
your picture looks like the outfield of a golf driving range on a nice Saturday afternoon.