South Grafton Aerodrome Flood

[kgwilson]

Like Murwillumbah South Grafton Aerodrome got flooded during the huge storm on the 28th of February. This occurs when the Clarence River height exceeds 3 metres and the flood gates through which the aerodrome drains close automatically. The river Peaked at 7.6 metres at about 1:00am on 1st of March. The level is now down to about 4.33 metres as of 2:30pm on 3rd of March. The Aerodrome is between 3.3 and 4.3 metres above sea level. It is the lowest point in South Grafton and everything in the local catchment drains through it. We believe that this is the biggest local flood since the levee was installed. In the 11 years I have been here with a number of floods I have never had water in my hangar.

 

I paddled out around the hangars today in a canoe and although my hangar is the highest on the Aerodrome it is not much higher than the others. A Mooney owner had water over the wing roots and the local flying school has water inside the cabins of all of its 3 aircraft. A Tiger Moth and an Auster had their tails raised and escaped the water. My Morgan Sierra is quite low but the water level got to within 10mm of the bottom of the fuselage so I was extremely lucky as I only have wheels and brakes to remove clean, regrease & reassemble.

 

Here are some photos.

1. My Morgan Sierra

2. Jabiru 230 with water ingress

3. The clubhouse - Note the tops of the signs

4. Clubhouse & hangars

5 Water level from the clubhouse veranda. It is about 1 metre above ground level

 

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by kgwilson

[Blueadventures]

Great news KG.

[turboplanner]

Great News

 

[tillmanr]

Good news for you KG but a shame for many others along the eastern edge.

If these weather events are going to happen more into the future, maybe owners in flood prone areas need to consider hoists to lift their aircraft up high in the hangars.

[RossK]

All in all, a great outcome.

[kgwilson]

33 minutes ago, tillmanr said:

Good news for you KG but a shame for many others along the eastern edge.

If these weather events are going to happen more into the future, maybe owners in flood prone areas need to consider hoists to lift their aircraft up high in the hangars.

There used to be a number of hoists at YSGR hangars but due to the lack of severe flooding over the past decade or 2 there are only a couple left & these guys are laughing now. One owner of a Mooney put his aircraft up on blocks and retracted the undercarriage. He then came back and raised it another 100mm or so. He managed to escape the flood depth by the skin of his teeth like me but even better his undercarriage is out of the water too.

 

I think that there will be a few of us (me included) who organise hoists for the future.

[facthunter]

One good thing about it flooding is the REAL ESTATE INTERESTS WON'T BE SUCH A THREAT. (caps key stuck but no matter.)  Nev

[Old Koreelah]

1 hour ago, tillmanr said:

Good news for you KG but a shame for many others along the eastern edge.

If these weather events are going to happen more into the future, maybe owners in flood prone areas need to consider hoists to lift their aircraft up high in the hangars.

That’s why they’re called hangars…

[planedriver]

Looks to be fairly good news for some, but really feel for those less fortunate.

[kgwilson]

The water has begun to recede. As of 7:00am this morning it has dropped about 100mm so we are on the way to the cleanup.

[eightyknots]

On 03/03/2022 at 8:05 PM, kgwilson said:

There used to be a number of hoists at YSGR hangars but due to the lack of severe flooding over the past decade or 2 there are only a couple left & these guys are laughing now. One owner of a Mooney put his aircraft up on blocks and retracted the undercarriage. He then came back and raised it another 100mm or so. He managed to escape the flood depth by the skin of his teeth like me but even better his undercarriage is out of the water too.

 

I think that there will be a few of us (me included) who organise hoists for the future.

Ho KG, I hope your aircraft cleans up OK. My son lives a couple of hundred metres from the airfield. It was a very big flood this time around.

[kgwilson]

Most of us have been cleaning up for the last 2 days. Yesterday I took the wheels off & washed the bearings in petrol & sprayed them with Inox. The plane is now sitting higher on axle stands under the main undercarriage beam after I removed the fairing. Water was in the fairing but not in the fuselage. That's how close it got. 

 

I had old carpet on the floor in the workshop & emergency accommodation end of the hangar. All that had to go as well as my bed and anything lower than 500mm above the floor. Tonight I am absolutely stuffed. I didn't drink enough & became dehydrated. I should know better as I am always telling others to keep hydrated. The whole area is just a muddy quagmire so we had to walk to our hangars & take everything in wheelbarrows etc. Yesterday I hosed the mud off the concrete floor & sorted the plane. It rained on and off all day as well. The river got down to 2 metres but then went up to 4 metres.

 

Today I had a 2kva Honda generator & my pressure washer but it took all morning to shift everything & drag the stinking muddy carpet out which weighed a ton plus a lot of other stuff. My radio which was siting on a table fell off & went underwater. I retrieved it quickly but it got completely submerged. I took it home yesterday and sprayed clean water over the board & electronics & then used a hairdryer on cool to dry it. It took about half an hour. Then I sprayed contact cleaner over everything & waited another half hour. Put the batteries back in and it WORKS. It was an experiment & a long shot but I have some power tools & other things I am going to try & retrieve as well.

 

The worst thing about the clean up is the stink of mud and rotting vegetation. I can smell it now though it is imaginary.

 

Still we got off lightly with all aircraft salvageable. Not so in Lismore. Planes were carried away in the flood waters, many several km ending upside down or severely damaged, one even ending up in Coraki & almost all written off, Apparently not all have yet been found. The aero club got submerged and the flood mound where they used to park aircraft when a flood was coming was several metres under water. Nothing escaped.

 

Below are a couple of photos of my cleanup so far.

1. Wheels removed and up higher on axle stands.

2. Stuff thrown out. Note the dead grass, high water mark & flooded area over the back fence.

[eightyknots]

Mate, despite the fact that you had a big clean up, I am so glad that your aircraft was spared from major damage❗

 

 

[ClintonB]

Sad about the others, insurance may help, but never seems to cover enough to replace everything and the true loss

[kgwilson]

I have been looking at all the stuff thrown out after flooding and wonder why when much of it can be salvaged. Why do they throw out fairly new fridges? They have sealed units. Dry them out & they work as good as new.

 

I have a pedestal stand electric fan & it fell over & was submerged for 3 days or so. I put it outside & hosed it down. Today I pressure washed it including the switch gear & electric motor to get rid of the mud. I left it in the sun to dry for a couple of hours & then hooked it up to the generator. It works like new. All 3 speed buttons & the off switch. All my mains powered tools got the same treatment. I haven't tried them yet. Once they are all going I'll use some contact cleaner to hopefully reduce or prevent future corrosion.

[KRviator]

Agreed, KG. Anything that 1 - wasn't powered when it went under, and 2 - is a 'basic' electrical item (fridges, fans, heaters, etc) will usually come good once you've hosed it off and out with clean water and blow-dried it. The worst that can happen is you waste 30 minutes trying to rescue the item, but that could turn into an hour saved by not having to go into Harvey Noman -- to buy a new one, even if you get the insurance cheque ..

[onetrack]

One of the main problems with moisture is electronic connections. As electronics work on low voltages and milliamp currents, any corrosion from submersion will result in electronic faults.

And you always get corrosion from submersion, and it is extremely difficult to hose out all the chemicals that float in with floodwaters. If you have non-critical equipment, you can probably cope with intermittent faults.

 

But if you have critical electronic components, you can write the item off. This is why, under the National standard for Damage Assessment Criteria for the Classification of Statutory Write-Offs, as applied to on-road vehicles, any submersion of an on-road vehicle whereby the floorpan is covered by more than 150mm in depth of floodwaters, is sufficient to classify the vehicle as a Statutory Write-Off. 

 

This is simply because many safety-critical electronic components are mounted under seats, or low in the footwells behind kick panels, and if these components become submerged, corrosion is guaranteed, and therefore they may not operate when needed, or operate intermittently, possibly causing severe safety issues (airbags, ABS, even engine stoppage at critical times).

You need to be very careful buying used vehicle electronic components, and make sure they haven't come from a submerged vehicle.

 

Edited March 10, 2022 by onetrack

[turboplanner]

28 minutes ago, onetrack said:

You need to be very careful buying used vehicle electronic components, and make sure they haven't come from a submerged vehicle.

That reminds me of the time when my office was next to the GM Vic Service Manager. From time to time his voice would start to rise and it be a sure sign that a customer hadn't agreed with a decision after a long process of arbitration.

 

This customer was complaining that his new Commodore was the most unreliable car he'd ever bought, had been back to the dealer (think of a mind boggling number - some of them would say 57 times) and if it wasn't lighte failing is was strange EXU messages or the engine would cut out etc. It ended with him promising the customer he would investigate. He called the District Service Manager in, who backed up the customer story, and about three hours later I heard: "Mr X, I don't quite know how to tell you this (which got my attention), but your new car was submerged in the Murray River for a month after being stolen from the Car Carrier. The Factory Manager issued instructions for it to be taken back to Elizabeth and cut up. What I can't explain is how, after that you got to buy it as a new car, and we've asked Police to investigate. So you'll be getting a new car, plus......By that time they were the best of mates.

[F10]

Glad to hear you got away with just wet wheels, phew, it was close! I guess that Jab, being GRP, might be ok....? Terrible event, feel for the poor Lismore dudes.