Bulverde Flood

[Mark Julicher]

Central Texas had back to back massive rain storms. Whoever was praying to end the drought -- Thanks! You can stop now, were good for a couple weeks.

Bulverde Airpark flooded. San Marcos Airport flooded. Austin Bergstrom flooded. Probably several more airports too.

20 inches covered most Bulverde Airpark. Julicher Aviation LLC will be open on Monday after we dry out some tools… TIG machine may take a little lounger Bellanca 14-13 wings are full of water. Fire Ants are crawling all over. Bottom two drawers of tool boxes were filled with water.

The 10,000 gallon fuel tank was ripped off its pins, so no fuel for a while. Taxiways are torn up. Runway is OK, but closed until this evening for flotsam clean-up. Whoever owns the Bull on the runway - you can claim him now the water is down.

[Bravo 6]

Re: Bulverde Flood

Hang in there Mark! We got some pretty good rain from the last two storms as well here in the Houston area. Fortunately not as bad as your photos!

[Robert Lees]

Re: Bulverde Flood

Sorry to hear that Mark. Are these floods common in the area? (every 10 years or a 100-yr flood?)

You could open a seaplane base or a fishing school.

Good luck drying everything out.

Rob

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Bulverde Flood

Thanks for the votes of support guys. I needed the laugh Rob -- good one. I guess I need a word with the local water authority about their bad data.

Nobody got hurt. It is only replaceable stuff.

So today we rounded up a few folks and cleaned about ⅓ of the floor space. At the crest, the water was 21 inches deep in my hangar which occurred about 10AM on Friday. I should be able to salvage almost everything. The golf cart got real temperamental - maybe it goes fast, maybe it goes slow, maybe it does not go at all. It is a roll of the dice every time. We used it to tug a plane out with one fellow holding a tail dragger dragger while sitting on the back seat and the stupid cart going fast and slow and whatever. Damn near make him a eunuch.

We rinsed muddy water out of the belly of a Pitts S1 and a PA-12 and left hair blowers shooting into aft fuselages for the night. Washed and squeegee floor, Emptied tool boxes and rinsed down tools with Corrosion X and WD40. Do it all again tomorrow after church. With any luck will finish by Tuesday. Looks like 30 planes need new wheel bearings. We are not the Lone Ranger at Hangar 64. I know of at least three cars that are totaled. One fellow has a perfect set of Harley Davidson handlebars for sale - the Harley kept them above water. Hangar door smacked an RV-9

My F-19 and BC12-D were in a higher hangar and the water crested at the bottom of the wheels. The bearings might be OK.

Maybe I can revive my Lincoln TIG welder. The Bellanca 14-13 wings were resting in a wing cradle and the leading edges were submerged about 15 inches. They were still dripping water this evening. So the 65 year old wood absorbed water. I expect the wood will swell and rupture glue joints. There are maybe two inspection holes in the plywood skin - no chance to get the innards clean, dry or properly inspected.

Water in the Texas Hill country is a funny thing. The rivers that drain this area are small by East or West coast standards, but they go crazy when we get heavy rains. Dry creek beds fill up fast and sweep away anything in the way. When a creek emerges from a canyon or ravine it spreads out quickly and washes over the many low water crossings in this area. In this particular case, the remnants of Patricia saturated the soil last week. There was still flow in the normally dry creeks. Then we got the second round of Gulf moisture which started more or less over the coastal plains west of Corpus Christi and swept Northeast up Interstate 35.

Now the Hill country is 90% limestone with many caves and such, but it is not absorbent. It is a case of the proverbial cow and flat rock. Eventually runoff fined its way into the huge aquifers (caverns actually) from which San Antonio and surrounding area gets most of its water. But it takes time for water to trickle through rocky crevices. The storm moved straight up the Balcones Escarpment with sharply rising hills on the left and flat coastal plains on the right and a whole bunch of flooded cars on Interstate 35 running right up the line between them.
The storm moved slowly and dumped many inches of water along the way with no let up. About 6 inches fell here North of San Antonio and 11 or more inches fell just South of Austin which is only about 40 miles away from us.

Bulverde Airpark sits in a floodway that is the confluence of two normally dry creeks. When the rain hits just right we get caught. It is a known hazard to us, and usually we store things well up above the floor. My office has a raised floor, so we only get 5 inches and not much damage from the water. Perhaps now I shall build a stand to mount my TIG up higher. We had PA22 wings on a table in the spray booth, so they were fine… but just not enough tables to store the Bellanca wings flat.

So a little Motrin and Scotch to soothe the aching muscles and do it all again tomorrow.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Bulverde Flood

I used to be at an airport that CONSISTENTLY flooded the hangars just enough to always get the tail wheel bearings and soaked the mains about once every 3 or 4 years. The floor was wet after EVERY rain, but not enough to cause damage. I started putting the tail up on a table after the first flood (SURPRISE! The oil pressure comes up faster!) After the first time the main bearings got wet I took a set of car ramps out and rolled the mains up on them to keep them dry. Easy way to turn a 5 year flood into a 50 year flood. It does take some work to roll a Taylorcraft up a car ramp! Making a shallower entry helps a LOT, as does a come-a-long, but it was worth it. SFQ is a much better airport and better hangars than the old place, even if all their new hangars are built on higher ground. My hangar is dry even when the road to it is flooded.

Hank

[Robert Lees]

Re: Bulverde Flood

Live on a hill.

It helps (until the winds blow).

[barnstmr]

Re: Bulverde Flood

Mark,
I've been off the forum for awhile and am just now seeing this. Sorry to hear about your water problems. Do you need anything? How about Vic and Doc. Everyone come out ok?

Terry

[Mark Julicher]

Re: Bulverde Flood

Terry,
Good to hear from you.

Doc had a lot of damage to equipment and had thee planes in the water - 30 inches deep in his hangar. Wiped out wheel bearings on Stearman, T-craft, and L-3. His C-210 was in another hangar that only got a couple inches of dirty water in it. Lots of clean up in his other hangars. Mud everywhere. Aircraft and medical records turned to paper mache. His EKG machine was above water. Not so lucky on a lot of tools. Fried the computer in his golf cart but it is back in operation after an $800 fix. I think we are both going to buy motorcycle lifts for the golf carts - that brilliant idea is courtesy of the T-craft Tribe. We can store carts above historic flood levels.

Vic and I share hangar 64. We had 22 inches of water. The water came up at about 0500 in the morning and by 1400 it was back below the tarmac. Mud, wood chips, cow pies, fire ants, and other undescribable flotsam had to be shoveled then pressure washed and squeegeed out. Mostly we are cleaned up now. Our golf cart is running intermittently, but getting better. Water is still dripping out of the Onan engine in our tug. The Bellanca 14-13 wings were in a wing rack and therefore went ⅓ under water with leading edges downward. The ancient plywood and spars are saturated. It is beyond economic repair, so I'm writing it off and buying the plane from the owner - he was not insured and it was in my hangar… I'm not confident in those old glue joints, so thats the way the cookie crumbles. All of Vic's C-140 parts remained high and dry.

The TIG machine was under water. I have not had time to clean it out and give it a smoke check. We resurrected several small electrical tools. We cleaned out and made operational several pneumatic tools. We had three differential pressure gauges under water, but dried them out and they are working so far… I bought a new one just to be sure and sending others out for calibration/overhaul. I hope ATS will honor the 5 year warranty I purchased for them, but I will not blame them if they don't. Pitts S-1 has the wings removed and off-airport so it only got water in the aft fuselage - flushed with clean water and dried it out with a blow dryer. Same with PA-12 that was in for annual -- cleaned it out and dried it out and it is OK. PA-12 wheel bearings were brand new and freshly packed and looked perfect when we opened up the wheels - that was a lucky break, most wheel bearings went south in less than a day.

All of the stuff stored on lower shelves was wet and muddy, but much of it only required cleaning. All the grease guns had water in them. Aeroquip hose and scat tube were salvageable. Wire rolls - no problem there. Shopvac required a little bit of work, but OK for now… maybe the motor bearings will give out soon - but hard to say. I had two Delco-Remy starters under water, but nobody wants those boat anchors anymore. One Bendix SF-4 got saturated - maybe have to trade that in. One alternator underwater… it was due for overhaul anyway. My O-200 was up on the bench so it was fine. Maybe about $50 worth of gaskets fell in the mud - not too bad a loss there. Sheet metal stock - a bit gritty, but no real harm. We jacked up the paint booth and cleaned up around and under it pretty well - it is back in operation right now with PA-22 wings in it.

Both my Taylorcrafts were in another hangar. the water there was about 6 inches deep. I have not opened the wheels up to inspect the bearings yet because I'm too busy with customers. I suspect I lost two tail wheels, but main gear may be OK by the look of the high water marks.

We had about 100 shop towels and 5 furniture pads get wet and nasty. I have an extra washing machine in the garage so I washed a lot of laundry and hung it all over the place to dry.

We had about 4 inches of water in our office which sits on a raised floor. Office smelled musty, but a good, under-floor spray out with chlorine bleach and three days with a blow dryer under the floor boards mostly fixed that. Whats more, we have under-floor heating now. That blow dryer is doing a great job, while the hangar is cold the office is warm. I had a power supply get wet, but it is working now after a blow dry. Some documents got wet, but no customer logs were hurt and the computer system is OK. The wall between our hangar and the next was pushed in about three feet at the base. It would have been horrible if it had collapsed altogether, but we were able to take the sheathing off the wall and coax the sole plate back in place with a sledge hammer. The electrics in that wall ripped out and blew one breaker, but otherwise we had built all our electrical outlets at 48 inches above the floor and there was no difficulty with them. The coffee maker stayed above water and the coffee grounds stayed dry - gotta have priorities!

Meanwhile we have replaced $1500 worth of bearings on various planes. Only had one ELT go under water - that one is probably ruined but still drying out.

Outside, the line shack was pushed off its foundation. It sort of rotated a few degrees on the plumbing stack, so the potty is still useable, but it is going to be a big job cleaning out that building. Nearly all hangars had water - some more and some less. Some tarmac was lifted by hydraulic pressure and so about 5000 sq ft is being cut away and replaced by concrete - pouring this coming Monday. The 10,000 gal fuel tank was pushed (floated?) about 8 feet from its normal spot. The fuel line ruptured of course. With a crane and a lot of shoveling gravel we put is back where it goes. Fuel is operational now and the lines are flushed out. Two cars were caught in the flow of water and trash. One is working now after a transmission flush and differential flush - lucky! The other car is totaled - engine compartment packed with debris and interior filled with water.

The center of the runway was three feet deep in water. Old Monahan's Angus bull, 'Boudreau', got out though a washed out fence and took up residence on the sucullent grass around the maintenance compound. He is returned now, but apparently there was some roll hay stored in the compound and Boudreau was helping himself to it. I hear tell there is a dispute over purloined hay, I doubt that will turn out well. The big New Holland tractor is OK. The little Kubota needed a little cleaning and coaxing, but it is back in operation. One Grumman had the wings removed and hauled off to a repair station. Andersons replaced all wheel bearings in their school fleet and were back in the air in two days, although they were refueling over the wing from NASCAR cans. One hangar door was knocked off its tracks and another swung into a hangar and mashed an RV-9 wing.

One of our friends at the FSDO dropped by to see the damage. He wanted us to report any aircraft that took off without a mechanic inspection. Say what?? Pilot in command determines if the plane is airworthy. Talk about over-reach of authority.

So that is how we are doing. Vic and I finished two annual inspections and are repairing a Cardinal this week. Operations are normal (mostly).

[RyanShort1]

Re: Bulverde Flood

One of our friends at the FSDO dropped by to see the damage. He wanted us to report any aircraft that took off without a mechanic inspection. Say what?? Pilot in command determines if the plane is airworthy. Talk about over-reach of authority.

Sounds like typical SAT FSDO ops to me! $#*+!