AirVenture 2021 - Camping

I was parked in the southwest corner of Homebuilt Camping.  The last time I attended AirVenture -- four years ago -- I was parked here also.   I arrived here a little before noon on Monday and by mid-afternoon it was completely full.  Other than a few Kitfoxes, it was all RVs.

But by Wednesday, when this picture was taken, many planes had bugged out because of big thunderstorms forecasted for Wednesday night.

They were forecasting a bad thunderstorm for Wednesday night starting around 10:30PM.  High winds, possible hail and even possible tornados.  The Wednesday night airshow was postponed until Thursday.  A lot of planes left but a lot of planes stayed.  I never really considered leaving.  I have strong tie-downs and the excellent Gustbuster gust lock system so I wasn't too worried about the plane other than if it was hit by quarter-sized hail.  Around 8PM, they announced the Museum would be used as a shelter and shuttle service was available.  But I decided to stay in my tent.  At exactly 10:30, light rain started falling.  It grew heavier but the winds were still calm.  At first thunder could be heard in the distance but it grew closer.  The storm was forecast to be over by 11:15.  I actually fell asleep.  Heavy rain woke me up around 11:30.  The winds had really picked up.  Thunder was booming and lightning was flashing almost continuously now.  My tent was hanging in there pretty good, only getting a little wet around the floor by the door.  Finally around 12:30 the rain and winds slackened, and then stopped.  I felt the ground around the tent entrance and it felt like there were 2-3 inches of water on the ground!

The next morning the water on the ground was gone.  The plane was fine.  My tent had held out well.   A neighboring RV-14 pilot said they had gone to one of the forum pavilions and watched the light show from there; I wished I had done that -- it must have been something to see.