Mission Report
Mission #06E-3156
November 13, 2005
Storm Damage Assessment
Submitted by Capt Kim Kirschman

During the late afternoon of November 12, thunderstorms and tornados moved through section of Iowa to the west and north of Des Moines.  The severe weather caused significant property loss on farms and in several communities.  That evening I was contacted and asked to make damage assessment flights from the Ankeny airport using the Des Moines Squadron aircraft, N98776, at first light on the morning of the 13th.  I agreed, and Lt Don Wood volunteered to fly as observer/photographer.  However, surface winds were very strong early in the morning, exceeding 40 knots, so we were instructed to stand down.  By 8 a.m. the winds appeared to have lessened to the north in the Ames area, so Lt Wood and I drove to the Ames airport to fly N9327E.  The winds soon increased, and it was not until shortly after noon that, with winds having dropped somewhat, gusting to 30-35 knots, we made the decision to takeoff.  Our assigned area was the damage path of a tornado that first touched down approximately 5 miles southwest of Woodward, caused damage between that point and Woodward, then skipped about a dozen miles before touching down again in the northwest part of Ames and continuing to the northeast for several miles.

During the flight, we took pictures of all visible damage areas from various directions and angles, recording the latitude and longitude of each area photographed.  When the tornado's path had been photographed we landed at Ames and downloaded the photos for delivery to the requesting agencies.

Notes:

1.  The runway layout at Ankeny (N-S and NE-SW) precluded operations from that airport during the day.  CAP flight operations in the Cessna 172 and 182 are limited to a maximum 15 knot crosswind component, and since the winds were blowing from the northwest at 25-30 knots with gusts in the 35-40 knot range the Ankeny airport did not have a runway that permitted operations.  A NW-SE runway at Ames did reduce the crosswind component to an acceptable level, though during the morning hours the strong gusts made taxiing hazardous, delaying mission flights;
2.  Aloft, moderate turbulence contributed to the difficulty of taking satisfactory photos, but the two cameras we used both have image stabilization built in, so a majority of the photos taken were adequately sharp;
3.  Flight time totaled 1.5 hours;
4.  Two sample photos can be viewed.  Photo one shows some damaged structures and debris fields in Woodward; photo two was taken north of Ames and shows a tornado's ground path through fields and farms.