How I spent my day yesterday...

[wsuffa]

The NOAA and USAF Hurricane Hunters were at DCA yesterday. They had one of the Orions, one of the C130s, the G-IV, and a King Air open for tours. Got a chance to talk with the crews & poke around the aircraft.

Just a day at the office to fly through a hurricane....

 

[kayoh190]

Pretty cool!

 

[RyanB]

I watched a documentary about the NOAA's Orion and their missions on the Smithsonian Channel a week or two ago. Showed their planning and the inflight activities that are involved in each flight.

Something I learned from it was that the Orion has a tube that allows the crew to drop weather balloons out of and into the hurricane, which provides data based on the current state of the storm and its strength. Pretty interesting!

 

[Bill]

https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/hurricane-hunter-turbulent-flight-patricia-irene-hugo

 

[Skyrys62]

I was about to complain about how windy it was yesterday.
nevermind

 

[wsuffa]

I watched a documentary about the NOAA's Orion and their missions on the Smithsonian Channel a week or two ago. Showed their planning and the inflight activities that are involved in each flight.

Something I learned from it was that the Orion has a tube that allows the crew to drop weather balloons out of and into the hurricane, which provides data based on the current state of the storm and its strength. Pretty interesting!

Not balloons, but radiosondes.

The Orions, the C130s, and the Gulfstream all have tubes to drop sondes. And "drop" is not fully accurate - the cabin pressure makes the tubes act more as pneumatic tubes and suck the sondes out.

 

[RyanB]

Not balloons, but radiosondes.

I forgot the proper terminology, but remember it being a torpedo shaped object that was sent out of the aircraft. I found it fascinating.

 

[GeorgeC]

I really wish they'd done this on a weekend.

 

[wsuffa]

The two Orions are named "Kermit" and "Miss Piggy". The G-IV is named "Gonzo".