NOAA Hurricane Hunters fly into the eye of Matthew

When I was growing up in the 70's my good friend's dad flew as captain for these missions. He was gone all during hurricane season, and when he returned we would watch a slide show of his amazing eyewall and eye photos.
 
after my mooney flight yesterday I posted a little blurb on facebook about how I took my first J flight and now I'm ready to go Hurricane Chasing. a very surprising amount of my friends said "dude, I don't know, that doesn't sound smart to me, please be careful, I really hope you don't do that". I was like, I really need smarter friends.
 
eman1200 said:
after my mooney flight yesterday I posted a little blurb on facebook about how I took my first J flight and now I'm ready to go Hurricane Chasing. a very surprising amount of my friends said "dude, I don't know, that doesn't sound smart to me, please be careful, I really hope you don't do that". I was like, I really need smarter friends.
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I'm going to save you a bunch of time. Smarter friends (on Facebook or elsewhere) are a myth. If you don't believe me, read through the main part of Facebook that shows what your stupid friends think is interesting. Then read through the little part that shows the trending items that the rest of the potential friends you might find on Facebook think are interesting.

What kind of plane do they use for this, anyhow? P-3 Orion? What's the safer mission in the Orion, ASW or exploring hurricanes? They both sound like a good time to me. At least neither one poses much risk of hitting a mountain, although they both can expose you to a little bit of turbulence.
 
They're just fine. Didn't you see the rabbit's foot hanging from the ceiling!!! LOL

What's Va in the P3? It's fun to watch their track on Flight Tracker.

And I agree with Mulligan. I bruise too easy to take this ride.
 
Oh, I would in a heartbeat. Are they hiring?

I wonder how much water those engines are designed to be able to ingest. That sure seemed to be pushing the limits right before they broke out into the eye.
 
Saw a video on facebook earlier today, might sound crazy but I would be all over that ride. Might show my ignorance here, but I looked up the actual tail number to get a good picture. Says it is a Lockheed WP-3D Orion... looks an awful lot like a DC-7 to me... either way, badass looking plane
 
scottd said:
Turbulence in these tropical systems is typically more intense once it interacts with land. Out over open water it isn't all that bad.
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And yet they seem to act like it's just another day st the office. That thing did hit some turbulence at the end just before the eye. Would make me squirm but then again I've never heard of one crashing.
 
scottd said:
Turbulence in these tropical systems is typically more intense once it interacts with land. Out over open water it isn't all that bad.
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I remember a thing on TV couple years back about a hurricane hunter that was in the eye wall of a storm, lost an engine, and couldn't penetrate the winds to get out. They were getting bounced around more than I'd care to experience. Ended up sending another plane, aka "seeing eye," into the storm to find an altitude where the one-engine plane had enough power to get out. They don't pay enough for that job.
 
old cfi said:
Ended up sending another plane, aka "seeing eye," into the storm to find an altitude where the one-engine plane had enough power to get out.
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What twin is this?

I thought that they only use P3's and C-130's for those missions.
 
Two hands on the yoke my friend. Scratch that. Four hands on the yoke. And another on the throttles.


Anyone else see them loose the radar feed about. Third into it?
 
old cfi said:
I remember a thing on TV couple years back about a hurricane hunter that was in the eye wall of a storm, lost an engine, and couldn't penetrate the winds to get out. They were getting bounced around more than I'd care to experience. Ended up sending another plane, aka "seeing eye," into the storm to find an altitude where the one-engine plane had enough power to get out. They don't pay enough for that job.
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https://www.wunderground.com/resources/education/hugo1.asp

Here is the story told from the lead Forecaster on the flight.
 
The WP-3 Orion they use is HIGHLY modified specifically for this use. Modified both in onboard sensors and structurally reinforced.
 
Where do I sign up? I'd do this any day of the week, and twice on Sundays.
 
"Time's up, lets do this"

14601045_977905658986258_8307172234345657150_n.jpg


"Oh my god he just went in"
 
Met these guys at a blue angels show. They said they fly it in on autopilot. It ends up diving between 5-10k' due to the pressure difference.

Sent from my SM-T710 using Tapatalk
 
I would also sign up for this!
Flying a T28 into a T-storm.
 
denverpilot said:
I'd go... in that airplane. Not in many others...
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Yeah, I would pass on taking a 172 in there.

However, I once inadvertently flew into an embedded level 4 and 5 thunderstorm (described by ATC) in a C-210. The only time I thought I was looking at deaths door in an airplane.
 
DrewG said:
That 'Hog's renovations by Zivko were completed just a couple of weeks ago and they flew it out of GOK to its new location. That was a damn cool plane to see.
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I heard it left Guthrie but I didn't hear where it went. Any ideas?
 
My old man used to do it in WV (maybe the -2?, can't remember what he said) Super Connies. Has some good stories, though I would rather not have the stories and not have to do this :)
 
DrewG said:
I'm not sure where it headed off to. I'm fairly certain all mods haven't been completed, though.
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I was wondering what they would put in there to balance out the CG now that the gun is missing. Then I realized his massive steel cojones for flying near a tornado would probably work...
 
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