NOAA Hurricane Hunters

[JimNtexas]

In April 2015 'Miss Piggy', one of NOAA'S P-3's came by Bergstrom.

Dr. Jeff Masters, a principle at Weather Underground, flew 249 Hurricane missions as meteorologist. I believe this was his last mission:

https://www.wunderground.com/resources/education/hugo1.asp

 

[dell30rb]

I am flying a Mooney from Chicago to Raleigh on Monday afternoon, I hope I don't inadvertently become a hurricane hunter.

Latest Euro model

https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/905427331757604865

So I ended up flying back through the outskirts of Irma on Monday. The club mooney had issues so I ended up flying a club piper warrior. It took me 7 hours on the hobbs to get back from Chicago. My back hurts just thinking about it. 40 knot headwinds for the 2nd half of the trip and I almost had to make two fuel stops. Some pretty rough turbulence and up/down drafts over the mountains at 9k feet. After the mountains it was smooth though, high overcast with moderate precip.

One of the atlanta controllers was kind enough to remind me that my headwinds were not going to get any better as I approached Raleigh and maybe I should consider another fuel stop. I ended up landing with an hour in the tanks. Flying the pattern was pretty ridiculous. I came in kinda hot due to expected shear + gusts with no flaps and had it stopped in 600 feet.

 

[Todd82]

So I ended up flying back through the outskirts of Irma on Monday. The club mooney had issues so I ended up flying a club piper warrior. It took me 7 hours on the hobbs to get back from Chicago. My back hurts just thinking about it. 40 knot headwinds for the 2nd half of the trip and I almost had to make two fuel stops. Some pretty rough turbulence and up/down drafts over the mountains at 9k feet. After the mountains it was smooth though, high overcast with moderate precip.

One of the atlanta controllers was kind enough to remind me that my headwinds were not going to get any better as I approached Raleigh and maybe I should consider another fuel stop. I ended up landing with an hour in the tanks. Flying the pattern was pretty ridiculous. I came in kinda hot due to expected shear + gusts with no flaps and had it stopped in 600 feet.

On the flip side the C404 on the back side of that storm used the "sling shot" for about 230kts GS that day over TN/AL area.