An interesting overview from USA Today on the NOAA hurricane hunters, who use 10 C130s, 2 P3s (‘Kermit’ and ‘Miss Piggy’), and a G-IV to get data from in and around tropical storms and hurricanes. They used to be based at MacDill AFB (KMCF), reasonably close to my Floridian grandparents, but are now a bit farther inland at Lakeland (KLAL). Some info on their fleet on the NOAA website. The Air Force Reserve 53rd Weather Reconaissance Squadron at Keesler AFB (KBIX) in Mississippi does the same thing with Super C130s.
There was a good documentary on them maybe 15 years ago, which I can’t find. The aeroplanes take a lot of abuse, and one of the pilots described a triple flameout somewhere in a hurricane. There was some amazing aerial footage from the eye too. A 2:30 clip from youtube:
Those people are brave. Thanks for mentioning them.
Didn’t know 2 different units do these flights.
Way back in ‘98 I had the privilege of riding on one of those flights into hurricane Floyd. It was quite the ride !
Way back in ‘98 I had the privilege of riding on one of those flights into hurricane Floyd. It was quite the ride !
Congratulations, you have just been selected for a mandatory post about this. “Puhlease” 🥺
No joke flying these Hurricane Hunters:
https://tailspinstales.blogspot.com/2011/05/hunting-hugo.html
And the 3 engine fire/shutdown due to Ocean Salt out of St.Johns
https://skybrary.aero/sites/default/files/bookshelf/3131.pdf
Imagine being that aircraft commander in the middle of the Atlantic, at night, with only one engine remaining!
I lost 1 out of 2 on an Atlantic crossing once, but it was daylight. And I only had myself to worry about……
Snoopy wrote:
a mandatory post about this. “Puhlease”
Well, you might be surprised, but it was actually rather boring. The most exciting moments came when we punched through the eyewall. There it got VERY shaky, otherwise it was surprisingly calm. On my flight, the eyewall was reforming (I think that’s the term), so wasn’t very well defined. That said, punching through into the eye of the hurricane is quite the experience! What you really have to admire is the stamina of the pilots. These are something like 10-hour flights, flown as a X pattern through the storm. I’ll see if I can find some pics (this was before digital, and I’m not sure where the scans are).
So you had a window for yourself during this flight ? Were you in the flightdeck ?
By stamina, you mean endurance right ?
I wonder the maintenance regime of these planes.
A flight track from Aug 30 :
I moved around, but spent a lot of time (especially going through the eyewalls) in the cockpit. There’s plenty of space on the C130 flight deck.
By stamina, yes, I was referring to the flight crew.
No idea about mx, but after we landed the plane was refueled and the next crew went up into the storm again.
To add: the Hurricane Hunter C130s also have a big observation window in the main passenger/cargo area, so you get a panoramic view from there also. It’s forward of the wing.
