Hurricane hunters?

"xerj" wrote
The site is down at the moment, but if I'm understanding it correctly,
do these guys actually penetrate hurricanes in P3s and Gulfstreams?
Do they go IMC flying into hurricane cloud???

Yes, although I was not a "Hurricane Hunter", while on patrol in the
Taiwan Strait, I did fly through a hurricane (typhoon) at an altitude
of about 500'. Yes, it was rough! Yes, we were IMC a lot of the time.
Yes, there are a lot better things to do for a living with an airplane.
Yes, I have friends who flew for the "Hurricane Hunters" after they
left the Navy. No, I don't want to do that again.

Bob Moore
A US Navy LT back then in 1967
VP-46

Bob Moore wrote:

Yes, there are a lot better things to do for a living with an airplane.

As far as I know, over all those years of "hurricane hunting", there has
never been an accident.

Stefan

Stefan wrote:

As far as I know, over all those years of "hurricane hunting", there has
never been an accident.

Stefan

I think there was one, but I don't remember when or details. I perused
the "Hurricane Hunters" site in depth last year, and as I recall, there
is an optimum altitude for eyewall penetration to avoid worst
conditions. 5- 10 thousand feet maybe.

Amazing young men in their flying machines!

~D

Stefan wrote:
Bob Moore wrote:

Yes, there are a lot better things to do for a living with an airplane.


As far as I know, over all those years of "hurricane hunting", there has
never been an accident.

There have been several fatal accidents. Check the left column in:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurr...rricanes_x.htm

Stubby wrote:

There have been several fatal accidents. Check the left column in:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurr...rricanes_x.htm

I stand corrected: In the last 50 years, there was one accident. This
last accident has been thirty years ago.

Of course it needs a lot of courage and knowledge to undertake such a
flight.

Stefan

Stefan wrote:
Stubby wrote:

There have been several fatal accidents. Check the left column in:
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurr...rricanes_x.htm



I stand corrected: In the last 50 years, there was one accident. This
last accident has been thirty years ago.

Please read the cited article. 4 flights, 34 men lost:

Fatal flights

Since the first hurricane flights in 1944, four airplanes have gone down
in storms. All of the men aboard the four airplanes were lost.

Oct. 26, 1952: An Air Force WB-29 was lost in Typhoon Wilma over the
Pacific with 10 men aboard.
Sept. 26, 1955: A Navy P-2V-5F disappeared in Hurricane Janet over the
Caribbean Sea with nine Navy men and two Canadian journalists aboard.
Jan. 15, 1958: An Air Force WB-50 disappeared southeast of Guam while
flying into Super Typhoon Ophelia with nine men aboard.
Oct. 12, 1974: An Air Force WC-130 went down in Typhoon Bess over the
South China Sea with six men aboard. Search airplanes picked up signals
from a crash-location radio beacon and reported seeing seat cushions and
oxygen bottles, which could have been from the airplane, in the water

Source: Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth by
Dr. Bob Sheets and Jack Williams.

Stubby wrote:

I stand corrected: In the last 50 years, there was one accident. This
last accident has been thirty years ago.

Oct. 26, 1952:
Sept. 26, 1955:
Jan. 15, 1958:

Oct. 12, 1974:

But this is exactly what I wrote. (Ok, should have been 47 years.)

Stefan

I did fly through a hurricane (typhoon) at an altitude
of about 500'. Yes, it was rough! Yes, we were IMC a lot of the time.

Back in the early '50s, before wx radar, we blundered into a hurricane
in an R5C (C-46). Flew right through the eye. We were probably at
around 10,000' altitude.

It was not especially rough, but we had extreme rain that was causing
problems with the Curtiss electric props and causing the fire warning
light to light up.

It took an unbelievable anount of drift correction to stay on the A-N
range leg, and after the eye, an equally unbelievable amount in the
opposite direction. We still didn't recognize that we were in a
hurricane, till we were told after we landed.

vince norris

vincent p. norris wrote:
I did fly through a hurricane (typhoon) at an altitude
of about 500'. Yes, it was rough! Yes, we were IMC a lot of the time.

Back in the early '50s, before wx radar, we blundered into a hurricane
in an R5C (C-46). Flew right through the eye. We were probably at
around 10,000' altitude.



My dad has a ton of C-46 time. He was in a troop carrier squadron based out of
Tachikawa, Japan during the Korean War until 1955.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

VE

My dad has a ton of C-46 time. He was in a troop carrier squadron based out of
Tachikawa, Japan during the Korean War until 1955.

Give him my regards!

I was flying them at the same time, but never got to Japan or Korea. I
guess the Commandant of the Marine Corps decided the situation there
was not so desperate that they needed the likes of me over there.

(I guess you can tell from my calling it an R5C that I was not in the
Air Force.)

Although there weren't as many of them as of the Gooney Birds, I
occasionally encounter another R5C - C-46 pilot.

A good friend of mine flew them over the Hump into China during WW II,
and one of the staff pilots here at UNV flew them too, though I don't
know where.

Half the R5Cs in our squadron were bare metal, the other half were
painted navy blue. But where the blue was worn off, there was brown
paint underneath. I guess they were flown by the Air Force (or Air
Corps) before they were discarded and given to the Marines.

vince norris