Imagine this: You’re flying in a noisy prop-plane, earplugs in place. Instrument panels and equipment take up more room than seats. There are only six or so people aboard, including the pilot.
Before long, the plane is an airborne roller-coaster ride – pitching, bouncing and suddenly dropping. Rain (maybe even hail) pelts the plane. It’s dark, but every once in a while you are surprised by a brilliant flash of lightning.
You are in a hurricane, heading to the center (or eye). And your pilot flew into the deadly storm on purpose!
That’s right. Because you’re riding with the
U.S. Air Force Reserve’s Hurricane Hunters.
WHY FLY INSIDE?
Why would anyone fly into a hurricane?
“That’s the only way to get certain bits of important info – like wind speed and pressure inside the storm. Satellites can’t help us there,” says spokeswoman Michele Rivera of the Reserve’s 403rd Wing at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi. (Rivera, a Hurricane Hunter herself, was our main source for this story.) The National Hurricane Center in Miami uses the info from reconnaissance missions to check a storm’s strength, speed and direction. If the storm is coming your way, this is how you’ll know it’s time to batten down the hatches or evacuate.
THE AWE FACTOR
Most of us wouldn’t think of flying into a hurricane. But some are so awestruck by the power of the storms, they actually enjoy the trip.
“I love them,” Rivera says. “It’s fascinating.” Take Hurricane Georges two years ago. This storm had a “beautiful eye,” she says. “When we were in the eye, I could see sunlight up above and flashing off the water below. There was a solid wall of white clouds that went up to 50,000 feet.”
It’s obvious Rivera has ‘cane hunting in her blood. “It’s amazing that something so destructive on land can be so awesome and beautiful in the air.”
‘CANE DANGER
Hurricane Hunters fly at about 5,000 feet and only over the ocean. Flying over land is extremely dangerous because of turbulence and mountains. Weather stations on land pick up storm readings so planes don’t have to.
Just because it’s safer over water doesn’t mean the flights are smooth. Some are pretty rough.
Rivera rode through Hurricane Mitch last year at its strongest. “It really was a roller-coaster storm,” she says. Two years ago, she went through a weaker Hurricane Georges: “It was kind of like riding over a speed bump.”
However, very little frightens her. “We’ve hit a pocket before and lost a couple of thousand feet. That was a little bit hairy. But I have so much faith in our pilots. I know they know what to do.”
WANNA BE A HURRICANE HUNTER?
Here are some tips from the pros:
– Finish high school.
– Take plenty of science and math courses.
– To become a pilot, you must have a college degree.
– As an Air Force reservist, you work part time. That means you can go to college or work for another employer at the same time.
THE CREW
Each flight carries a crew of 6: aircraft commander, co-pilot, flight engineer, navigator, weather officer and dropsonde system operator. Some crew members are full-time employees of the Air Force, and others are traditional reservists who serve the Air Force one weekend a month. They come from all walks of life, including airline pilots, teachers, doctors and stay-at-home moms.
CALL TO ACTION
When a storm in the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean Sea, or Pacific or Atlantic oceans is threatening land, the hunters go into action. Hurricane season runs from June through November.
Until then, they fly practice missions: the usual criss-cross pattern through the eye – 105 miles out and back again from corner to corner. They practice special techniques to keep the plane level in a storm and to counteract the turbulence. And they practice gathering info. Among the devices they use is the dropsonde, a weather-sensing canister dropped with a parachute into the eye of the storm and down to the ocean’s surface. Its radio signals transmit info – temperature, humidity, pressure and winds inside the storm – to the plane.
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Check out more about Hurricane Hunters at their Web site:
www.hurricanehunters.com. While you’re there, go on a virtual hurricane recon mission!
