DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE Air Force Reserve Command MEMORANDUM FOR ARWO Scheduler 23 Jun 23 FROM: 53 WRS Flight Meteorologist SUBJECT: Mission Summary Report G E N E R A L I N F O R M A T I O N ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Mission Type | Tropical Storm | | Tasking | 22/2330Z & 23/0530Z | | Mission ID | 5305 0403A BRET | | Departure Base/Time | TISX 06/22/23 22:14 | | Arrival Base/Time | TISX 06/23/23 06:52 | | Flight Time | 8.6 hours | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- F I X P O I N T S ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Latitude | Longitude | SLP | MWnd | SWS | | | Date/Time | dd mm N/S | ddd mm E/W | mb | kt | kt | Hurricane | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 06/22/23 23:49 | 13 10 N | 060 16 W | 1005 | 48 | 44 | | | 06/22/23 23:49 | 13 10 N | 060 16 W | 1005 | 48 | 44 | | | 06/23/23 01:18 | 13 17 N | 060 33 W | 1005 | 50 | 49 | | | 06/23/23 01:18 | 13 17 N | 060 33 W | 1005 | 50 | 49 | | | 06/23/23 02:27 | 13 12 N | 060 59 W | 1005 | 24 | 26 | | | 06/23/23 04:04 | 13 20 N | 061 26 W | 1002 | 28 | 33 | | | 06/23/23 04:04 | 13 20 N | 061 26 W | 1002 | 28 | 33 | | | 06/23/23 05:29 | 13 26 N | 061 50 W | 1002 | 60 | 49 | | | 06/23/23 05:29 | 13 26 N | 061 50 W | 1002 | 60 | 49 | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- C R E W R O S T E R ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |AC | Gentile | |CP | Rosal, McDermott | |Nav | Swindall | |ARWO | Olsen | |LM | Latham, Boyd | |OTHER| | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- REMARKS: 12 RECCOs, 15 good dropsondes (19 total, 4 failed), 5 VDMs (32 total obs) This was a 22/2330Z & 23/0530Z fix mission into Tropical Storm Bret. The center was estimated to be at 13.5N 60.3W and we entered from the NW to the SE, then to the NE quadrant, and ended in the SW quadrant with drops at the end points and center points. For the second alpha we entered from the SE and ended the final leg in the NE. Due to still being a little early for the last fix time, we entered in from the North for a 5th fix and exited NW. The storm was a Tropical Storm when we entered and decayed throughout the mission as it approached the Lesser Antilles before somewhat restrengthening on the west side. We planned to fly at FL100, but had to adjust at the first fix as we were unable to find the fix point at that level (descended to FL050 for the remainder of the storm). This was a pretty messy storm as it was very sheared and the FL center was displaced almost 40 miles to the NE of the surface center. We also ran into issues with finding multiple centers. As far as issues, I heard what sounded like something metal falling outside the plane as we turned onto the runway, so we had to turn around and head back to the ramp for maintenance to clear us. We heard it again on takeoff, and various points throughout the storm. We eventually found that maintenance had left a can of oil inside the ARWO pallet. Additionally, the SATCOM IBIT test failed on startup and would not let me log in to Ch 42. A full restart of the pallet eventually fixed this issue. I got the "Mission File Empty" error on Graph Manager. The SFMR processor also froze and crashed within the first hour of flight, but a restart fixed it. The computer also crashed (blue screen of death) at two points (0031Z & 0547Z) in the storm environment. The hygrometer was reading warmer than the Td at various points throughout the mission. Additionally, 4 dropsondes failed in the storm environment, two of them were the center drops on the 4th & 5th fixes so we had to turn back around to fix it again. The other two failures were on end points. On two of the inbound legs the mouse disappeared from the computer screen and would not let me click on anything - it came back after about a minute. SATCOM gave a RCVROFF error for about 25 minutes to KNHC at 0215Z, but a reset on their even eventually fixed it. Finally, the Mission Manager data was all flashing red for 15 minutes at 0436Z until 0452Z and again on approach into TISX for about 15 minutes starting at 0635Z. Penetrations Logged: 0 ARWO:____________________________________ Penetrations Verified: Verifier:____________________________________ Penetrations Posted: Awards:____________________________________