DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE Air Force Reserve Command MEMORANDUM FOR ARWO Scheduler 12 Sep 24 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 | Hurricane | | Tasking | 1730Z, 2030Z, 2330Z | | Mission ID | 5302 1406A FRANCINE | | Departure Base/Time | KSKF 09/11/24 15:46 | | Arrival Base/Time | KSKF 09/12/24 00:46 | | Flight Time | 9.0 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 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 09/11/24 17:42 | 28 33 N | 092 11 W | 981 | 60 | 72 | X | | 09/11/24 18:48 | 28 44 N | 091 46 W | 977 | 80 | 65 | X | | 09/11/24 20:26 | 29 04 N | 091 36 W | 974 | 99 | 75 | X | | 09/11/24 20:46 | 29 04 N | 091 28 W | 974 | 69 | 67 | X | | 09/11/24 21:42 | 29 14 N | 091 19 W | 972 | 102 | 63 | X | | 09/11/24 22:11 | 29 19 N | 091 20 W | 972 | 51 | 62 | X | | radar fix as hurricane made landfall (still penetrated eyewall)| X | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- C R E W R O S T E R ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- |AC | Boykin | |CP | Gentile, Smithies | |Nav | McElhaney | |ARWO | Olsen, Cotto, Carpenter | |LM | Underwood, Latham | |OTHER| | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- REMARKS: 12 RECCOs, 38 total dropsondes (20 good drops, 18 bad drops), 6 VDMs (33 total obs) This was a 11/1730Z, 11/2030Z, & 11/2330Z fix mission into Hurricane Francine. The center was estimated to be at 28.5N 92.4W and we entered from the NW to start the mission with drops at the end points, eyewall, and center points. The storm was a Category 1 Hurricane when we entered and strengthened to a Category 2 as it made landfall in Louisiana. We flew at FL100 and had 6 overwater fixes with a final radar fix for a total of 7 fixes. As far as issues, we had a ton of drop pallet and dropsonde issues. Our first 4 sondes failed at the NW endpoint, and NHC told us to head back to the spare...a few minutes later they decided to have us turn back around and just skip the drops if we couldn't get it up and working. We had about a 50% sonde success rate and the problem never really resolved. We also had a blue screen of death on the inbound run of the last fix, and the hygrometer was also red after this restart for the remainder of the mission. We also had a brief GPS FOM of 2 on both systems for about 15 minutes. Additionally, 1 dropsonde had the LST WND remark which seems to be an issue with the new mini sondes. Finally, the Mission Manager data was all flashing red for 15 minutes. Penetrations Logged: 7 ARWO:____________________________________ Penetrations Verified: Verifier:____________________________________ Penetrations Posted: Awards:____________________________________