Mission Summary
20100722N1 Aircraft 49RF
Genesis Mission Tropical Disturbance AL97

Aircraft Crew (49RF)
Aircraft CommanderJeff Hagen
Co-pilotKristie Twining
Flight DirectorRich Henning
Flight DirectorJess Williams
Electronics TechnicianGabe Defeo
AVAPS OperatorDale Carpenter
Dropsonde OperatorCarlos Quiles
Dropsonde OperatorJames Wernecke
InternSaari
Scientific Crew (49RF)
None


Mission Plan :

NOAA 49RF will fly an NHC-tasked Synoptic Surveillancd mission around Tropical Disturbance AL97. The G-IV will leave MacDill AFB, FL 1730 UTC and will recover back at MacDill by 0150 UTC next day.

HURRICANE SYNOPTIC SURVEILLANCE MISSION PLAN: AL97
Prepared by the
National Hurricane Center
July 21, 2010 10:19:49 AM Aircraft: N49RF
Altitude: FL410-450
Proposed takeoff: 22/1730Z
DROP LOCATIONS
# LAT LON TIME
deg min deg min hh:mm
1 28 00 -84 000:11
2 29 00 -86 000:29
3 30 00 -87 000:40
4 29 00 -88 000:51
5 28 00 -87 001:02
6 27 00 -88 001:14
7 26 00 -86 001:31
8 26 00 -84 001:47
9 24 00 -80 002:22
10 26 21 -78 522:43
11 26 55 -77 402:53
12 26 55 -76 203:04
13 26 21 -75 083:14
14 25 18 -74 183:25
15 24 00 -74 003:36
16 22 42 -74 183:47
17 21 39 -76 004:03
18 21 39 -74 004:18
19 22 00 -72 004:34
20 24 00 -72 004:51
21 26 00 -72 305:08
22 26 00 -71 005:19
23 28 00 -72 005:37
24 29 00 -74 005:55
25 28 00 -75 006:06
26 29 00 -77 006:23
27 30 00 -76 006:34
28 31 00 -75 006:46
29 31 00 -77 007:01
30 30 00 -78 007:12
31 31 00 -79 007:23
32 30 00 -80 007:34
33 29 00 -79 007:45

Mission Summary :

Take off Landing
MacDill AFB, FL17:14 UTC MacDill AFB, FL00:00 UTC

NOAA 49RF flew an NHC-tasked Synoptic Surveillancd mission around Tropical Storm Bonnie. The G-IV left MacDill AFB, FL 1714 UTC but had to abort due to a jammed dropsonde chute. The flight recovered back at MacDill at 0000 UTC next day.

Problems :

The first 17 drops were made and transmitted. However, a dropsonde got stuck in the chute at point 18. The pilots descended to 10,000 feet to de-pressurize and try to remove the sonde from the chute and finish the mission, but there were troubles with air traffic control co-ordination. Aircraft was put in a holding pattern but there was insufficient fuel to return climb back up to an operational level to complete the pattern. The G-IV returned to Mac Dill AFB at that point.
Jess Williams
July 23, 2010


Mission Data :

NetCDF file


Page last updated July 21, 2010
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