Hurricane Felicia will weaken as it heads toward Hawaii over the next three days, likely crossing the big island late Monday or Tuesday as a tropical storm or depression. Hawaiians don’t get too uptight until hurricanes get within 500 miles or so, but forecasters do, so the Hurricane Hunters were tasked to fly missions into and around Felicia starting this weekend.
Checked in with our friend Tanya King at the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron out of Keesler AFB in Biloxi. She reports that a Hurricane Hunter unit departed Keesler on Thursday, overnighted in California and arrived in Hawaii yesterday.
Major Jeff Ragusa wrote this blog on the deployment on his Facebook page:
Deployment Felicia, 6 Aug 2009 – til
My name is Major Jeff Ragusa and I am the Mission Commander for this deployment – calling upon the Hurricane Hunters to collect and provide weather data from inside Hurricane Felicia. As I write this, I am airborne, having just left Keesler AFB, MS in the lead aircraft. The time now is shortly after 10am, Keesler time, and we have about 7 hours of flight time ahead of us as we make our way across the country to Travis AFB, CA for the night. Tomorrow we will complete our relocation to Hickam AFB, HI. There are four aircraft following behind us in 30-minute intervals. When we arrive in Hawaii, we’ll be a unit consisting of about 75 people and 5 planes. This will be our largest storm deployment in recent years. We can be completely self-sufficient if needed at some of our forward operating locations, but on this trip, we’ve already received much-appreciated assistance from the folks at Travis AFB in California and from Hickam AFB in Hawaii. We have also left many people behind who have gotten us this far and will be ready to fly other storms from there if the need arrises.
Hurricane Felicia has provided us “extra” time to relocate. We normally have to start flying most Pacific storms from California en route to Hawaii, which adds many logistical hurtles for us. For Felicia, we were given enough notice to complete our relocation and then start flying the storm from Hawaii. We’ll have with us 4 of our specially-equipped WC-130J aircraft to be used for the actual storm missions. The 5th aircraft in our package is a “stretch” CC-130J we have borrowed from our combat brethren of the 815th Airlift Squadron “Flying Jennies”. That aircraft is hauling a full load of spare parts just in case. We’ll be in position to fly round-the-clock reconnaissance as long as someone is threatened by the approaching storm
I’m on board with the crew that is scheduled to fly the first mission into Hurricane Felicia. Lt Col “Bear” Anderson commands a crew of 9 on this deployment. Some of his crew members will be experiencing their first-ever hurricane eye wall penetration (or “penny, as we call them) on this trip. Each of those crew members is being coached on this trip by a highly-experienced instructor. So far on our flight, as we make our way past the town of Wisner Louisiana, we’ve already experienced more bumps than an airliner likes. Maybe it’s God’s way of preparing us for our first storm of the season.
I’ll try to make regular entries as time permits and keep you apprised of the progress of this mission. From all of the Hurricane Hunters of the US Air Force Reserve’s 403rd Wing, I thank you for your interest, support, and prayers.
“Rags”
Maj Jeff Ragusa
53 WRS “Hurricane Hunters”
Keesler AFB, MS
PS. We approach our descent point and our California destination with only a single minor mechanical issue. One of the weather data collection computers has been a bit moody on this flight and will require some attention from our team of mechanics at our intermediate stopping point. I’ve sent a message via our satellite communication system to the other planes in our convoy asking for their status. All planes are fine – requiring only some fuel prior to the next leg of our trip. I’m also happy to report that most of the flight was characterized by smooth air. Except for those performing flight duties today, we had a relaxing, uneventful flight. The scene consisted of folks sleeping, working or playing with a computer, or reading a book. Most all of us wore ear pieces connected to a music device of some sort. Technology is a good thing! Maybe one of the pilots will let me fly some tomorrow so he too can get some extra rest.
Here is today’s tasking to the Hurricane Hunters:
This is the TCPOD from www.nhc.noaa.gov. Looks like the AF Hurricane Hunters are flying today and tomorrow.
II. PACIFIC REQUIREMENTS
1. HURRICANE FELICIA
FLIGHT ONE – NOAA 49
A. 08/1200Z
B. NOAA9 0208E FELICIA
C. 08/0530Z
D. NA
E. NA
F. 41,000 TO 45,000 FT
FLIGHT TWO – TEAL 70
A. 08/1800Z,09/0000Z
B. AFXXX 0308E FELICIA
C. 08/1400Z
D. 19.4N 140.1W
E. 08/1730Z TO 09/2315Z
F. SFC TO 10,000 FT
FLIGHT THREE – TEAL 71
A. 09/0600Z, 1200Z
B. AFXXX 0408E FELICIA
D. 09/0145Z
D. 19.6N 142.7W
E. 09/0530Z TO 09/1215Z
F. SFC TO 10,000 FT
The first mission is a high altitude Gulfstream flight used to sample the atmosphere around the hurricane to give better data to the models.
The others are regular low level penetrations of the eye to monitor its intensity and surroundings.
Good luck and Godspeed to the American heroes that make up the crews of the Hurricane Hunters!
