Weather resources

[Herc Driver]

I used to fly with some of those ex-Hurricane Hunters. One guy told me they were flying their grid-pattern through the storms (Hurricane Andrew if I remember right) and set their altimeter on "Standard" which is 29.92 in Hg (inches of Mercury). The guy said the rain was so hard, they couldn't see number 2 or 3 engines (the two closest to the fuselage and easiest to see). They were bouncing around pretty bad in the turbulence, rain pelting the windscreen, wipers pretty much useless, but that old C130 just took it in stride. When they punched into the eye of the storm and broke out into clear skies though, they found themselves flying just above the waves tops. The pressure had dropped so quickly, it affected the "relative" height of the airplane and they nearly flew it right into the ocean without every knowing it. Radar Altimeters aren't accurate bouncing its signal off of water, so they never knew they had been flying lower and lower. With the hard rain, they couldn't see outside well enough. The experience shook 'em up pretty bad and they decided they had enough for the day and flew back to Keesler AFB where they were based.

So please sgtcarl1, think long and hard about flying with those Hurricane Hunters. Oh sure, there might be seats available "Space-A"...but maybe there's a reason for that!