Hurricane Hunter Plane

bob · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 8:27 am Post subject: Hurricane Hunter Plane

A Hurricane Hunter Plane will be open to the public today at Page Field in Ft Myers.

'Hurricane Hunter' available to public today
news-press.com • April 18, 2008

The National Weather Service’s P-3 “Hurricane Hunter” research plane will land at Page Field, 325 Danley Drive, in Fort Myers on this morning.

A guided tour of the plane will be available to the public.

A meteorological expert will give a 30-minute hurricane briefing, and a 30-minute expo-style open house with local experts will be available.

The open house includes media personalities and personnel from the Lee County Emergency Operations Center, Page Field Fire-Rescue, Lee County Sheriff's Office, American Red Cross, and the Salvation Army.

In service since 1971, the plane is rarely available for public viewing in its home hangar at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. Hours are 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

bob
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bob · Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2008 7:22 pm Post subject: Re: Hurricane Hunter Plane

Went out to see the Hurricane Hunter plane today. Several hundreds of others did the same thing. Got to talk to a senior forecaster from the National Hurricane Center who helped explain the what's and whys of Hurricane Charlie's path and turn to our area. Basically he explained that Charlie was in a zig zag motion pattern within normal fluctuations of the eye. The last "zig" was the one that took it past Sanibel up to Charlotte Harbour. He did admit that the sharp left turn to miss Sanibel was more extreme than normally seen as was the following quick right turn towards Punta Gorda. But he maintains those moves were within the margin of error on their computers.
The plane itself was built in 1974. First storm it flew into was Bonnie in 1976.Equipment, computers, etc all pretty old. Big, clumsy looking things with lots of wires and connections exposed everywhere! Seat are thin and mounted on a slide bar on the floor.An overhead grab bar runs along the
ceiling. Met the navigator and the pilot. Pilot said they fly into the storms
between 5,000 to 10,000 feet. Normal air speed is 350 knots. Planes terminal speed is 450-500knots. Highest wind he ever encountered was 210 knots! All in all a very interesting tour.
We then went into the Lee County Mobile Command Center which is a large motor home type vehicle loaded with the latest computer/communication equipment. Everything neat and clean not like the planes equipment. One can only imagine what they could do with the Hunter plane by building one today with all the latest technology. That would be money well spent!

bob
_________________
Sit back, relax and enjoy the show!