Hurricane Hunter is no easy task.
“We take pilots who are perfectly
capable C-130 pilots … but the
one thing they’ve been taught
throughout their entire careers is
‘don’t go near the thunderstorms,’”
said Warren Madden, CARCAH
meteorologist and former aerial
reconnaissance weather officer
with the 53rd WRS. “We have to
train these people not only how to
go near them, but go right through
them and do it safely.”
The 53rd Squadron is the only
operational military unit in the
world flying weather reconnaissance
on a routine basis, so training takes
place mostly in house and in flight.
When these Hurricane Hunters
aren’t flying missions, they’re able to
organize and conduct training and
exercise flights based on their own
known knowledge gaps and cater
them specifically to their needs,
which they’ve been working to
assess since the squadron’s official
creation in 1944.
Crew members come from diverse backgrounds, but
undergo extensive, regular training as part of the 53rd
Squadron. Courtesy of AF Reserve Hurricane Hunters
Hurricane Hunters fly specially outfitted aircraft into
and around threatening weather developments. Photo
courtesy of AF Reserve Hurricane Hunters
Since then, the squadron has
grown in capability to operate 24
hours a day, seven day a week. Once
the crew, most of which are former
active duty military, gets word that
a storm needs to be looked at, they
start planning their trip.
The 53rd WRS has a remarkably
large range of responsibility,
covering storms over water as far
east as the Leeward and Windward
Islands, the entire Gulf of Mexico
and Caribbean Sea, up the Atlantic
Coast, in addition to the West
Coast of Mexico toward Hawaii.
Within these areas, the squadron
will inspect not only developing
tropical weather, but, more rarely,
winter storms as well.
These investigatory missions
can extend to more than 12 hours,
and typically include about four
penetrations of the center of the
storm in a repeating “x” pattern,
with trips to the outer edges of
the storm, or “legs,” extending for
about 100 – 115 miles. Throughout
this time, crew members are
DISPATCH
|
7