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Hurricane Hunters fly first WC-130J operational mission

  • Published
  • By AFRC News Service
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  The first storm of this year’s hurricane season came a little early appearing in the Pacific off the coast of Central America.

Hurricane Adrian also marked the beginning of a new era in weather reconnaissance for the Hurricane Hunters of the 403rd Wing’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron.

When thunderous winds threatening El Salvador formed Tropical Storm Adrian in the Pacific during the third week of May, the National Hurricane Center called on Air Force Reserve Command’s Hurricane Hunters to get a fix on the storm’s location.

This mission was the first operational tasking in which a crew piloted a WC-130J into an active hurricane. The unit has been in conversion to the new airframe during the past few seasons, ensuring it is a stable platform to conduct weather reconnaissance. During previous seasons, unit crews flew the J-model into storms for training and evaluation but never to fulfill a tasking from the NHC.

The center tasked the Hurricane Hunters to fix the location of Tropical Storm Adrian, near El Salvador, which was immediately upgraded to Hurricane Adrian during the first leg of their reconnaissance mission. During the 11-hour flight, winds reached 105 mph at flight-level and eventually forced up to 20,000 residents to flee their homes before weakening as it moved inland in the wee hours of the morning of May 20.

The crew reported that the aircraft made significant improvements in operational awareness during the mission.

The J-model features a “glass” cockpit packed with the latest in computer assisted flight and navigational controls allowing crews to focus on their in-flight tasks.

“The plane performed very well. The biggest difference was our increased situational awareness,” said Lt. Col. Dave Borsi, aircraft commander. “Because of the new computer system, we were better able to see where we were in the storm. While we were there, data we provided led to the NHC upgrading it to a hurricane, giving the people along the coast a more accurate picture of what to expect.”

“The WC-130J and the 403rd team were vital in our ability to provide the people of El Salvador and Honduras advanced warning of Adrian’s landfall and potential impacts in El Salvador and neighboring countries,” said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center. “I note with pride that El Salvador’s President Antonio Saca interrupted a national press conference to advise his nation of this latest data, including information from the aircraft.”

Aerial reconnaissance weather officers, who collect and transmit information from the aircraft directly to the NHC, noted that it has taken patience to develop software and to adapt computer systems to the unique needs of the storm reconnaissance mission.

“It has taken six years to create the best system possible to produce the most accurate data for the meteorological analyses during flight,” said Lt. Col. Steve Renwick, the mission’s weather officer instructor. “Our first evaluation occurred during Hurricane Lenny, six summers ago. We’ve come a long way since.”

The new weather console is significantly improved from its predecessor’s configuration. The weather officer now sees simultaneous displays of the weather data as well as instruments monitored by other crew members that are vital to performing the job.

“In the H-model, we had to look over the navigator’s shoulder to see the basic radar pattern,” Colonel Renwick said. The new system now places the weather officer in the cargo area rather than on the flight deck allowing immediate observation of sea-surface winds, a critical part of storm assessment.

Lt. Col. Jon Talbot, another ARWO, who was on his first mission in the new aircraft during a storm said, “All the software and hardware worked as advertised. Situational awareness is much improved over the H-model.”

Maintenance teams who cared for the aircraft after the mission reported that the aircraft held up well under the stresses of a storm environment.

“We haven’t found any problems with the propellers,” said Maj. Kelvin McElroy, 403rd Maintenance Squadron commander. The props on the J-model are six-bladed and are made of a composite material, differing significantly from the four-bladed configuration of the older H-models.

Maintainers noted a few routine messages that are typical after any storm but were able to quickly assess them using a computerized diagnostic system. This is a marked change from the recovery process of the older aircraft that included many analog systems and instruments. Today, crew chiefs plug in a portable computer that pinpoints any concerns and tells them what is needed to make corrections.

Brig. Gen. Richard Moss, 403rd Wing commander, said the Hurricane Hunters are ready to complete the transition to the new aircraft this season.

“This mission is the culmination of a lot of work enabling the WC-130J to perform its mission,” he said.

“Increased situational awareness of the crew and the increased safety of the J-model’s performance enhance the unit’s ability to locate and pinpoint these dangerous storms,” General Moss said. “These same capabilities also allowed the unit’s sister squadron to recently complete a highly successful tour in Southwest Asia. This simply goes to show that the C-130J will be a great asset to the Air Force.”