RF14: 11-6-2002 17:03 - 23:59
 

P3 Flight Log:

A cold front, perhaps reinforced by some outflows, was forecast to push into the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandle and stall near the S-Pol radar. The dryline was suppose to form a triple point but its location would be too far south into the Texas Panhandle. The decision to target the cold front near S-Pol was agreed upon. The SPC issued a slight risk for severe weather in their morning outlook for the region we targeted. The P-3 was planned for an 11:30 CDT takeoff and the LearJet set for a noon departure. The DC-8 performed a survey pattern and took off at noon. The Proteus took off at 9:30 am. An attempt was made prior to takeoff to fix a potentially bad hub, but we were unsuccessful and the temporary solution used the day before was reinstated. The P-3?s actual departure was 11:18 am. We attempted a different maneuver by climbing to near 18,000? to cool off the cabin before descending into the S-Pol region. No distinct boundary was identified so we initially executed east-west legs around the S-Pol region. We decided to ascend after about 90 minutes to, once again, cool off the cabin since no boundary was reported. This occurred around 1:15 pm. We descended once more and were given waypoints for a box pattern around the S-Pol region. The box was slightly modified in order to avoid the Liberal Airport. Weak and broad gradients were noted in the flight level data. Two cloud lines were identified - one near S-Pol and the other near Liberal, Kansas. Fine lines started to develop so S-Pol instructed us to stop the box pattern and begin our normal flight pattern around the S-Pol boundary at 4:05 pm. We continued to fly the boundary until the end of the mission. Good ELDORA and LEANDRE data should have been recorded. Three dropsonde legs were performed by the LearJet starting at 1:30 pm, 4:35 pm and 6:22 pm and the coordination appeared to go well. There appeared to be excellent coordination, once again, with the ground armada. We departed the S-Pol region at 6:30 pm. A calibration leg was performed on the way back to Will Rogers, where we landed at 7:15 pm. The combination of climbing to high altitude and the addition of a portable fan near ELDORA seem to have helped the overheating problem. According to the engineers on board the increase in temperature with time was reduced and it enabled us to stay on station for the majority of the mission.


Flight Track:




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