Research Flight History of Explorer

The research use of Explorer at NCAR was carried out from 1970 through 1995. The chronological history of the sailplane flights and projects in which Explorer participated beginning with the purchase by ERC in 1966 throughout the period of use by NCAR from 1969 to 1995, and afterwards the donation to the Soaring Society of Boulder (SSB) is presented in Table I below. Test flights were always flown before all major projects but are not shown in this table for periods after 1981. Significant events for the sailplane aircraft itself are highlighted in blue in this Table.

Table I: Chronology of Flights and Events of Explorer Sailplane

DATE	ACTIVITY	LOCATION
June 29, 1966	Test Flight by Schweizer Aircraft Corp., Ser. No. 38	Elmira NY
July 12, 1966	Purchase by Explorer Research Corporation (Wallace, Scribner, Kuettner for ERC)	Springville VT
June-Sept 1967	Instrumentation Check Flights	Fitchburg MA
Oct-Dec 1967	CAT Studies in Wave Conditions	Mt Washington NH
Aug-Oct 1968	Ozone Measurements	Boulder CO
Feb 25, 1969	Ownership Transfer from ERC to ESSA with NCAR to Operate
July-Nov 1969	Occasional Check Flights	Boulder Area
Feb 2, 1970	Over Gross Operations Permitted (120 lbs. added)
Feb-Mar 1970	Colorado Lee Wave Experiment	Boulder Area
July 1970	Cumulus Studies (Checks for NHRE)	Boulder/NE Colo
Jan-Feb 1971	NCAR Wave Cloud Studies	Boulder Area
March 1971	Cannon Particle Camera Installed	Boulder Area
Apr-May 1971	Check Flights, Wave Flights and Instrument Tests	Boulder Area
June-Aug 1971	Research Flights in National Hail Research Experiment (NHRE)	NE Colorado
Mar-April 1972	Instrumentation Test Flights	Boulder Area
June-Aug 1972	Research Flights in NHRE	NE Colorado
June 23. 1972	Severe Turbulence Encounter: +20 up to --20 m/s down almost instantly	near Kimball NE
Mar-May 1973	Instrumentation Test Flights	Boulder Area
Jun-Aug 1973	Research Flights in NHRE	NE Colorado
Aug-Sept 1973	South Park Area Cumulus Exp. (SPACE) with CSU	South Park CO
Sept 11 1973	Damaged in Fire in Lake County Airport-A Protest of Weather Modification	Leadville CO
Early 1974	Sailplane Left Wing Rebuilt by Beagles Aircraft	Greely CO
Spring 1974	Test Flights and Instrumentation Test Flights	Boulder Area
June -Aug 1974	Research Flights in NHRE	NE Colorado
Aug 1974	Joint Cumulus Sailplane Project with CSU	Leadville/So. Park
Spring 1975	Instrumentation Test Flights	Boulder Area
July-Aug 1975	High Cooperative Cumulus Project (HICCUP) with CSU NHRE Cloud Seeding Flights.	Leadville/So. Park
Apr-May 1976	Instrumentation Test Flights	Boulder Area
June-July 1976	Research Flights in NHRE	NE Colorado
July–Aug 1977	South Park Area Cumulus Experiments (SPACE)	Leadville/So. Park
June-July 1978	NCAR/NHRE First Echo Studies in CuCg	NE Colorado
Spring 1979	Instrumentation Test Flights	Boulder Area
July-Aug 1979	Microphysics Studies in Thunderstorm Research International Project (TRIP)	Socorro NM
Fall 1980-May 81	Occasional Test Flights	Boulder Area
May-Aug 1981	Flights during Coop. Convective Precip. Exp. (CCOPE)	Miles City, MT
July-Aug 1984	Electrification & Precipitation Studies in TRIP	Socorro NM
Summer 85-86	Test Flights for 2D Image/Particle Charge Instrument	Boulder Area
July-Aug 1987	Particle image and charge studies in small thunderstorms; Spirals to 39,900 ft pressure altitude, an Explorer Record	Near Socorro NM
Aug 1989	Transfer of Explorer Ownership from NOAA to NCAR	Boulder CO
July-Aug 1991	Convection and Precipitation/Electrification Experiment (CaPE)	Kennedy Space Center FL
Sept 1994	Flights for IMAX Movie “Stormchasers”	Boulder/NE CO
Summer 1995	Studies of Early Electrification	NE Colorado
Date?? 2002	Explorer Donated to Soaring Society of Boulder
Nov 29, 2012	Forced Out-Landing with Severe Damage to Explorer near Gold Hill CO	near Gold Hill CO