Today, the Scout Troop my son belongs to, and I am a leader in, visited the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) in Lakeland, FL. This is where all NOAA hurricane hunter flights originate (the Air Force has its own flights). We had a briefing and tour of the hangar, WP-3D Orion, and Twin Otter aircraft. The former are the ones flown directly into the hurricane, while the Twin Otters are used primarily for spotting wildlife.

An interesting bit of trivia - NOAA has 2 Orion aircraft, named Miss Piggy and Kermit, after the Muppets characters. Initially, NOAA sought permission from the corporate owners of the copyright on the characters and were denied. When Jim Henson heard about it, and what the aircraft were to do, he personally intervened to allow NOAA to use the names. Colloquially, they are simply referred to as "frog" and "pig."

My pictures did not turn out too well, but here is the official link to the facility we toured: NOAA Hurricane Hunters

Neat! Thank you for sharing.

That is what scouts are all about. Having fun and learning.

Here is a question for you guys.

If given the chance... would you ride along with them into an actual hurricane?

Yep. Their track record is really good. Over thousands of missions, I believe only one loss. That is with the Air Force planes.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
Here is a question for you guys.

If given the chance... would you ride along with them into an actual hurricane?

I understand that it’s not nearly as dangerous as one would imagine. I probably would.

That's awesome DrDan! I'll bet Peter had a blast. Can I be a temporary scout chaperone when you guys do the Mosaic phosphate mine?

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
Here is a question for you guys.

If given the chance... would you ride along with them into an actual hurricane?

I asked how bumpy the ride is through a hurricane. The response was that they use doppler radar to detect the worst turbulence, and generally avoid it. It can still be a rough ride, but not nearly as bad as one might suspect. So, to answer your question, I'd do it in a heart beat.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
That's awesome DrDan! I'll bet Peter had a blast. Can I be a temporary scout chaperone when you guys do the Mosaic phosphate mine?

He sat in the pilot seat of the P-3, totally ready to take off into a hurricane.

A trip to Mosaic - not a bad idea. I'll pass it along to the person that schedules those sorts of things, and if we go, I'll register you as my guest.

It would be awesome. Draglines, haul trucks, D-11s, GE Evolution Locos, conveyor belt loading...

I'd have a equipgasm!

If you have any kind of app that tracks commercial fights, like Flightaware, you can track that one, NOAA42 is its call sign(?).