C-130 News: When hurricanes form, these guys head for the eye

[casey]

David Pirie is a technical sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, but he has a much cooler title: dropmaster.

He's part of the crew of a "Hurricane Hunter," one of the snub-nose C-130 cargo planes the Air Force has retrofitted to fly into storms to gather data.

The thing Pirie drops out the belly of the massive plane is tiny - about the size of a mailing tube. The orange parachute that hangs off it looks like it could fit a plastic Army man.

But the information it gathers from hurricanes is huge.

Pirie showed off the tool - called a dropsonde - on Tuesday. One of the Air Force's 10 Hurricane Hunters was at Norfolk International Airport as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's annual hurricane preparedness tour. The Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1.

It's a pretty simple operation, he explained. When the plane's weather officer tells him to, usually while in the eye of the storm, he releases the dropsonde.

It falls 2,500 feet per minute, a civilized 28 mph, the parachute keeping it stable and upright.

As it falls toward the ocean, the dropsonde gathers data - barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed, temperature - which it beams back to the plane and the National Hurricane Center.

Five to 10 are dropped per mission, averaging about 10 hours.

The information provides real-time data for storms that could threaten land.

"We don't estimate," said pilot Ivan Deroche. "We give them exact readings."

Even with modern technology, such as satellites and drones, humans flying a plane into a hurricane is still the best way to gather data, he said.

He's heard NASA is working on drones that might one day do the job but said there are mixed reports:

"If they get the drones going, I'm out of a job."

View original article: http://hamptonroads.com/2015/05/when-hurricanes-form-these-guys-head-eye

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