Saturday, 24 June

T-28 Flight 759

Project Flight 14

Take Off ~ 00:45 GMT

Return to Base: 02:20 GMT

Pilot: Charles Summers

 

The target for this flight was a high-based storm north of the Spol radar site. At the time of launch, the storm was splitting into two cells, one predominantly +CG and the other predominantly -CG. By the time the aircraft arrived the storms were decaying and no CG lightning was detected during the times of the two passes at 6 km in these storms, from 00:05 and 00:20. A new target was selected at a location 50 nmi northwest from CHILL. This storm had supercellular character and a transitory hook echo during the time of three T-28 passes at 6.5 km from 00:30 - 00:58. There were vigorous updrafts in this storm. Lightning activity was predominantly intracloud. Hail up to 1 inch diameter was reported by observers beneath the storm, and images this large were recorded by the hail spectrometer during the aircraft passes. 

 

There was not an electrical balloon sounding into the storm worked by the T-28, however there was a sounding from Hagler, Nebraska, into a neighboring cell.

 

Some HVPS data were recorded on all passes, although there were frequent gaps. Other data were generally good. E_z was mainly positive during the two passes through the first (split) storm, and was more variable in the supercell.