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Scientists fly the Kansas sky to study enormous, and often ferocious, nighttime storms.
NASA scientists in a DC-8 and NOAA researchers in a P-3; depart from their temporary base at Salina Regional airport in Salina, KS to comb the skies over the great plains in search for hazardous weather. (www.kansascity.com) 기타...
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A dream job...!
You can ask any "freight dog" flying for UPS or FedEx what these MONSTER thunderstorms look like at night. Back in the day flying my old 727 freighter I saw many a night near the Kansas, Colorado border the entire sky seemed to be filled everywhere with nothing but TRW+.
Sometimes, they ain't all in KS. I was on a DAL 737 one nite going from ATL to LIT with a stop in MEM. While on the ground at MEM, Captain came back and said this plane is going on to LIT whether you are on it or not. Buses are comin for those that want them, but there is a line of wx from above ORD to IAH, topping in some places to 60k. No way to go around or over it. I stayed on it and we punched thru it in less than 10 minutes but to say that was 10 minutes of hell is an understatement.
What gets me is that they fly the "diesel 8" but won't penetrate on account it would rip the wings off. Relegate them to the Hurricane Hunters and a C130 and they'll learn all about it.
That's why I'm glad that I'm a captain, so I can make flying decisions that are safe.
When my replacement was still a newby, I remember being out over West TX somewhere. He was PF on the way back to the yard at FSM. There was a big line of wx up ahead but nothing that we couldn't skirt real easy. I kept expecting for him to call a new heading but he never did and instead, we just kept getting closer. Finally I asked him what he was doing. Turns out, he had never been around wx like that and wanted a closer look. I left him as PF but called the new heading and away we went. We had about and hour and he got a better education in wx than he had.LOL
We've had some real cowboy types at my airline. Luckily, we've unloaded some of them! I hear the stories of FO's being called "weather wussies" because they don't want to fly through Level 4's, etc. I came through when people were upgrading fast, so I was only an FO for one year of my career. Especially with one idiot I flew with, for two months no less, that was enough right seat time for me. He went on to Part 91 stuff. If you can't navigate storms, or know when it just isn't going to work out, you shouldn't hold a left seat in Part 121.
