Hurricane Hunting

[JSpahn]

Does anybody know of any Hurricane hunting missions for FS9? Just picked up SA_WXR weather radar and want to max it out. It would be pretty cool to fly thru a hurricane!

[glennlcasey]

hey mate, i live on the west coast of australia, and we get our fair share of hurricanes, though we call them cyclones here. me and a mate decided to fly a P-3 through one using real weather conditions. a lot of cloud, a lot of wind and rain greeted us. but we didnt see any eye or anything like that

[JSpahn]

Its pretty cool there is a freeware version of the WP-3D which is the US Airforce "Hurricane Hunter". Yeah I can generate some extreme weather off the gulf coast maybe generate a flight path. The idea of the eye and an actual simulated mission would be pretty  cool.

Here is the link to the plane:
http://www.simviation.com/fs2004military75.htm

[LowFlight]

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure that I've seen that Hurricanes/Tropical Cyclones/Typhoons are not modeled in FS, at least not in any way that represents their actual structure. If you fly in real world weather, all you're going to find is wind, clouds and rain.

Not to shoot you down, but both WP-3Ds (Kermit and Miss Piggy) are owned and flown by NOAA, not the USAF.  ;) I used to work for NOAA, and they're pretty proud of their little air force. (The USAF flies modified C-130s for Hurricane recon.) During North Atlantic hurricane season, one or both are reserved at their home at the NOAA hangar at MacDill AFB in Tampa to patrol storms. But in the off season they can be deployed almost anywhere worldwide for weather research missions. I'm pretty sure at least one has been to Australia.

[JSpahn]

Thanks for the info there should of gotten my facts straight. Yeah I figured that fs9 wouldnt be able to model the eye but I figured it was worth a shot. Found this mission here:

http://www.surclaro.com/downloads_c34_10_dateD.html



Hurricane Ivan based missions, also has custom wind sounds(scroll down), Im gonna give it a try

[JSpahn]

Here is a pretty cool link to the WP-3d. Gonna educate myself a bit!

http://www.aoc.noaa.gov/aircraft_lockheed.htm

[garymbuska]

Hey Guys try flying through the hurricane in a Supper Connie and at 500 feet above sea level.

I was actually in Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Four (VW-4) back in 1970 otherwise known as the hurricane hunters. I was stationed in Jacksonville Florida and used to deploy to San Juan during hurricane season as the Connie did not have the range needed to fly to Africa from Jacksonville. But just before I left the squadron they started using the WP3.
The supper Connie looked like a albatross when the wings flexed.

[rpjkw11]

Alphasim has a payware Connie with and without the radomes.  It's a bit long in the tooth, but still a great airplane and the price is reasonable.

Bob

[JSpahn]

I was looking for it but I couldnt find it, could you post a link

[Falcon500]

Hey, I know this isnt a WC-121? i guess but it has the radomes, and its free, and its relativly easy to repaint!




http://www.pmstone.com/LockheedEC121.htm

[JSpahn]

Thanks I think Im gonna work on a repaint!

[Falcon500]

Thanks I think Im gonna work on a repaint!

And if you do you better hook us up, i took a poke at it, used the alpha on another model, didnt like the color or the sheen

[JSpahn]

No prob! Lets see what I can dig up

[garymbuska]

Hey, I know this isnt a WC-121? i guess but it has the radomes, and its free, and its relativly easy to repaint!




http://www.pmstone.com/LockheedEC121.htm

This airplane looks allot like the one I flew in

[LowFlight]

Yeah, that Warning Star should be a perfect candidite for a repaint. The contents of the radomes were different, but I'd be willing to bet that the structures of the dorsal radomes on the EC-121 and WC-121 were identical. The belly radomes on NOAA's WP-3s are the same structurs as on the Navy's EP-3s.

WP-3


EP-3


I'll be curious to see your repaint.

It is a shame that hurricanes aren't modeled. Since I first saw this thread, I've had lots of ideas for hurricane related missions in FS- storm recon, prestorm aircraft or personel evacuation (like gulf oil rigs), SAR, poststorm assesment, etc. You wouldn't think big storms and aviation would be a good match, but it does offer possibilities!