25 July 2003 – Flight 814

 

Research flight from GXY

 

Pilot: Tom Warner

 

T.O. 22:34 UT

 

T. D. 23:49 UT

 

The inlet tube atop the canopy for the NO sampling system was removed for this flight in order to test whether it was the cause of corona discharges leading to P-static. No NO sampling was conducted on this flight.

 

Monsoonal moisture worked its way clockwise around a big ridge over the Front Range. Convection over the mountains did not move off until mid-afternoon. A line of cells developed from CHILL northeastward at about 21:00 UT. By 22:15 tops were reaching 50 kft AGL and peak reflectivities were 60 dBZ near cloud base, with 50 dBZ to 25 kft AGL. At time of launch, 15 minutes later, 60 dBZ echo extended to 25 kft in one cell.

 

The line became disorganized during the flight. The aircraft climbed to the N, then at 22:48 headed S through the complex. This was the only pass with significant hail, and Tom thinks he went through a hail shaft about 20% of the way from edge to center. A reverse course brought him back through the convective area to the N. Not much hail was left. At 23:01 he was heading back S towards CHILL at 18 kft. At 23:14 he came out-of-cloud near CHILL and descended in order to melt ice off the aircraft.  He picked up a course for a target at 62 deg/22 nmi and went on to sample rainshafts from several cells in the area. At 23:37 he was hit by lightning and decided to return to base to look for damage. At 23:47 he passed directly over CHILL at 5.4 kft MSL on his way in to GXY.

 

No notes are available on data quality from this flight. The video tape did not record properly.