Wednesday, 31 May
T-28 Flight 750
Project Flight 5
Take Off ~ 00:35 GMT
Return to Base: 01:50 GMT
Pilot: Tom Warner
The
T-28 flew from GLD to CHILL then headed south toward a storm about 60 mi south
of CHILL. During the flight the cell nearest CHILL was decaying in intensity
and one further south was intensifying. The T-28 was in and out of the bases of
anvil cloud as it headed toward the echo core. After reaching the nearer (more
northern) cell, due to the extreme range from the radar and problems with the
aircraft HSI , it performed a 270 deg turn through the remaining northern echo
core and headed northeastward back toward GLD. The airplane's altitude was
about 5 km. Peak electric fields were up to 40 kV/m. The Ez
component switched sign as frequently as every 5 to 10 kilometers of horizontal
flight as the airplane stayed at about the same altitude, indicating dramatic
variation of the charge distribution near the aircraft track.
The HVPS recorded data only for the last 10 minutes of the flight.
There was an electrical balloon launch at 00:30 in the vicinity of the same cell penetrated by the aircraft.
Data were generally of good quality. Very little cloud water was encountered. No flight video was obtained due to the failure of the tape to transport properly.