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 E_z 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.