Corrected version of Flight 7 Summary:
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Lear 36 FASTEX Flight Number 7 Summary
Aircraft: Lear36/ N12FN (Call Sign FNT 212)
Date: 12 February 1997
Take-off: 0807UTC (YYT - St. John's, Newfoundland)
Landing: 1240 UTC (YYT - St. John's, Newfoundland)
Pilots: Gordon Stevenson and John Huchowski (both of Flight International, Inc.)
Navigator: John Huchowski
Crew #1 (on board scientist) : Ray Ramos (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison)
Crew #2 (dropsonde operator): Dean Lauritsen (NCAR)
Proposed Flight Plan
Take-off : 0800 UTC 12 February 1997
1) St. John's
2) Turn Point #1 58N 53W
3) Turn Point #2 58N 45W
4) Turn Point #3 52N 45W
5) St.John's
One drop at each turning point Additional drops: 8on first leg, 3 on second
leg, 4 on 3rd leg, and 5 on 4th leg, for a total of 23 drops.
- - - - - - - - -
Synopsis:
An 0800 UTC takeoff was chosen because of increased air traffic at later times.
All legs of the mission were completed and all 23 drops deployed.
Due to air traffic at FL350, Gander requested to stop ascent at FL330 for drops 2 to 4. Drop #4 was deployed early before descent requested by Gander to FL290 due again to air traffic. Drop #9 did not release a parachute. Another drop had to be made immediately. At 1050 UTC we requested to ascend to FL410,
but was denied due to eastbound air traffic
- - - - - - - - -
Summary of drop times, locations ( in degrees (d)) , flight level (FL) data
drop/time(UTC)/FL(hundreds of feet)/FL(temp C)/FL wind (ddd@ff)/lon/lat
01) 0820 280 -54 218@140 52d46.1' 48d39.2'
02) 0830 330 -58 214@150 52d47.8 ' 49d52.2'
03) 0838 330 -58 223@140 52d48.9' 50d59.9'
04) 0846 330 -58 217@145 52d56.6' 51d56.1'
05) 0900 290 -55 227@114 53d00.2' 53d24.2'
06) 0912 290 -56 233@100 53d00.6' 54d31.6'
07) 0923 290 -56 233@125 53d00.9' 55d43.4'
08) 0934 290 -56 232@115 53d01.5' 56d45.2'
09)* 0950 290 -56 286@78 51d53.3' 58d01.2'**
10) 0955 290 -56 285@80 51d00.3' 58d04.0'
11) 1003 290 -56 301@114 49d00.5' 58d02.8'
12) 1013 290 -55 291@80 46d56.4' 58d02.8'
13)* 1022 290 -56 292@88 44d53.9' 57d52.1'
14) 1035 290 -54 260@25 45d00.5' 56d41.4'
15) 1046 290 -53 250@44 44d59.1' 55d29.2'
16) 1058 290 -53 243@63 44d59.7' 54d25.1'
17) 1110 290 -53 233@70 44d59.1' 53d11.2'
18) 1124 290 -51 220@90 45d07.8' 51d56.4'
19)* 1139 290 -50 219@99 46d20.3' 51d20.0'
20) 1155 290 -49 200@88 47d44.0' 50d35.7'
21) 1209 290 -51 198@78 49d08.2' 49d50.1'
22) 1222 290 -51 188@71 50d18.9' 49d09.3'
23) 1229 290 -50 175@60 51d16.6' 48d33.5'
Notes: 1) (*) Turning points . These drops were
made after the turn was completed.
2) (**) Drop 9 was deployed without a parachute on first
attempt. Another drop was deployed as soon as possible.
*******
Appended observations/notes
Observations from plane at each drop (starting with Drop 7; droptimes
noted above)
10) Broken altocumulus
11) Scattered altocumulus, 30%
12) Scattered altocumulus/some cirrus just below flight level
13) Scattered altocumulus
14) Scattered cumulus, 20%
15) Broken altocumulus
16) Scattered altocumulus
17) Broken altocumulus
18) Scattered altocumulus
19) Patchy cumulus, 60%
20) Few cumulus
21) In thin cirrus, patchy cumulus below (70%)
22) In thicker cirrus/ stratocumulus below (obscured)
23) In cirrostratus/obscured below
Total flight distance: 1640 nm
Total flight time (air time): 4+52
Ray Ramos
rramos@meteor.wisc.edu