Lear 36 FASTEX Flight Number 6 Summary
Aircraft: Lear36/ N12FN (Call Sign FNT 212)
Date: 10 February 1997
Take-off: 0830 UTC (YYT - St. John's, Newfoundland)
Landing: 1400 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 : 0830 UTC 4 February 1997
1) St. John's
2) Turn Point #1 52N 53W
3) Turn Point #2 52N 47W
4) Turn Point #3 40N 47W
5) Turn Point #4 44N 56W
One drop at each turning point Additional drops: 2 on first leg, 2 on second
leg, 6 on 3rd leg, 3 on 4th leg, and 2 on final leg for a total of 19 drops.
- - - - - - - - -
Synopsis:
All legs of the mission were completed and all 19 drops deployed .
Due to stronger than anticipated head winds on legs 2 and 3, the time
between drops increased, however, all were dropped in the proper location.
Clearance was given by New York to ascend to 41000 ft for drops 15
through 19. Gander then requested dropping
a little sooner than planned due to air traffic below flight level.
- - - - - - - - -
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) 0830 260 -41 212@83 52d50.5' 49d12.2'
02) 0841 350 -59 232@89 52d54.4 ' 50d35.9'
03)* 0855 260 -44 238@136 53d00.0'** 52d00.0'**
04) 0907 260 -41 274@95 50d53.6' 52d01.1'
05) 0916 260 -40 255@94 48d53.2' 52d02.9'
06)* 0927 260 -41 261@90 46d49.7' 51d55.1'
07) 0946 260 -43 200@52 47d00.7' 50d11.8'
08) 1004 260 -41 156@32 47d00.9' 48d33.0'
09) 1022 290 -47 157@74 46d58.8' 46d47.4'
10) 1041 290 -45 173@95 46d59.5' 45d11.8'
11) 1103 290 -44 171@114 46d59.9' 43d29.9'
12) 1124 290 -44 173@104 46d59.9' 41d50.8'
13)* 1147 290 -42 186@95 47d08.8' 40d00.3'
14) 1205 290 -42 202@132 49d01.8' 40d58.2'
15) 1229 410 -52 227@88 51d18.4' 42d04.6'
16) 1246 410 -49 232@70 53d37.8' 43d03.4'
17)* 1307 410 -49 215@96 55d59.2' 44d08.2'
18) 1317 410 -51 259@104 54d57.2' 45d13.2'
19) 1329 410 -51 260@94 54d09.4' 46d07.3'
Notes: 1) (*) Turning points. These drops were
made after the turn was completed.
2) (**) Missed lat/lon points on drop 3. Listed is
coordinates on flight plan.
*******
Appended observations/notes
Observations from plane at each drop (starting with Drop 7; droptimes
noted above)
07) 100% undercast altostratus below; thin cirrus at flight level
08) Altocumulus below, broken; thicker cirrus at flight level
09) In cirrostratus
10) Altocumumlus below, few breaks; varying vertical development
11) In thin cirrus; scattered cumulus below
12) Very few scattered cumulus
13) In thicker cirrus, obscured
14) In thin cirrus, 30% cumulus below
15) Thin alto cumulus below
16) Cirrus just below;stratocumulus (100%) well below
17) Patcy cumulus (40%) below
18) Few cumulus (<10%)
19) Clear below, just to soutwest of Newfoundland. St Johns under broken
stratocumulus
Ray Ramos
rramos@meteor.wisc.edu