“There were a few changes in the crew but Eastburn was the pilot again
on the second flight. The takeoff was scheduled for 6:30 A.M. The storm
was in a critical position as far as warnings were concerned, and the
Miami office was anxious to get information as early as possible upon
which to base a warning for the East Coast. ‘George’ was located over
the eastern Bahamas and was moving slowly westward, a distinct threat to
the entire Eastern Seaboard but immediately to the Florida coast.”
The first hint of what was in store for the hurricane hunters that day
turned up as they completed their briefing at the ship and prepared to
board the plane. The engineer, in a last-minute checkup, found a
hydraulic leak and there was a delay of a little more than an hour
before that could be repaired. Finally they pulled away from the line
and out to the end of the runway. Number 4 engine was too hot. There was
another delay while further checks were made into the power plant.
Finally they were off—all one hundred thirty-five thousand pounds. This
was to have been a very long flight and every available bit of gasoline
storage had been utilized.
The plan on this day was once again to make a try for data near the top
of the storm, to verify and expand the startling information gained the
preceding day. This plane had de-icer boots and they were not concerned
about the rime ice that might tend to accumulate, as it had the day
before. First, they were anxious to get certain data from a low-level
flight, and to learn how effectively the radar could be used for
navigating a large plane like the B-29 near the center of the storm.
They went out at ten thousand feet again but continued to a point about
eighty miles north of the storm at this elevation. By this time they had
crossed about four of the spiral rain bands (the spiraling arms of the
“octopus”). Here the plane turned downwind parallel to another of the
rain bands and flew through the corridor to within viewing distance of
the eye. They gradually descended as the base of the middle-level clouds
lowered near the storm center. Leveling off at seven thousand five
hundred feet, they were in and out of clouds with horizontal visibility
low much of the time. However, there was scarcely a thirty-second period
when the crew were unable to see the sea surface below. Navigation at
this stage was entirely by radar. Again the amazing thing was the lack
of turbulence throughout this flight. This was a really big storm. They
were flying at only seven thousand five hundred feet through one of the
most violent sectors, only twenty to thirty miles from the eye itself,
yet they encountered nothing that could be described as important as
moderate turbulence. Simpson’s early experience in hurricane flying in
1945 in a C-47 had been repeated. They were flying in comfort under
conditions which gave them a command of all the information needed to
report the position and intensity of the storm. Simpson remarked: “What
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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