1715 Heavy rain, strong rain static. 1716 Rain continues but static only moderate. Some crash static intermittently. 1720 Getting darker, cloud more dense, rain very heavy, turbulence light. Rain static building up, blocking out Galveston radio range intermittently. 1725 Turbulence light to moderate, rain very heavy. 1728 Altitude 7300′. Free air temperature 46°, cloud getting somewhat lighter. 1730 Rain less heavy, cloud much lighter, ground visible through breaks. Surface wind apparently South Southeast. 1735 Crossed east leg of Galveston range and changed course to 330°. 1740 Now flying in thick cloud. Turbulence smooth to light. 1743 Turbulence moderate. 1744 Turbulence moderate to severe. 1745 Sighted clear space ahead and to the left. 1746 Now flying in “eye” of storm. Ground clearly visible, sun shining through upper clouds to the west. Circling to establish position. Surface wind South. 1753 Still circling. Altitude 5000′, temperature 73°. 1800 Headed west for Houston. Cloud very dense, rain light, turbulence moderate, intermittent precipitation static. 1805 Apparently in a thunderstorm. Altitude 5500′. Heavy rain, turbulence moderate to severe. Free air temperature now 46°. 1815 Changed heading to 10°. Rain light to moderate. Turbulence light. 1825 Headed 330°. Rain very light, turbulence almost smooth. Apparently flying between thick cloud layers. 1835 Altitude 5500′. Broken stratocumulus clouds below, high overcast of altostratus above. 1836 Breaking out into the open with high altostratus deck above. 1900 Landed at Bryan. Sky clear to the northwest. One sequel to this story was Duckworth’s discovery, a year later, that after these flights into the center, some of his instructors and supervisors who were checked out in B-25’s had sneaked out and flown the same hurricane! They were afraid to tell him about it at the time, for they did not have permission to do it, but he accidentally learned about it the next year, when he overheard some of them talking about their trips into the storm. Altogether, Joe did not consider his flights into the hurricane to be as dangerous as some of his other weather flights. Only two things worried him at the time, the heavy precipitation static and the possibility that heavy rain might cause the engine to quit. Afterward, when pilots began to fly hurricanes as regular missions, the effect of torrential rain in lowering engine temperatures proved to be a real hazard and they had to take special precautions on this account.