Page 56 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2021

SOUTH MISSISSIPPI
EYES IN +HE
SKY
story by Lynn Lofton
photos courtesy of 403rd Wing, Air Force Reserves
Coast residents are not strangers to hurricanes. But while many are evacuating
as a storm approaches, one local group is planning just the opposite. The famous Hurricane Hunters, who call Keesler Air Force Base home, spring into action. Flying into the eye of a hurricane does not seem like something sane people would do, but that’s just what these Air Force reservists do.
“Flying into the storm’s eye is necessary because the most valuable information
is found there,” says pilot Capt. Ryan Smithies. “We try to find the fastest wind speeds closest to the surface, which is from the eye to the top of a storm. We fly as low as possible because that’s where we can be more precise in releasing weather data instruments and we want the lowest pressure. We typically fly at 10,000 feet.”
Smithies, who’s from an Air Force family and grew up in Pensacola, was fascinated with the Hurricane Hunters’ mission.
He studied meteorology and says being
a pilot with the Hurricane Hunters is the perfect blend of his interests. Asked if he’s ever scared, he quickly responds, “Yes,
it can be scary. We ofter hear veterans say this job is 90 percent boredom and 10 percent terror. We may fly for hours to get to a storm, and some storms are smooth. Then there are some that make me question why I’m there.”
Adding that being a Hurricane Hunter is not for the queasy, Smithies said, “The category of the storm doesn’t mean how severe it is; there is always turbulence and sometimes it’s a rough ride.”
The Biloxi based Hurricane Hunters flew 1,400 hours on tropical systems last year, which was the third busiest season for this squadron in flying hours. There are times, however, when even these storm veterans can’t go up. “The biggest
limitation for us to be able to continue the mission is that the weather deteriorates
so much we can’t take off and land out of Biloxi,” Smithies says, “but we’re able to continuing monitoring the storm.”
The flight of a hurricane mission has a minimum onboard crew of five consisting of two pilots, one navigator, one weather officer and one load master. The National Hurricane Center tasks these crews to investigate areas of disturbed weather if it can be an ongoing event. It doesn’t have to be a named storm. “They send us up initially to see what’s going on and we
will continue as long as conditions make it needed,” Smithies said. “We provide on-demand weather data collection and
56 | July 2021
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