Its not everyday you fly past a hurricane

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Jay
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Its not everyday you fly past a hurricane

Post by Jay »

Well I was traveling from phily to dallas on southwest airlines. Our original resevation were to have us going from phily to houston then on to dallas. The problem was Houston was shutting down noon friday and thursday stopped accepting incoming flights. So we had southwest reroute us which took us from phily to orlando then from there on to austin then up to Dallas. So this presented a great opportunity to see a hurricane up close and from the sky.

I honestly had no idea what I was looking for so just took pictures I thought were cool.

From a distance it looks like a huge wall cloud. This pic was of the North East side of the storm, we were approximately over Alabama.

http://jay.xmhosting.com/media/DSC00673.JPG

This shot was taken just before going into the storm. We were at a cruising altitude of 35,000 ft or so and the storm was still higher then we were.

http://jay.xmhosting.com/media/DSC00679.JPG

Once in the storm all you can see is the wall cloud, there really isn't much to look at. It is quite turbulant and flight attendants were ordered by the captain to discontinue service until we go through the north side of the storm.

It still felt reletively safe.

On the way out of the storm decending into austin a snapped this shot of the west side of the storm. The shot is facing south. You can sort of make out the curved pattern in the clouds and even the shadows on the ground, and see that the storm is still quite high above us.

http://jay.xmhosting.com/media/DSC00680.JPG

This next pic was us heading from austin to dallas the pilot flew north east under the outer spiral band of the storm, really erie and calm out there.

http://jay.xmhosting.com/media/DSC00681.JPG

Truely a once in a lifetime experience seeing a hurricane upclose like that.
- Jay
webranger
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Post by webranger »

Those are some cool pictures.

About the scariest thing that ever happened to me in an airplane happened when my old boss flew us into Klamath Falls, Oregon on a winter night.

The weather was supposed to be good, but the plane got iced up really bad in an unexpected storm. Bob was an air force pilot and always a little too cocky for his own good.

Anyway, visibility is zero, we don't have enough fuel to reach another airport, as KF is a remote place. We're looking for the runway lights. The instruments tell us we're right at the end of the runway at about 150 ft.

I don't see any lights at all. I said "Hey Bob. Shouldn't you pull up?". He says "What pull up, we're almost stalling from all this ice and I'm at full throttle". I said "Oh shit". He said "Ya think?".

We were right on the runway, right where we were supposed to be. When we hit the ground, the ice exploded everywhere and looked like fireworks. We did finally see the runway lights, through this ice explosion. I thought the landing struts were gonna cave. I have never hit the ground that hard in a plane.

Bob parked the plane, and went in the bar and got really drunk. I don't think I'd ever seen him drink, before or since.

He's a Mormon.

I joined him.

For being a Mormon elder, it did seem that he knew how to drink.

Straight shots of Wild Turkey.

8O
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cfw
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Post by cfw »

I live in Florida now and I have been in 3 hurricanes now. I can safely tell you they are some of the funnest things ever. We flew kites in the last one that ripped though Florida
What the hell is a Sig??
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