The Basics - II. Aircraft Crews

In order to obtain the necessary data from these aircraft to support NOAA's hurricane mission we need to crew them with the right kind of talented people to fly the aircraft, operate the scientific equipment aboard and maintain both the plane and instrumentation aboard.  When the aircraft operates at bases away from home, such as the Caribbean Island of Barbados or St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, it has the right people aboard to make it self-sustaining,  

The crew makeup of the two aircraft is as follow:

           G-IV (max. 11 seats)

2 Pilots

1 Crew Chief

1 Flt. Director/Meteorologist

1 Ass't Met./Dropsonde Data Processor

1 Tech. Crew Chief

1 Dropsonde Operator

1 System Operator

         8 Total

             WP-3D (max 18 seats)

        2 Pilots

         2 Flight Engineers

        1 Crew  Chief

        1 Navigator

        1 Flt. Director/Meteorologist

        1 Tech Crew Chief

        1 Dropsonde Operator

        1 System Operator

       10 Total

The remaining seats on the aircraft are usually occupied by scientists, observers or media.  The G-IV does not have crew positions for flight engineers and navigators.  The crew chief, along with the flight engineers on the more complex WP-3D, perform maintenance on the aircraft when necessary.  The three electronic technicians on each of the aircraft both operate and maintain the scientific systems.  The Flight Dir./Meteologist is responsible for the scientific conduct of the mission.

Next: Basic Instrumentation