More than a loadmaster

  • Published
  • By Janie Santos
  • Defense Media Activity-San Antonio
ST. CROIX, V.I. (AFNS) --  Three, two, one, launch!  But this launch isn't part of the space program. It's launching dropsondes or "sondes"out of a WC-130J Hercules to record vertical weather data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla.

"It's the best job I've ever had, and I plan on being here a long time," said Tech. Sgt. Troy Bickham, dropsonde system operator and weather reconnaissance loadmaster with the Air Force Reserve Command's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. Sergeant Bickham is one of the "Hurricane Hunters" that fly into storms to record data during hurricane season which began June . The squadron is preparing for the upcoming hurricane season by flying missions from their operations detachment here.

"We help to save lives," Sergeant Bickham said.  "We don't make predictions, but the information we receive and send allows forecasters to make a more accurate forecast. And, it helps in making evacuation decisions for the city that the storm may hit." 

One of the tools that squadron Airmen use is the dropsonde, an aerial weather device that has a parachute on one end to keep the cylindrical instrument vertical. But it doesn't go straight down; the winds of the storm may carry it halfway around the storm before it lands. Once it hits the water the data stream ends. It is biodegradable and it's not retrieved.

"It's my job to drop the sondes," Sergeant Bickham said. "They have a global positioning system, and when they are free falling, they are sending wind direction, relative humidity, temperature, pressure and speed of the storm to the dropsonde computer station."

Sergeant Bickham, a native of Baton Rouge, La., analyzes the information and quality checks it to make sure that information coming every two seconds from the dropsonde hasn't been corrupted.

"That's the most challenging part of my job, quality checking the information that the sonde has returned to the plane and making sure that I'm looking at is what I'm supposed to and analyzing it correctly," he said.

He then sends that information to the aerial weather reconnaissance officer, or ARWO, and it's the ARWO's job also to analyze before transmitting it by satellite communications to the Air Force liaison office at the National Hurricane Center in Florida.

Sergeant Bickham said his job was important because the information that the aircrew gathers helps forecasters at the center calculate what the storm may do, even though Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate.

"The National Hurricane Center can only get so much information by satellite. You have to have the aircraft go into that storm to get information that they can't retrieve by looking at it," he said.

He said his first hurricane was Hurricane Flossie over Hawaii and that was a rough one, so all the others have been a "breeze" in comparison.

"After flying through the eye of Flossie, we hit rough turbulence, my supervisor was on all fours, crawling to his seat," he said with a laugh.

"At the time, I thought, what did I get myself into?" he added. 

Sergeant Bickham started out as an aerial porter, performing joint inspection and load planning for cargo in an aircraft. Working with the weather squadron, he traveled to St.Croix to make sure any hazardous materiel was stored safely. He was asked to join the unit in 2002 but felt uncomfortable flying. After he became accustomed to flying he took the plunge in 2006 and has been flying with the "hunters" ever since.  He has been a weather-qualified loadmaster for more than three years and he has been in the Reserve for more than 16 years.

Off season the squadron does a lot of weather training. 

"We'll fly a three- or four-hour mission over water and drop a few dummy dropsondes, so we're always in training," he said.

During the off season the "Hurricane Hunters" also fly through winter storms, perform aeromedical evacuation missions and move cargo.