Gea
normally based at Hickam AFB formed the nucleus of this element,
It was
augmented by aircraft and crews from the 55th Weather Reconnaissance
Squadron based at McClellan AFB, Sacramento, California, to bring its
strength up to the ten (10) required.
In March, a transition schedule was set up for incoming crews so
that all pilots would receive ADF letdowns, GCA approaches, and day and
night landings at Eniwetok,
Practice missions commenced on 18 March 1958,
flying one (1) weather track per day in preparation for actual missions
commencing 1 April 1958.
The weather tracks required from ten (10) to
twelve (12) hours of flight and consisted of 1,100 to 1,500 mile outbound
legs which were flown at 10,000 feet and then a reverse of this leg, with |
at least four (4) hours of the return leg flown at 30,000 feet.
During the practice-phase, a deficiency in comminications between
the aircraft and the high frequency radio station operated by the Weather
Central at ELMER Island was discovered.
The problem was resolved by the
addition of more channels, an increase from two (2) to five (5) authorized,
which ellowed sufficient flexibility to establish communicationson the
frequency with the best propagation characteristics for the time and places
In April, of the sixty~nine missions flown, the mission credit point,
a point at which sufficient data had been collected to be useful to the
Weather Central, was reached in every case.
Three flights aborted, two
(2) prior to reaching the mission credit point and one (1) beyond mission
credit point.
The flights aborting prior to reaching mission credit
point returned to Eniwetok, changed gear to the standby aircraft, and com~
pleted the mission successfully within the required time limit.
the missions had late take-offs.
72
Seven of