Le oponally based at Hickam AFB formed the nucleus of this element, It was augmented by aircraft and crews from the 55th Weather Re-onnaissance 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) houra 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 communications 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 allowed sufficient flexibility to establish comminications on the frequency with the best propagation characteristics for the time and place. 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 AFWL/HO ed , ae Seven of