NHC Fund Petition

[brunota2003]

Well...I admit that chances are this will not make it to far along, but one does not know how far it will go unless they try right? After reading the P-3 thing, I decided to put this together in hopes that maybe it could change the outlook of some Congressman...let me know what you think (and certainly, pass the link on if you want...) :
http://www.petitiononline.com/nhcfund/petition.html

[Coredesat]

Even though I don't normally do online petitions because they never succeed, what the heck. Signed.

[angelwing]

Signed

[Derek Ortt]

That petition is is requesting THE WRONG THING

The P3 aircraft are not in the domain of NHC. Those are HRD planes. The P3 will still likely fly if a storm is Cuba as Castro does not like US military planes to fly over the island, unless it is absolutely necessary (like when there was a problem with the P3s during Charley)

The funding needs to go to HRD. NHC is funded just fine. I will not even consider signing unless the petetion is corrected

[tomboudreau]

I've actually have heard these online petitions hold no merit because they aren't actual signatures of the people signing them. I could be blowing smoke out of your where, but I thought I heard that once.

[pojo]

Derek is right... HRD is were the funding should go. The NOAA birds are out of the Air Operations Command at MacDill, fully funded out of the Hurricane Research Division.

This will be interesting when a storm approaches Cuba... The 53rd Hurricane Hunters are in sticky situations when they have to fly over Cuba... it is try to avoid until all out NECESSARY.

[Jim Cantore]

Without question, signed.

[ncupsscweather]

Signed

[brunota2003]

alright, later today I'll also make one for the HRD

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

I’m all for helping the NHC, but aren't most of these planes military based? I mean there is a war (Iraq and Afghanistan) on after all. Maybe I’m not understanding the issue clearly; seem to me thought that they might not be available (nor might the funds) for some good reasons.

[Aslkahuna]

The P-3 Orion aircraft are civilian agency owned and operated and their availability is not affect by Military operational requirements. The WC-130's of the 53WRS (USAFR) are Military Aircraft operated by Reserve members of the Air Force but Hurricane Recon is one of their primary missions since it's not only for NHC but also Force Protection for US Military assets in the region consequently those flights retain high priority though Pojo could find herself on TDYs when recon is needed to support operations elsewhere.

Steve

[Derek Ortt]

NHC has had funding increases recently. This petetion is totally unnecessary.

NHC does have I think 75-100 hours of operational use of the P3s, for instances near Cuba, as well as to initialize the HWRF model, which requires the Doppler data that only the P3s have. I know when HWRF is fully operational, the P3 hours are supposed to increase (but a reduction in research hours)

I'd like to find out the total flight hours of the P3s, because they may have more flight hours, but just no PURE research hours (but research is still conducted on operational flights. Many RAINEX flights were operationally tasked, but we changed the flight patterns somewhat to coordniate the NOAA P3 with the Navy P3)

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

The P-3 Orion aircraft are civilian agency owned and operated and their availability is not affect by Military operational requirements. The WC-130's of the 53WRS (USAFR) are Military Aircraft operated by Reserve members of the Air Force but Hurricane Recon is one of their primary missions since it's not only for NHC but also Force Protection for US Military assets in the region consequently those flights retain high priority though Pojo could find herself on TDYs when recon is needed to support operations elsewhere.

Steve

Thanks for clearing that up Steve.

[pojo]

There are times were we get classified x-country missions... we get notified and told of our landing location and that's it.

[Aslkahuna]

I had to brief some of those when I was a Forecaster at Clark AB.

Steve