Aerosonde Flight Summary for 07/20/2005
Sortie Number: 050720-08
Take off: 2040
Landing: 1410
Flight Description:
With the Iridium network back online, AC126 was launched at 20:40UTC and control was passed to the local command center once the aircraft was established in the wait box. The aircraft was directed to begin the flight pattern as flown on July 17. Soundings were spaced approximately 75km as before. The crew in Australia took control at 02:00UTC while the Costa Rica crew rested. Control was returned to the Costa Rica crew at 10:00UTC. Unlike the previous flight, the weather was very benign. The flight plan completed, the aircraft was directed to the wait box where the local ground command center took control. The aircraft was landed at 14:10UTC July 21, for a total flight time of 17hr 20min. A total of 8 soundings were performed during the flight. The data collected during the flight on July 20 will provide a good contrast to that of the previous flight because of the calm weather conditions.
Flight Objectives:
Instrument Performance:
Flight Track:
