Laserfiche WebLink
<br />compass using the Garden City VOR as the primary navigational aid for directing <br /> <br />aircraft in the program. Range marks are also drawn on the compass heading <br /> <br />lines. Therefore, distance and direction from a known point is readily <br /> <br />available to the seeding aircraft at all times. See figure 3 <br /> <br />Although radar quickly measures many cloud features, it has been <br /> <br />necessary to correct the obtained numbers for errors introduced due to the <br /> <br />distance that a particular cloud is located from the radar site. Newly <br /> <br />incorporated into radar operations this year was the development of cal-. <br /> <br />culator programming on the Hewlett-Packard, HP-97. It calculates and prints <br /> <br />the necessary corrections instead of having to refer to either a graph or. <br /> <br />chart after each measurement. <br /> <br />C. AIRCRAFT SEEDING OPERATIONS <br /> <br />Three cloud base seeding aricraft were used during the entire 5-month <br /> <br />period of operations and one other aircraft, a turbo prop Cessna Aero <br /> <br />Commander, was leased for three and one half months of on-top seeding. <br /> <br />The three aircraft owned and oeprated by the WKGME #1 in 1985 were: <br /> <br />one - single engine Piper Aircraft Comanche, PA24-250 <br />one - single engine Piper Aircraft Comanche, PA24-260 <br />one - twin engine Beechcraft Bonanza, B50 (converted military type U8D) <br /> <br />On a seeding mission July 29 the Beech Bonanza encountered severe turbul- <br /> <br />ence causing structural failure of its wing mounts, requiring the plane to <br /> <br />be grounded. It was necessary to lease another aircraft for five weeks. <br /> <br />This second leased aircraft was another single engine Piper Comanche. <br /> <br />All three WKGMD #1 aircraft were equipped with a liquid fuel generator <br /> <br />mounted on each wing tip. Each generator contained approximately 6-gallons <br /> <br />of special silver iodide-acetone solution that burned silver iodide at the <br /> <br />rate of three grams per mintue. These planes were flown only during day- <br /> <br />light hours throughout the season and worked at cloud base in the preferred <br /> <br />updraft areas. <br /> <br />-14- <br />