Updated Mar. 30, 2020 12:59 PM'
Lindsey Norman, Kristie Twining and Rebecca Waddington broke new ground last August -- while flying 45,000 feet above the ground.
The three women became the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) first all-female three-pilot flight crew in history during the Hurricane Dorian reconnaissance mission.
Capt. Kristie Twining (left), Cmdr. Rebecca Waddington (right), and Lt. Lindsey Norman (front) became the NOAA's first all-female three-pilot flight crew in August. (Twitter / NOAA_HurrHunter)
Previously, Twining and Waddington have flown together without Norman, who said it is typical for Hurricane Hunter teams to fly with three pilots.
Norman had never flown with Twining and Waddington before that mission but has flown with both pilots since.
"I actually wanted to become a pilot because of my love of science and the weather," she told AccuWeather. "I kind of always knew about the hurricane hunting mission, but I didn't know where to go from there."
She later received an internship with NOAA, where she learned the steps she needed to take to achieve her goal.
Norman has now been a pilot for almost seven years having started her flight training in the summer of 2013. After her training, she began flying with NOAA in the summer of 2014, meaning she has been piloting flights operationally for six years.
Norman said that during the Hurricane Hunters' mission, the team dropped weather instruments called dropsondes from the aircraft. The dropsondes measure pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction coordinates at various levels of the atmosphere from the elevation at which the plane is flying all the way down to the ground. The information is critical for understanding hurricane strength and to help better predict the path a dangerous storm may take.
The pilot in the front left seat has control of the airplane, while the right seat pilot works as a monitor that makes sure the left seat pilot is flying on speed and in the correct altitude. The third pilot works as a "relief pilot."
"Our missions are usually about eight hours in length," Norman said, adding that depending on the aircraft the missions can reach 10 hours in length. "So obviously that's a long time for one person to be sitting in either seat, so we do occasionally rotate out to keep everyone alert and awake."
In the back of the aircraft, an entire crew is present, including a flight director, who is a "highly specialized meteorologist" that tells crew members when to release the dropsondes and keeps them in the right direction.
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During missions, the Hurricane Hunters fly above the storm, so when they look down, they see mainly cloud cover.
"We get some really good shots of sunrises or sunsets. It's usually pretty clear every once in a while, especially once we get closer to the center of the storm." Norman said. "A lot of times you get some really gorgeous views up there."
Just as the wind field of #Dorian has grown, so has the size of its eye. This time lapse video taken yesterday afternoon from @NOAA_HurrHunter #NOAA42 shows its huge eye. Please follow @NHC_Atlantic for the latest forecast!
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Norman said Hurricane Dorian was her first hurricane hunting mission, but nothing on the mission surprised her.
"Normally, we don't get too many surprises because we have a great team that puts together a brief beforehand," Norman said. "We kind of know what to expect."
Women make up only about 7.3% of pilots altogether, which Norman said came as a surprise to her.
"There are surprisingly few women in the aviation field, and I'm still a relatively new pilot so I kind of find it shocking that there are so few," Norman said.
Lindsey Norman pictured at the Women in Aviation Conference on March 7, where she held her own education session titled “From 500ft to FL450: Lessons Learned along the Way." (@NOAA_HurrHunter)
Within NOAA, Norman said there are about 35 people who are either pilots or navigators on hurricane hunting and light aircraft missions. She said Twining, Waddington and herself were the only women pilots on staff at the time of the Dorian mission, but since then two new female pilots have joined the team, and she believes they are expecting more to join the team soon.
"I've been really fortunate to have both Capt. Twining and Cmdr. Waddington," Norman said. "Even though I hadn't flown with them before, I had worked with them on the ground and they have always been amazing mentors to me and it was an awesome opportunity to get to fly with them."
She said despite the low numbers of women in aviation, she does not feel held back by it.
"I just show up and do my job and do the best I can," Norman said. "I've always felt that I've gotten a fair shake."
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