LAKELAND, Fla. — NOAA's Hurricane Hunters made their final flight through Tropical Storm Barry before it made landfall Friday. 10News was with the crew as they made final preparations for the flight.
“My pre-flight for this mission is no different from any other pre-flight I do for anything," said pilot Nate Kahn. "So, even if we were just going out to train or do practice landings or something, it would be the same pre-flight. Same pre-flight, same check, we do that anytime we take this airplane flying.
And what’s crazy is that I’m not the only guy that does that. There are at least three people that look at everything I just looked at just as kind of a set of back up and checks and balances to make sure that one of us doesn’t miss something critical.”
And even though he's a seasoned veteran of flights like this, Kahn says he still gets a little nervous before flying through a storm.
“I get nervous every time," he said. "If I ever get to a point where I stop getting nervous, especially the first storm of the season, if I stop getting that kind of gut-twisty, nerve-feeling.
He adds that if that nerve-feeling stops happening, he'll quit flying.
"When we get right in the middle of it the nerves kind of go away and it’s all about training and just doing our jobs. There isn’t really room for emotions in that moment in time, but I get nervous, I get scared, if you don’t, I think you’re crazy.”
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