![\"IMG_FLT_cloud_seeding_piper\"](\"https:\/\/www.envoyair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_FLT_cloud_seeding_piper.jpg\" "\\"Cloud")
<\/a><\/p>\nNormally, pilots keep away from these “hairy” situations, but for a little over six months Envoy Captain Chance Lagergren earned multi-engine flight hours flying into storms as part of Western Kansas Groundwater Management\u2019s weather modification program.<\/p>\n
The way weather modification through cloud seeding works is by using aircraft to deposit solid chemical compounds, like silver iodide or solid carbon dioxide (dry ice), into storm cells. Ice crystals in the storm cloud form around the solid chemical compounds, and either melt to create rain or freeze to create small-sized hail.\u00a0By forming smaller bits of hail, larger more dangerous hail will\u00a0not have the chance to form.<\/p>\n
In Chance\u2019s line of work, the cloud seeding was used to dissipate hail storms that damage\u00a0local farmer\u2019s crops.\u00a0He would fly his Piper Cheyenne close enough to the storm to release the dry ice into the storm, which is where it would get a bit dicey. \u201cAny small thunderstorm can have some updrafts, downdrafts and pretty serious precipitation, it could be pretty interesting,\u201d Chance says. \u201cYou\u2019d come along at 20,000 feet, cook along these lines of thunderstorms, and it could get pretty violent sometimes. Then you just kind of say to yourself, okay, no more, and turn back around.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to\u00a0the turbulence and choppy winds, Chance says the extreme heat and cold in the non-air-conditioned plane was enough to make the job unbearable. Yet, regardless of the conditions and even though cloud seeding isn\u2019t an exact science, it helped Chance pay the bills and earn flight hours while he was in college at Kansas State.<\/p>\n Between weather modification and flight instructing at Kansas State, Chance somehow managed to complete his coursework as well. But, he hadn\u2019t given too much thought to becoming a commercial airline pilot.<\/p>\n Not until he met Envoy Pilot Recruitment at his school, and they offered him an interview on-site. He had all the necessary multi-engine hours and other ratings, all he had to complete was Envoy training to become a First Officer on the Embraer 145.<\/p>\n Ten years later, Chance is a Captain on the Embraer 175 (E175) and working as an instructor in Envoy\u2019s training program. He loved flying the E175 so much that he thought instructing would be a great fit for him, also considering he would have more time to spend with his\u00a0family. After all these years of running\u00a0the gamut of aviation, Chance still loves his job.<\/p>\n \u201cI still enjoy flying, I enjoy teaching,\u201d Chance says. \u201cThe big thing is that it\u2019s different every day. There\u2019s always something new. Weather changes, passengers change, crews change; it makes life a lot more interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n One of Chance\u2019s trainees pokes his head inside of the room to ask Chance a quick question about his training. Without hesitation and very matter-of-factly Chance gives precise instruction that clears up all of the trainee\u2019s apprehension. It seems effortless, as if he were a tenured professor of the E175.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\nFinding his way to Envoy<\/h3>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nClipping the “Hairy” Situations<\/h3>\n