Flying RC airplane into tornado

[Tyler_Costantini]

The goal is to have video / enviromental / gps all in the unit...

I plan on using APRS to send the gps / enviromental data and a 439mhz atv transmitter for the video...

I need to use rf that has a low freespace loss thats why i dont want to use 2.4 or 5.8 ghz right off... also if i use 2mtr APRS and 439mhz
ATV i already have all of the ground equipment.

I will post all of this on my website as soon as i get a plan together.

 

[Verne Carlson]

This weekend I sprung for a Stryker RC delta wing to give it a try. It was only $270 for the plane, radio, battery, motor, and even the charger. It only needed the nose taped on and the vertical fins slid on and it was ready to fly after charging the lipo battery.

I can tell you this thing is a rocket! It has way more power than needed and I'm not worried about adding the 1/2 pound or so for the video system. A hotwire attached to a soldering gun should make for an easy way to hog out some of the foam fuselage to move the battery back and offset the camera in the nose.

A good and bad thing I discovered on the first flight is that it is hard to tell orientation as the delta wing disappears in the sky when it is on it's edge to you. This caused me to crash. The good news is it is very stout and the only damage was a busted off wingtip.

I really like that you don't have to take any time to attach the wings. The whole thing can be pulled out of the back of my Subaru about like a large pizza in a box would be.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Have you all given thought to gyro-stabilizing the camera or the entire plane? From the test videos it seems like keeping the tornado in frame will be difficult.

 

[mrobinett]

Verne, did you get the brushless version? If so, they are like rockets!

 

[Verne Carlson]

Yes the brushless version. I'm going to be flying it at 1/2 throttle for awhile!

 

[Verne Carlson]

Wicked Witch 3 Stryker Test Flight with Video!

I just flew my modified Stryker Delta Wing for the first time with the camera on. My hands are still shaking, what a crazy flight. The extra weight made the takeoff hairy but I recovered and was able to trim it out and bring it under control.

The quick jolt of rocketing into the sky caused the belly mounted camera to almost fall off but luckily it hung on by the front mount and I was able to land successfully! Check out the video on my blog:

http://stormchaserco.blogspot.com/2007/08/wicked-witch-3-test-flight-1-with-video.html

 

[Verne Carlson]

Got the problems worked out with my camera mount, checkout today's flight!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3msIZrYpyQ

 

[MClarkson]

pretty cool.


what kind of rate of climb does that have?

 

[Verne Carlson]

pretty cool.


what kind of rate of climb does that have?

Hard to quantify exactly but it seems to get up to 400 feet (max allowed for RC aircraft) in about 10 seconds (timing my video) so that's 40 feet/sec. Getting up to altitude is pretty quick!

On straight and level flight I'm guessing it at about 100 feet/sec which is about 68mph. The camera's weight and drag slow it down slightly from the advertised 80mph on the box.

So that means if you flew it straight out away from you it would go out of range at 2500 feet or 25 seconds. 2500 feet is the range of the radio but the plane becomes invisible and hard to tell the orientation at probably more like 1000 feet so 10 seconds.

In my video you can see frequent turns to keep it near me. I can imagine a tornado intercept will require positioning slightly southeast of the tornado path (much like where you want to be anyway), circling the plane as the tornado approaches and then going in on the closest pass.

Who knows what will happen though - that's what I think makes this so exciting to attempt!

 

[mrobinett]

Hard to quantify exactly but it seems to get up to 400 feet (max allowed for RC aircraft)

Not exactly, thats only within 1 mile of an airport, per AMA rules.

 

[Kem Poyner]

RC plane ? Stryker

The profile of the Stryker is an issue for orentation. Espessially at dusk (when tornados are most likely). I put two stripes of bright orange sticky backed monokote on the bottom of the wings. That really helps alot!!
Lastly, put a couple drops of foam safe CA glue on the vertical fin bases. They tend to vibrate off.
Kem

 

[Kem Poyner]

Stryker video

Verne, that video is very impressive! I think you are going to have success with your goal with this one. I have been thinking how great it would be to use a hot wire foam wing cutter and make a Stryker about double the size. Bigger motor of coarse. It would help with visibility and payload.
Watching your video makes me wonder, how long before someone uses one of these for a terrible, unthinkable purpose.

 

[Verne Carlson]

The profile of the Stryker is an issue for orentation. Espessially at dusk (when tornados are most likely). I put two stripes of bright orange sticky backed monokote on the bottom of the wings. That really helps alot!!
Lastly, put a couple drops of foam safe CA glue on the vertical fin bases. They tend to vibrate off.
Kem

Yep I did roughly the same thing, spray painting the entire bottom florescent orange. Definately helps in the air and finding it on the ground.

 

[Verne Carlson]

WW3 flies a severe thunderstorm last night and I lost the video.

Last night I flew the WW3 Stryker jet with video running for almost 15 minutes out in front of a beautiful striated meso with shelf cloud, scud rising, CGs strokes from the rainfree base, everything.

I made many gentle swooping passes with storm in full view from approx 300 feet up catching wild lighting that I'm sure where in the field of view.

On landing I came just a few inches short of the tall grass on the side of the road and popped the battery off the camera on the pavement. Camera and plane are fine but when I went to download the AVI file it was 0 bytes long! The loss of power on the camera caused the file to close out without writing. Aaaaahhh

I hucked it back in the air, did one quick circle but the storm had weakened and all I got was 30 seconds of crappy video.

I am leaning more and more to a rear mounted view, once again it was very easy to keep the interesting parts of the storm in view the longest by flying backwards in the flow. I'll be trying that out next.

 

[Kem Poyner]

Stryker

Your brain processes shapes before color. I would still put a couple invasion stripes on the bottom of the wing out towards the tips. Wish you could have got that first storm video to work! At least you learned something before it was a tornado video lost!
Lastly, beshure to flip your fingers down on launching that Stryker. Chewed the crap out of my index finger by keeping it pointed ahead during a launch. Its hard to order 5 beers with only three fingers!

Kem