Hey guys, I know this is not airplane related, but I just thought it was cool!

Last year we featured "Stormchasers" here on FG when they used a DA-100 equipped airplane to launch little parachutes into a tornado. It was really cool to see our big RC airplanes being used for something that could potentially help thousands of people. That story can be found here: Chasing Tornados With an RC Plane!

Yesterday on facebook I noticed that Reed Timmer and the Storm Chaser boys were now using quad copters. This is pretty cool as well. They intend to create a "swarm' of quad copters and fly them with HD cameras and weather instruments right into the storms! Again I think is is really cool! I love to see our hobby products promoted in a positive manner and the thought that something we are all involved with could potentially help thousands of people avoid injury or death just makes me smile!

Here is a video of them testing out their new tools:

The video description reads:
"Reed Timmer, Chris Chittick and Aaron Brodie test fly the SwarmDrone prototype at the TVN headquarters in Norman, Oklahoma, on Tuesday, February 28, 2012. The quadcopter drone handled well in the strong wind, but did crash when a propeller caught a battery wire. Despite the nose dive into the ground, the drone didn't suffer any damage.

Aaron will be storm chasing with Reed, Chris and the TVN team this spring and attempting to fly the drone near a tornado. The goal is to collect scientific data from inside a tornado in the effort to better understand how and when tornadoes form. This could lead to more accurate warnings to help save lives in outbreaks such as the March 2, 2012 Midwest tornado outbreak."
Source: spanglemedia via youtube

http://youtu.be/-yCc9jPlL7o

I think it is cool and all but is this not exactly why our hobby was targeted by the FAA and strict regulation policy's threatened the direction in which our hobby is moving. Like I started out with it is awesome and I would live to do something like that but by commercially intergrating the use of a RC aircraft kind of changes it classification from RC to uav. Hate to be the buzz kill but I love my hobby more then a new camera angle of a tornado so some dude can make money on tv.

Well this is where the future FAA regulations may help regulate commercial uses like this, and save the freedom of our hobby...
I'd rather see this than criminals using them to peek into peoples 2nd floor windows....

That's the part of the hobby I like. Hehehehehe. Just kidding. Just kidding. I agree this is a positive way to use something like that I just understood the regulation to prevent someone from going out and taking pictures from a RC plane of real-estate and such so there were not so many out in populated areas and if that is regulated then I can't see how flying a swarm of them in to a tornado is that much different.

I havent watched Reeds show since he acted like a jerk to his driver and kicked him out of his truck in the middle of nowhere. I think he's just another "im better than you junkie" on media whoreism.

Seen that too and thought the same thing.

Originally Posted by Extra nuts

I havent watched Reeds show since he acted like a jerk to his driver and kicked him out of his truck in the middle of nowhere. I think he's just another "im better than you junkie" on media whoreism.

Wouldnt be half the show without his ranting.
They are good friends and IIRC he apologized.

My point is "who cares"? This is Flying Giants. He is making or building a miniscule wobbley"going to crash in the wind" contraption that is small. Jerk plus jenky junk doent equal give a dam.

These boneheads are not who they pretend to be on tv. They are not doing anything for "science" other than maybe the science of making money... They frequently roll through town here and I have heard plenty of stories of their shenanigans to have no interest in ever watching that show.

Originally Posted by Extra nuts

My point is "who cares"? This is Flying Giants. He is making or building a miniscule wobbley"going to crash in the wind" contraption that is small. Jerk plus jenky junk doent equal give a dam.

For the record.. the tagline for Flyinggiants.com has always been, "It doesn't matter what you fly, It's how you fly it".

So if these dudes take the quad copters up into a tornado rock a blender... I'm all in.

Also... for the record. There were no press releases of interest today, no huge events this weekend, and no other earth shattering news I could find.. so.. um...... you got a better LE story?

Looks like they could use some flying lessons. Hum, time for RealFlight!

Originally Posted by husker

They frequently roll through town here and I have heard plenty of stories of their shenanigans to have no interest in ever watching that show.

See I love Shenanigans! That is what life is for! I wanna hang with these dudes!
Roll around in the Dominator, shoot some rocket probes up into something and get silly Storm Chaser stylie!

Originally Posted by skaluf

Looks like they could use some flying lessons. Hum, time for RealFlight!

Put some tornadoes in real flight then we will have a leading edge article

Originally Posted by skaluf

Looks like they could use some flying lessons. Hum, time for RealFlight!

Steve.. that might be a great demo expense for RF. Show them training on it on the show... nice call!

Originally Posted by husker

Put some tornadoes in real flight then we will have a leading edge article

You already can turn the wind up to like 100 mph! That should work!