Internet Video Thread

[Urwumpe]

I can only agree there, I feel very NOSTALGIC, too.

 

[TheShuttleExperience]

"I'm the schmuck that landed on taxiway earlier" ?

 

[diogom]

Looks like For All Mankind returns on June 10:

 

[Brad]

Looks like For All Mankind returns on June 10:

So looking forward to this!

 

[Graham2001]

An inspired(?) piece of casting...

 

[Matias Saibene]

A marvel of modern science. 1961

I don't know why but many internauts fear this music. Inexplicable.

 

[MaxBuzz]

 

[MaxBuzz]

 

[Urwumpe]

Pretty good drone footage of the recent Andover Tornado (luckily no deaths, but lots of destruction), especially from a scientific POV:

Just compare the footage to the simulation:

 

[steph]

Yeah, you'll often see this kind of interaction and bending of horizontal and vertical vortices, ending up generating a larger circulation. One could say that the storm itself depends on this kind of stuff for the whole cycle ,not just the tornado, since the whole thing is generated by the transition from horizontal rotation due to wind shear to vertical, and under powerful updrafts.

Sometimes, as the wall cloud dissipates , you can see the 'roll' hanging sort of diagonally, but that's not technically a funnel, or at least it doesn't always form that way, it's just the 'root' of the mesocyclone, as it doesn't all 'transition' to vertical, it just gets bent upwards at some point

 

[steph]

But yeah, people have started to use drones to chase tornadoes. I'd say that the ideal drone for this would be fixed wing RC with something like a GoPro or 360 camera and digital fpv transmission system. Plenty of those can go really fast and have loads of flight time, meaning they can basically 'hover' in the wind and just go with it
.
Instead, they're using high-end off-the-shelf quadcopters, like DJI FPV or the Autel stuff and mostly zooming in. Definitely somewhat expendable in that environment, but the advantage is that the video link is quite high quality and gets recorded, so even if you lose the quad you still have the footage. But all the rest is less than ideal. Gimbal flutter if they're not using a cover, not all of them are weatherproof, risk of gps loss under that cloud cover etc. Forward wind resistance is like 70-80 km/h max for most models, except the 'racers' that do something over 100, but redlining them means reduced flight time etc...

 

[Urwumpe]

I think, a variable geometry fixed wing drone could be interesting in that environment. You could let it take off half way aerodynamic, but then turn it into an massive lawn dart inside the wind field. The turbulence close to the thunderstorm is otherwise too extreme for controlled flight and you need something that provides little resistance to wind and turbulence. Like the Tornado fighter-bomber or the B-1B, which both use the variable geometry wings for reducing their sensitivity to turbulence.

 

[steph]

I think, a variable geometry fixed wing drone could be interesting in that environment. You could let it take off half way aerodynamic, but then turn it into an massive lawn dart inside the wind field.

Yeah, would be very interesting to see. Quite a few ways to do it. I guess it would be relatively easy to 'mask' it as flaps or airbrakes on the controller. On the other hand, at first look there aren't any kit frames available nowadays that would allow variable wing except the F14 EDF version, so anything else would need to be modded/custom built.

On the other hand, most hobby-grade stuff these days takes off hand-launched and plops itself into a field at 'landing'. I think VTOL might work too, with the bonus that it can be massively overpowered. Not sure about INav, but at least ArduPilot knows to make the conversion mid-flight. Something like in the photo (not mine).



Or, of course, one could just send an overpowered quadcopter , with the 'benefit' of having the aerodynamics of a brick and the disadvantage that it would have to be quite heavy, probably beyond regulations for hobby grade. It's a scale thing. Most racers are small, fly fast, but the flight time is short. Making it bigger means longer flight time and/or more speed. But not like in the video, although I think it's the same guy who shot yesterday's video. Standing in a field with a high powered 2.4 or 5.8 GHz emitter AND maybe some antennas on the head is a big nope for me in such cases. Flying it from inside the car should be fine, the link is directional anyway.

Sure, for flying it close it certainly has to be sturdy, but I guess at least some of the inflow is just laminar flow as long as it's not too close. Should be able to fly upwind at speed, looking back at the tornado, if the camera allows it.

 

[Matias Saibene]

Another wonder from the AT&T Tech Channel.

 

[steph]

This is why I'm really hesitant about doing drone photography on the coast, despite the scenery. And I've even seen them do the lighthouse thing several times This and the risk of accidentally overflying nude people, as they aren't always found only in the designated beaches ..

 

[Urwumpe]

A nice animation about German torpedo guidance systems in WW2. Of course some minor nitpicking by the experts about the historic accuracy.

 

[Urwumpe]

Its often really the simple things, that prevent deadly accidents.

 

[N_Molson]

 

[Matias Saibene]

MentourPilot's historical accident and news reporting is excellent. I like how he always emphasizes aircraft safety and how there must be excellent Crew Resource Management to carry out the mission of flying.

 

[N_Molson]

Well he's Flight Instructor and active commercial pilot with a lot of experience (already), hard to get a lot better than that in civilian aviation.