Pilot Storm Chaser??

[F16TJ]

It's 12:30AM, Sunday, 30 May 04. I'm at work watching the Weather Channel. They just showed footage from Canadian County, OK earlier tonight of a tornado on the ground.

Okay, big deal you say, but...the footage "appears" to be shot from the air! Hard to tell how far away the "aircraft" was from the tornado, due to the zoom lens, but it looks like a couple of miles.

Granted, this particular storm cell had no other clouds around it (I saw the satellite shot of it earlier today) and the tornado is usually on the SW side of the cell, so it would be possible to see the tornado if you fly to the SW of the cell.

I'm just not brave enough to fly that close to a super cell. Anybody else find this strange?

Out...

 

[jergar999]

If the footage is a somewhat older gentleman flying a heavily modified and reinforced T-6 straight through the worst part of a cell, then I have taken a checkride from the guy. The local university here has a plane in cooperation with NOAA and NWS that he purposely flies into nasty cells with all kinds of sensing equipment to learn more about them.

 

[jergar999]

Just found a link:

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/3/charliesummers.php

http://www.ravens.org/T-28pilot.htm

I guess it's a T-28, not a T-6.

 

[flywest]

Must be a freight dog . . .

 

[vetteracer]

I had a few buddies go to a company that flew CE-340's in or around T-storms.

I am not sure the level of penetration but I ran into one of the guys in KC and he said they did a fair amount of sever WX flying and that the 340 they used had some speacial equipment and some type of protection on the front windows for hail etc.

I flew frieght for 2 years in the midwest, I have had my share of T-storms. Can't imagine poping out the other side and turning around and going back into it .

I was flying inbeded t-storms with a v-35 and it got so bad that the horizon tumbled and I broke the plastic liner on the roof with my head.

Mark