AIAA DBF Competition - Wichita, KS - April, 2012
photos taken: ~2,100
Here are some photos that I took at the 2012 AIAA Design/Build/Fly Competition. For those who don't know, I have been to all sixteen of these competitions! I competed the first three years, and I've returned every year since then to help out, mostly by flying for teams that don't have a pilot.
This year was the first time that the competition schedule was affected by weather! Flying on Friday was great; there was hardly any wind for most of the afternoon. However, Saturday brought high winds, and flying stopped shortly after noon.
That's when the real excitement began. Tornadic supercells formed in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa throughout the afternoon. Back at the hotel, I watched weather reports on TV and noticed one supercell tracking toward Wichita for several hours.
As the supercell got closer, it became more apparent that I was directly in its path. The news stations reported that the tornado within this particular supercell was about a half mile wide and "not survivable above ground". Dang. I was somewhat comforted by the fact that the hotel had a basement, which was put to use when the tornado sirens sounded, an hour or so after sunset.
In the hotel basement, I met an amateur storm-chaser. He had already seen three tornadoes that day, but he had to stop since it's not safe for amateurs to storm-chase in the dark. When I asked what he thought about the tornado coming our way, he calmly replied, "This is the kind of thing that will level everything in its path." Dang.
The tornado evidently weakened considerably and missed us by less than a mile. However, it caused damage at/near the competition site, so flying was cancelled for the rest of the weekend.
In the end, over 100 tornadoes were spotted in the Midwest that day. That's a pretty gnarly day, huh?
Finally, the photos below are just a small selection of the many that I took during the short amount of flying that took place. If you're on one of the teams and would like additional photos, just send me a message at [email protected]. Unfortunately, I don't have many photos of the teams that I was flying for.
Here are some photos that I took at the 2012 AIAA Design/Build/Fly Competition. For those who don't know, I have been to all sixteen of these competitions! I competed the first three years, and I've returned every year since then to help out, mostly by flying for teams that don't have a pilot.
This year was the first time that the competition schedule was affected by weather! Flying on Friday was great; there was hardly any wind for most of the afternoon. However, Saturday brought high winds, and flying stopped shortly after noon.
That's when the real excitement began. Tornadic supercells formed in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Iowa throughout the afternoon. Back at the hotel, I watched weather reports on TV and noticed one supercell tracking toward Wichita for several hours.
As the supercell got closer, it became more apparent that I was directly in its path. The news stations reported that the tornado within this particular supercell was about a half mile wide and "not survivable above ground". Dang. I was somewhat comforted by the fact that the hotel had a basement, which was put to use when the tornado sirens sounded, an hour or so after sunset.
In the hotel basement, I met an amateur storm-chaser. He had already seen three tornadoes that day, but he had to stop since it's not safe for amateurs to storm-chase in the dark. When I asked what he thought about the tornado coming our way, he calmly replied, "This is the kind of thing that will level everything in its path." Dang.
The tornado evidently weakened considerably and missed us by less than a mile. However, it caused damage at/near the competition site, so flying was cancelled for the rest of the weekend.
In the end, over 100 tornadoes were spotted in the Midwest that day. That's a pretty gnarly day, huh?
Finally, the photos below are just a small selection of the many that I took during the short amount of flying that took place. If you're on one of the teams and would like additional photos, just send me a message at [email protected]. Unfortunately, I don't have many photos of the teams that I was flying for.
