While I'm sure that any tornado can make short work of smashing any drone, I think the liablity would be rather limited and the FAA would not be interested unless any recklessness could be proven. Unless compelling eyewitness testimony was available, no one could even prove that the smashed drone was even airborne except by cyclonic winds.
They pick up almost anything and can carry it for miles.
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Given what a tornado can do with airplanes on the ground, I kinda doubt that a drone launched at over 100mph into someone's house would even get the FAA's attention.
Also, I think it would be complete folly to fly a drone very close at all to a tornado unless your budget has planned for some drone replacements. They are routinely accompanied by high winds that easily exceed drone return velocity. Said winds are not reliably traveling in the same direction as the storm front, so planning on operating from a downwind location might be a mistake, too.
Yes. I live in tornado alley. I don't live in a mobile home, however, so my family doesn't have to worry as much.
(Tornados are infamous for seeking out and destroying mobile home parks.)
The factoid is somewhat true, but for the wrong reasons.
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