Solar Impulse plane doing epic global flight

[Fingers]

Still up there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL-tY-9eGABww5kB4KfqXfPmFHZqX2ZCQk&t=13&v=GHa05MxP1YA

 

[weltweit]

Still up there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL-tY-9eGABww5kB4KfqXfPmFHZqX2ZCQk&t=13&v=GHa05MxP1YA

Fingers that is misleading, if you just load the youtube you get what happened many minutes ago, if you move to the right, you see Si2 on the ground.

 

[Fingers]

Fingers that is misleading, if you just load the youtube you get what happened many minutes ago, if you move to the right, you see Si2 on the ground.

Their whole website is a bit of a dog's dinner to be honest. FR still showing it in the air. Odd

 

[weltweit]

Their whole website is a bit of a dog's dinner to be honest. FR still showing it in the air. Odd

Yes, their website telemetry has been very dodgy this flight.

 

[Fingers]

It is deffo down

 

[gentlegreen]

FR seems to be having problems today ...

... or it's going to make an emergency landing at Bristol ...

 

[weltweit]

Wonder how long it will take them to find a new flight / weather window. Apparently it is soon to be typhoon season in the region so hopefully they find a new slot soon.

 

[Fingers]

Wonder how long it will take them to find a new flight / weather window. Apparently it is soon to be typhoon season in the region so hopefully they find a new slot soon.

Probably four days at least. Then they need to get a hurry on. Is there any possibility of El Niño events?

 

[weltweit]

Apparently, with reference, 2hats your comment about them being quite low, their plan is to gain altitude in the day on solar and then sort of allow themselves to lose attitude at night to spare the load on the batteries.

 

[weltweit]

Probably four days at least. Then they need to get a hurry on. Is there any possibility of El Niño events?

I know little about the weather in the region.

 

[Fingers]

Apparently, with reference, 2hats your comment about them being quite low, their plan is to gain attitude in the day on solar and then sort of allow themselves to lose attitude at night to spare the load on the batteries.

That makes sense, probably at a reduced speed but it is not too important the distance you travel at night, it is more important to gain the milage during daylight hours i reckon

 

[2hats]

Apparently, with reference, 2hats your comment about them being quite low, their plan is to gain altitude in the day on solar and then sort of allow themselves to lose attitude at night to spare the load on the batteries.

28kft down to 5kft in the first hour or so of night flight just seemed like rather a lot of cross and down range gliding leeway to pass up on (should a powered flight issue arise).

 

[weltweit]

28kft down to 5kft in the first hour or so of night flight just seemed like rather a lot of cross and down range gliding leeway to pass up on (should a powered flight issue arise).

Yes, you are probably right, that does sound like quite a quick loss of altitude.

 

[2hats]

Yes, you are probably right, that does sound like quite a quick loss of altitude.

Though possibly some of yesterday's public navigational data was duff, including (or in particular) altitude.

 

[weltweit]

They have gotten their mobile blow up hangar to the airstrip and are assembling it now. No idea how long they will be on the ground this time though. Looks cold and wet there.

 

[weltweit]

André Borschberg‏@andreborschberg 19 mins19 minutes ago Small damage on one of the aileron of @solarimpulse which will necessitate at least a week to repair but not a major issue.

 

[2hats]

Suggestions that there might be a launch attempt around 1830BST today.

 

[2hats]

Now confirmed as departing Nagoya for Hawaii at 1830BST today.

 

[weltweit]

Now confirmed as departing Nagoya for Hawaii at 1830BST today.

Darn it, I am going to be out ..

This is the big one, no more easy diverts to friendly airports, I hope they got the weather planning right.

 

[2hats]

Warming up... ready to track:

 

[weltweit]

They go on about flying with no fuel which is interesting and of course part of the goals of the project, but:

I think they should come clean on whether they are plugging it into the mains to charge the batteries when they are on the ground. I think they have to be as the plane has been in a hangar for days and sunlight would have been reduced. Still, I want to know how they would phrase it!

 

[2hats]

Appears to be a weather no-go.

 

[Fingers]

Appears to be a weather no-go.

Seems so, it appears to be loitering at the end on the runway

 

[Fingers]

They go on about flying with no fuel which is interesting and of course part of the goals of the project, but:

I think they should come clean on whether they are plugging it into the mains to charge the batteries when they are on the ground. I think they have to be as the plane has been in a hangar for days and sunlight would have been reduced. Still, I want to know how they would phrase it!

i may be wrong, uit as it spends so much time on the ground between flights, would they need to?

 

[gentlegreen]

and lithium batteries hold their charge

 

[weltweit]

i may be wrong, uit as it spends so much time on the ground between flights, would they need to?

But it is usually in permanent or temporary hangar so the light falling on its panels would be reduced.

and lithium batteries hold their charge

But like tonight they often take off at night meaning they need a full charge to see them through to the next sunshine. I just think it is interesting and would like to know the truth.

 

[gentlegreen]

Oh I see - they state that it gets too blowy during the day to have the plane outside ...

Perhaps the hangar has a transparent roof ?

 

[weltweit]

Also sometimes they report it can be too hot for the panels, seems odd to me, but on one of their stops they explained they were hangering the plane to keep the temperature of the panels at a lower level.

 

[weltweit]

They are up, flying from Japan since 13h 47m towards Hawaii .. apparently now past the point of no return.
I missed the build up, didn't realise they were going to takeoff last night.

More info at http://www.solarimpulse.com/

 

[weltweit]

The reason no one knew about the takeoff at Nagoya was that the team kept it quiet in case there was a further disappointment from a third change of mind at the last minute.