Not a word on RCI???

Andre took off for Hawaii from Nagoya, Japan quietly on Sunday without any announcement or fanfare

Hope members are watching the live feed.
Fantastic information. Eg, realtime cockpit instruments display, graphs of altitude, battery consumption etc and much much more.

This is historic stuff, guys.
Anyone with the slightest interest in aviation could stay awake all night to watch.
(The pilot is on the job 5 days and 5 nights)

I wish the SI2 team all the best (and wish i could have been a part of the team)

It has started, and will be difficult to turn back now. Hawaii or bust!

Seems like no one is interested...

Looks like everyone is busy building for sweepstakes, so no time for this now.. What a bad time for Solar Impulse!

 

Something of interest to all of us electric flyers.
Message from Solar Impulse Team a few minutes ago:

"Despite having completed the longest and most difficult leg of the Round the World Solar Flight, #Si2 has suffered battery damages due to overheating.

During the first ascent on day one of the flight from Nagoya to Hawaii, the battery temperature increased too much due to over insulation. And while the Mission Team was monitoring this very closely during the mission leg, there was no way to decrease the temperature for the remaining duration of the flight as each daily cycle requires an ascend to 28'000 feet and descend for energy management issues.

The damage to certain parts of the batteries is irreversible and will require repairs and replacements that will take several weeks to work through. In parallel, the Solar Impulse engineering team is looking at various options for better management of the cooling and heating process for very long flights."

Moral for us: 'Be cool, man'

Nice piece of info Iyer sir..

This is real achievement by solar impulse guys, twitter is abuzz about it, imagine the possibilities this opens up, in the future you could travel on power given by sol.

Will that be allowed by the powers that are especially the Oil Lobby is another question (in this regard do see a documentary called "Who killed the electric car".

Members of RCI aren't interested i guess, they are busy with sweepstakes

PS
My wife remarked after looking at what is making headlines! real achievements like Solar Impulse or New Horizons Pluto Charon Flyby aren't making news at all. Chaploos and Chaploosy is, breaking news. Similar feelings expressed by Iyer sir in his own way of making a Bootlick app , should sell like hot cake

Hi,
Wonder if anyone is watching the Hawaii to California flight...

At about 1345 IST, i think there was a big problem. Bertrand was having a short nap due to his headache and suddenly an alarm went off. The plane veered over 100degrees to the right! Then over 180deg to the left! I couldn't quite get the conversation. Since then the Monaco Control Room has been so silent, you can hear people turning pages. But nearly no conversation.

About half an hour later, the pilot was advised to descend to about 6000ft, and hold altitude by adding a little power...

Data about altitude, speed, heading, rate of descent, power reserve are available (to us) via two displays. The telemetry in the live video, and the flight instruments display. Maybe there is a lag in one, as i noticed ~600ft difference in the altitude between the two. Heading reading also differs.

If anyone is in live contact with mission control, can he please ask them what's happening?

I'd have done so myself, but am unable to recall my password (9 mths since last login!)

@aneesh.p
@karthick ashwath,

You are the two RCI members currently trying solar flight.

Hope at least you two are tracking Solar Impulse2...

I'm really sad at not being able to recover my password.

If you look at the flight path, the burning questions are
'Why constant left rudder'
Estimated duration was 60 hours. Over 20 hours have passed. Over 3000km remains. Current ground speed ~50kmph. So it will take 60 hours more.
Will the batteries last?

@rcpilotacro,
Gusty sir, where in the world are you?

29% battery left
every thing seems fine
on a leveled flight

2 hrs to start charging

At least TWO guys from India are watching...

I am watching it too!

@aneesh.p,
At this time, on 60% solar power, the solar cells are putting out 35kw, of which 17kw is powering the motors, and 18kw is charging the batteries...

Welcome VTOL.

Landed 5 minutes ago!

Fabulous moment in Aviation history - when Lindbergh did his grand voyage, who could have envisioned Concordes and Dreamliners?

Nonetheless, I, as an engineer, would like to see the economics and feasibility of a Helium Zeppelin with a Solar Motor 

Anyone watching?

I was watching.

Sent from my GT-S7562L using Tapatalk

@K K Iyer
Sir its been a long time. Sorry for that. I am busy with my studies at chennai.(Your golden rule: Studies first, hobbies next. ) Yep ,I am also tracking at, but not as actively as you sir.

@Aneesh.P

Congratulations! Hope for the best. All the best of luck for the final step of your project.

@sanjayrai55
Sir I am also thinking of doing that too(Solar blimp)
It would be trainer for use on idle days. Maybe , maybe.

Can you believe this?
The telemetry failed 10 minutes before takeoff.
Started working only after three reboots!

Just now Bertrand is happily napping.
The only sound is a periodic hiss, presumably his oxygen supply...

For those who presume that a model needs thrust equal to its weight (something i debunk often on the forum), Check out the horsepower needed by this plane. Eye opener!

After many failed attempts, finally managed to contact them.
My first question was why the constant left rudder?
Answer got was it is normal for SI2 rudder to lean slightly to the left.

Awaiting answer to next questions:
1. So does she CRAB all the time?
2. With the low wing loading and low power loading, what wind/gusts can she cope with?
3. Is the instruments display out of sync with the video display?
4. Is there inbuilt dihedral, or only when the wings flex under load?

hey guys where i can watch live next time. missed

Round the world solar powered flight is about to be completed with landing in Abu Dhabi in about one hour (around 11:30pm tonight).

Can be seen live on
www.solarimpulse.com

And tracked on
www.flightradar24.com

Edit: Still 120km to go. 2 hours more?

As the plane is on the last leg,
So is my solar plane.
Regards
A great achievement by the solar impulse team😃