Thalass

Yeah that concerns me quite a bit, too.

Hello from northern Ontario!

It was in the US. He was ground staff for the airline, though I don't know if he was an engineer or not. But he definitely knew how to start the q400. From the audio he knew what the consequences would be, and decided to crash rather than be arrested or shot down. And from the audio he was completely done with life, so it was suicide. I feel for the guy and his family.

Ottawa pilot dies in North Bay plane crash I work at the North Bay airport these days, and live near the Trout Lake seaplane base. It's terrible to hear such news. Obviously the Canadian TSB investigators haven't released any findings yet, but I've heard from my colleagues that this aircraft had a heavy landing on a lake the day before the crash. It was parked overnight at the main airport (presumably for inspections) before the fateful flight. This is all hearsay of course, but it gets my engineer's sphincter all bunched up to hear of something that might have been prevented if this alleged heavy landing contributed to "the wing fell off" as I heard. (and I don't know any more details so I could be full of it - you'd think the wing would come adrift on takeoff, not approach to landing) I guess my point is to be diligent with these kinds of things.

Damnit. Because of this thread I've been eyeballing the Fisher Flying Products range, and several of their planes can fly with a Hirth F-33 engine - Motenergy produce electric motors with similar weight and power outputs. Urge to build... rising...

There is one disadvantage of electric aircraft: In a conventional aircraft the MTOW is normally higher than the max landing weight. The designers save weight by reducing the strength of the airframe - safe in the knowledge that 99% of the time the aircraft will land after burning many tons of fuel. An electric aircraft will weigh the same on landing as it did on takeoff. With a stronger airframe this wouldn't be a problem, but that means a heavier airframe and so less payload.

As an airline guy I would be happy with a Metroliner replacement with battery packs in the nacelles that can be swapped out in 20 minutes. But for a private operator going cross country that's hardly practical. You'd need a Tesla style Supercharger, and the willingness to accept the possible (?) reduced cycle life it might bring.

They've got a lower power density, but LiFePO4 cells are much more stable, even in a crash, and last 5000+ cycles instead of 500ish for lipo (or whatever it is) But for future-tech I'm really excited about these cells: https://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/march/aluminum-ion-battery-033115.html

http://www.wired.com/2014/03/boeing-bird-of-prey/ An interesting design. The CoG must be way aft to have the wings that far back, and this kind of tailless configuration needs computer mediated fly-by-wire controls, I think (I am biased, of course, but y'know). It'd be neat to see something similar as a homebuilt aircraft. I suppose Airservices Australia might object to the stealth aspects of the design :P

The only thing i see wrong with that video is that they've got a couple of guys in the tray of the ute filming. One slip and you're not only tumbling down the runway on your arse, but you're doing it in pieces since you went through the prop on the way down. hahaha

I'm an avionics LAME so this is really my kind of aircraft:

That twin is pretty strange looking. Good access to the donks, though, i would guess.

There are plenty of threads about home-made LiFePO4 chargers on http://www.diyelectriccar.com/ With plenty of far more knowledgeable people than me to answer questions. :P

The batteries in the 787 are lithium-cobalt-oxide, which apparently at the time were the best available. LiPos have more energy, and can handle more cranking power, but have a fairly short life (~500 cycles?). Electric cars nowdays have lithuim-iron-phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries, which have less energy than LiPo but a much longer life (~5000 cycles). I suppose for an aircraft it's a matter of trading off more power for the weight, or longer life. Still waiting for lithium-air cells!

Wow it looks great! The Pietenpol is a really nice aircraft.