C5tor
Chief Comedic Instigator
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- 1,727
- Location
- SF Bay Area, CA
Okay, this is kind of outside the Electric Dirt bike arena, but it is related. I promise.
I follow a guy named Mike Patey on Youtube. He makes some of the most badass Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) airplanes in the world. He built a plane named Draco that was one of the most impressive turbine powered STOL planes ever. I and my son saw it at the Reno Air Races. But then he crashed it.
So, he is currently building a Draco replacement named Scrappy. Over 60 episodes in this build so far, and the engineering is just amazing. He has an engineering company, so can pretty much design, model, and make any kind of pieces he wants. The new plane is going to be the ultimate STOL and Search & Rescue plane.
In this episode, he is talking about installing solar panels on the wings of the plane. He not only intends to use them as a backup for his dual alternator setup, but as ground power for when he is camping. I think he might be over-estimating the available power from the batteries, but it is still an impressive build.
Now to the Electric Dirt Bike tie-in. At the end of the video, he explains why he is adding solar, and why the plane has dual support struts on each wing, even though it has an impressively strong wing already. He intends to strap two Sur-Ron Light Bee bikes to the wing struts for camping! (Well, maybe Segways, but same bike.) How gnarly is that? And he intends to charge them from the solar wings. That is pretty damn badass if you ask me. Anyway, I found it fascinating. His engineering is top-notch, and the build has been fun to watch. The plane is now certified, and ready to fly.
This is the video that explains the solar wings and the e-bike plan. Airplane geeks and EV nerds, enjoy.
I follow a guy named Mike Patey on Youtube. He makes some of the most badass Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) airplanes in the world. He built a plane named Draco that was one of the most impressive turbine powered STOL planes ever. I and my son saw it at the Reno Air Races. But then he crashed it.
So, he is currently building a Draco replacement named Scrappy. Over 60 episodes in this build so far, and the engineering is just amazing. He has an engineering company, so can pretty much design, model, and make any kind of pieces he wants. The new plane is going to be the ultimate STOL and Search & Rescue plane.
In this episode, he is talking about installing solar panels on the wings of the plane. He not only intends to use them as a backup for his dual alternator setup, but as ground power for when he is camping. I think he might be over-estimating the available power from the batteries, but it is still an impressive build.
Now to the Electric Dirt Bike tie-in. At the end of the video, he explains why he is adding solar, and why the plane has dual support struts on each wing, even though it has an impressively strong wing already. He intends to strap two Sur-Ron Light Bee bikes to the wing struts for camping! (Well, maybe Segways, but same bike.) How gnarly is that? And he intends to charge them from the solar wings. That is pretty damn badass if you ask me. Anyway, I found it fascinating. His engineering is top-notch, and the build has been fun to watch. The plane is now certified, and ready to fly.
This is the video that explains the solar wings and the e-bike plan. Airplane geeks and EV nerds, enjoy.
