Solar Impulse hitting a rough patch

Solar Impulse hitting a rough patch

Fingers crossed they get through the night.

Originally shared by Stephen Shankland

The SOLAR IMPULSE round-the-world solar plane trip has hit a rough patch over the Pacific: performance problems from hot batteries discharging in the middle of the night just past the point of no return between Midway and Hawaii.

http://www.solarimpulse.com/leg-8-from-Nagoya-to-Hawaii

JULY 2ND, 2015 | 10:21AM UTC

Pilot & Aircraft Update

Airplane time: 23:30.

We have a situation this evening whereby on one hand André’s resting becomes increasingly important (given that he has been flying almost 4 days) yet on the other hand his vigilance becomes increasingly necessary in order to focus on energy management.

The batteries are loosing performance due to temperature and the MCC engineers are very much focused on this, all the more than tonight will be really difficult energy-wise, we should go below 10% of battery state of charge because of longer night at this latitude.

In these last days we have been pushing everything & everyone to the limits… aicraft systems, energy management, Pilot fatigue. Lets hope that there won’t be more surprises ….

https://twitter.com/solarimpulse/status/616544914155941888 #Si2 passed the non-return point to Midway. We are definitely proceeding to Hawaii! #LIVE on http://solarimpulse.com  

https://twitter.com/solarimpulse/status/616564664323973120

Batteries are losing performance because their temperature is increasing. #MCC engineers are working hard on this. 

[Mission Control Center I presume]

https://twitter.com/solarimpulse/status/616555558523535360

00:30 over the Pacific, batteries are discharging. 7 hours to go until recharge. Tonight is the most critical night. 

http://www.solarimpulse.com/leg-8-from-Nagoya-to-Hawaii