There seem to be lots of people here who are pilots, or like planes, or whatever. Lloyd just mentioned hangars, for example. I have a share of a Cessna Cardinal and fly most weekends when I'm at home. So I thought I'd do a poll, see how many of us are interested.
I have my pilot's license but haven't flown in 10 years. I learned on Tampicos and Cessna 172s. It was either keep flying or buy a house and I choose the latter. I have been keeping a close eye on electric planes ever since the Yuneec e430 was announced (Yuneec - Electric_Aircraft). Although honestly I think I would abandon electric if I could afford the PAL-V which I want very badly (PAL-V | Ultimate Freedom).
I'm a private pilot since about 5 years, flying Cessna 172 most of the time. Can't wait for an electric version!
Was saving up for a Lancair IV-P when I bought the Roadster (what can I say, I love Carbon Fiber ). Now I find myself worried about the long-term cost of fuel (Peak Oil, etc) and whether I want to invest in something I may not be able to afford to fly in the future. I'm also interested in an electric track bike so the fund may be depleted yet again
Haven't actually been PIC in over 12 years, but I have my ticket. We had a similar thread on Priuschat several years ago and there was a high proportion of early adopters of the Prius who were pilots too. Pilots with Prius - PriusChat Forums
It appears that pilots are used to careful trip planning - what distance do I want to go, how much fuel will that take, take weather conditions in respect :wink:
Does flying these count? My father in law keeps saying I should get a pilots license. I think it would be neat but I don't really want it, or care too much. I think I could potentially fly/ land if I ever needed to but I'll just hope that never happens I've flown some slope gliders & a powered delta wing + helis more recently. I really liked flying the 2M sailplanes when I was in SLO. I kind of dropped out of school because I was having more fun flying on the hillsides than doing Chemistry :biggrin: helis are really neat + mine are all electric. I should redo one w/ Tesla colors and maybe a logo
Nice! I tried RC helis a couple years ago (Blade 400) and even w/ a gyro it was extremely difficult. Much easier to fly a real one actually as your "seat of the pants" tells you a lot more quickly that things are going off-kilter than trying to do everything visually. I'm tempted by one of these: http://www.brookstone.com/parrot-ar-drone-2-quadricopter?bkiid=SubCategory_Games___Toys_Electronic_Toys_AR_Drone___Accessories|SubCategoryWidget|786406p&catId=L3_ARDrone|L2_ElectronicToys|L1_Games but it uses ultrasound for its altimeter and I have 2 cats and a dog - doubt they would appreciate it.
How likely is it that this thing will ever actually see the light of day? Building a workable "flying car" should be easy for any engineering team with enough money. But will there be enough customers to make it a viable business? It needs 50 meters by 30 meters to land and 200 meters by 30 meters to take off. And it looks like it's got one seat. The web site says, among other things, "create your own bridge" and shows the thing flying over a big-city bridge, but of course you actually have to fly airstrip to airstrip, making it impractical to simply take to the air when there's a crowded bridge or traffic jam. For safety reasons, you cannot take off and land on highways. Consider the driving distance and traffic from where you are to the nearest airstrip, and from where you want to go to its nearest airstrip, and I think you'd be better off with a conventional airplane and a taxi or limousine service. Yes, there are situations when this would be nice. But it's slower than a plane, and it's tiny, and most of the touted uses (jumping over traffic jams) won't actually work because of its takeoff and landing requirements. The Roadster is a niche vehicle. They built and sold 2,500 world-wide. The Pal-V would probably find 250 customers and cost a quarter of a million, at least, at those small production numbers. It does look really cool. It looks fun. But I'll be surprised if they ever bring it to market at a price that anybody but a multi-millionaire can afford. It would be a rather impractical toy for multi-millionaire pilots. Have they even built a working prototype? I'd rather have a sailboat, if I didn't get seasick.
Ya, the hardest thing is keeping an eye on a heli to 'feel' what it is doing. Quad(or more) copters are pretty neat. There have been soooo many made over the past couple of years. Some of the swarm technology that tech schools/DARPA have been working on is pretty nifty too - like this - ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQIMGV5vtd4 ) I have a 250 and 450 Trex and a logo500 se that I have been scared to fly:crying: - kind of big + the place that I'd fly it isn't really safe since there could be kids or people coming out of the forest. I might just sell it but it is so pretty and German made! I even got an airspeed pitot and altimeter for it (I'm thinking about using the airspeed for the Model S though:smile
Why do you get the impression that EV drivers are Ham Radio operators. I happen to be ... well, inactive for a decade but ... damn ... better renew my licence!! Thanks for the reminder!
The PAL-V is a 2-seater (with the passenger sitting behind the pilot). I agree that in the US you aren't going to be taking off in the middle of the street. I think that use case was more for humanitarian missions in remote parts of the world. Personally for me, I would like to from Westchester to Long Island or to Cape Code or to Nantucket. The highways here are way overcrowded. Sure I can just rent a plane and land and get a cab. But that raises an important point which may be a trait of many EV owners: I would prefer to pay more to be more independent. For example, I would prefer having an EV so I don't need to go to a gas station. I would prefer buying expensive solar panels so I don't need to deal with the utility company, I would prefer buying tools than dealing with contractors. I wonder how large a role this sort of sentiment plays for EV owners. But anyway, I can't afford the PAL-V (estimated cost $300k btw) so it is a moot point. But I am working on the solar panels...
^ So I was low, but close, on the price. As for humanitarian missions in remote places, the "car" would be useless. If all you need is to get one person to a place, an ultralight would be cheaper and could probably take off and land in a shorter space. But most humanitarian work involves transporting supplies, and this thing is too small.
I have the AR drone 1 and it's great. the cats and the dog will not like it but that's not so much the ultrasound altimeter as it is the noice it makes and the quite irate and odd movements it makes. I have two dogs and they love to hate it...... similar to running after a cat! . I actually use it for areal photography for some of the smaller villa projects I do. you can fly high enough once you get used to it.
Indeed. I check the METARs at the airports along my route before I leave work in my Volt to see if I will be able to get home on electricity alone, or if, and for how long, I need to run the ICE in Mountain mode (most efficient at > 70 km/h).