A sign on the climb from Salem, Oregon to the Redmond/Bend area indicates that no gas or services exist for the next 52 miles. It’s worth heeding, since the route goes over mountain passes, and in winter can require tire chains and sometimes long passages behind a snow plow. Range anxiety happens even for those of us still plugging along in fossil-fueled vehicles. One of the ostensible advantages of Solar Impulse’s ability to charge itself, is that it has an endless supply of solar fuel and its batteries can make it through the night – depending on the relative lengths of day and night. Making the longest flight of the round-the-world trip at high latitudes and during summer months was well planned, subject only to obstacles presented by weather. Even those impediments were handled brilliantly by the team’s meteorologists and mission director. What couldn’t be foreseen and must have caused moments when Andre’ Borschberg’s discipline, yoga and powers of meditation …
Solar Impulse Breaks More Records, Attracts More Eyes
At 79 hours into the flight Flight Director Michi Anger let viewers on Solar Impulse’s web site know that the “U-turns” the airplane performed were to get the maximum amount of solar energy in the plane – “That’s why it looks as if we’re facing the wrong direction.” “André got a good amount of rest during the last 12 hours, but we had some problems finding calm air. André had 300m of resting periods but could only sleep for 170m. The autopilot is designed to function only in calm air so we had to wake André up from the MCC. This is a rude awakening for him so it made it more difficult for him to go back into sleep. “André passed 76h 45min of flight, breaking Steve Fossett’s 2006 record for the longest solo flight (in any kind of plane). “In a few hours SI2 will climb up to 28 000ft until “Energy-Neutral Evening”, the point at which there will not be enough solar power to charge batteries. “Holding pattern: we’re slowing down the flight to ensure we …