Comments on: Strobl Solar Panel Kit for Sailplanes http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/01/31/strobl-solar-panels-for-sailplanes/ musings on technology, marketing and personal interests Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:08:48 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1 By: Sigtryggur http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/01/31/strobl-solar-panels-for-sailplanes/#comment-91 Sigtryggur Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:31:49 +0000 http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/01/31/strobl-solar-panels-for-sailplanes/#comment-91 Hi Darryl, I am interested in knowing the results of the Strobl solar panel on 1CH . My club recently got a used Grob Twin III SL and so far it's working great but we are having problems with the battery running out when tutoring our members on self launching. All the engine extraction, retractions and short runs are draining it rapidly, yesterday we made 7 extractions and climbs and in the 8'th run the engine only partially got out so we had to land it, my guess is that the main battery has also become weak so I am ordering a new one. Great blog by the way, but you need to keep posting, I imagine you are to busy for that with your new toy now ;) Happy soaring. Sigtryggur Sigtryggsson, Soaring Club of Akureyri. Iceland. Hi Darryl, I am interested in knowing the results of the Strobl solar panel on 1CH . My club recently got a used Grob Twin III SL and so far it’s working great but we are having problems with the battery running out when tutoring our members on self launching. All the engine extraction, retractions and short runs are draining it rapidly, yesterday we made 7 extractions and climbs and in the 8′th run the engine only partially got out so we had to land it, my guess is that the main battery has also become weak so I am ordering a new one.
Great blog by the way, but you need to keep posting, I imagine you are to busy for that with your new toy now ;)

Happy soaring.

Sigtryggur Sigtryggsson,
Soaring Club of Akureyri.
Iceland.

]]> By: darryl http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/01/31/strobl-solar-panels-for-sailplanes/#comment-93 darryl Wed, 20 Jun 2007 08:20:31 +0000 http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/01/31/strobl-solar-panels-for-sailplanes/#comment-93 The club has been very happy with the Strobl solar panel on our DG-1000S. It has worked very well and the tail battery is alwasy fully charged. The only hassle I can think we've found is that we purchased the parts from Jaxida to put a clear panel in the canopy cover so the solar panel will work while the glider is on the ground. There is basically a flexible clear plastic panel that attaches with velcro over a hole cut in the canopy cover. You remove the clear panel and roll it up seperately before removing the canopy cover. We've had problem getting club members to remember to do this properly. If your club's problem is really near continuious heavy power consumtpiton like repteated extension of the engine then solar chargers may not help, they may just not have enough ability to recharge the battery fast enough. I'd aslo be looking at battery age/health and battery temperature as possible issues. Just replacing the battery is a sensible approach. If the battery health is hindered by the battery not being kept fully charged then looking at a solar panel on the glider that is mostly used for ground charging may be useful. At Iceland latitudes solar panel efficiency will be less than we see here in California/Nevada. You should be able to find charts to help guesstimate this. Cheers Darryl The club has been very happy with the Strobl solar panel on our DG-1000S. It has worked very well and the tail battery is alwasy fully charged.

The only hassle I can think we’ve found is that we purchased the parts from Jaxida to put a clear panel in the canopy cover so the solar panel will work while the glider is on the ground. There is basically a flexible clear plastic panel that attaches with velcro over a hole cut in the canopy cover. You remove the clear panel and roll it up seperately before removing the canopy cover. We’ve had problem getting club members to remember to do this properly.

If your club’s problem is really near continuious heavy power consumtpiton like repteated extension of the engine then solar chargers may not help, they may just not have enough ability to recharge the battery fast enough.

I’d aslo be looking at battery age/health and battery temperature as possible issues. Just replacing the battery is a sensible approach. If the battery health is hindered by the battery not being kept fully charged then looking at a solar panel on the glider that is mostly used for ground charging may be useful.

At Iceland latitudes solar panel efficiency will be less than we see here in California/Nevada. You should be able to find charts to help guesstimate this.

Cheers

Darryl

]]> By: Sigtryggur http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/01/31/strobl-solar-panels-for-sailplanes/#comment-3229 Sigtryggur Fri, 23 May 2008 01:29:28 +0000 http://www.darrylramm.com/2007/01/31/strobl-solar-panels-for-sailplanes/#comment-3229 Hello Darryl and all reading, we have found out a new thing about our Twin III SL. We were debugging a problem with the extraction retraction mechanism of the glider and we found out that the extract/retract motor had a steady 12 volt stream after the engine had retracted. We checked the switches that control that operation and they were incorrectly aligned so the motor had a steady drain on the battery at all times the engine electrics were engaged. We did some changes on the micro-switches and after that the sub/retract engine is disengaged after retraction and we have a new light in the cockpit 'Engine Retracted' that we did not know about before and it seems the person we bought the glider from did not know about it either. I am looking forward to testing the performance increase of the battery as I hope the fix of the constant drain of the extraction/retraction motor will at least give me a 20-30% increase in power efficience. I wonder about what action to take on the seller of the glider since it was in absolute sub-standard shape when I bought it and the previous owner led me to believe that everything that was wrong with the glider was normal, now I know better and me and my flight mechanics have exchanged a lot of components of it and now we have it in great shape. I absolute love flying the Grob Twin III SL it is now a great ship but we have had to do repairs for about $20.000 to get it in shape after purchasing it for $95.000. After this experience I and my mechanics know 'all' about the maintenance of this glider and that is a good thing so if anyone has any problems then I would love to try to help. Hello Darryl and all reading, we have found out a new thing about our Twin III SL. We were debugging a problem with the extraction retraction mechanism of the glider and we found out that the extract/retract motor had a steady 12 volt stream after the engine had retracted. We checked the switches that control that operation and they were incorrectly aligned so the motor had a steady drain on the battery at all times the engine electrics were engaged. We did some changes on the micro-switches and after that the sub/retract engine is disengaged after retraction and we have a new light in the cockpit ‘Engine Retracted’ that we did not know about before and it seems the person we bought the glider from did not know about it either. I am looking forward to testing the performance increase of the battery as I hope the fix of the constant drain of the extraction/retraction motor will at least give me a 20-30% increase in power efficience. I wonder about what action to take on the seller of the glider since it was in absolute sub-standard shape when I bought it and the previous owner led me to believe that everything that was wrong with the glider was normal, now I know better and me and my flight mechanics have exchanged a lot of components of it and now we have it in great shape. I absolute love flying the Grob Twin III SL it is now a great ship but we have had to do repairs for about $20.000 to get it in shape after purchasing it for $95.000.

After this experience I and my mechanics know ‘all’ about the maintenance of this glider and that is a good thing so if anyone has any problems then I would love to try to help.

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