Solar cell stringing by Irena.  Laminator on the right.            Cell placement for the tail surface.

Carbon fiber pre-preg cut for outboard wing spar caps

Nick Meligari, our summer volunteer prepares the spar oven for the bake.

Nick holds up the upper and lower spar caps to the wing template. Look carefully, and you can see the spar caps drawn on the template

The Icare designer Proffessor Voit Nitschmann agreed to the long term loan of the Icare molds for Solar Flight’s new airplane.

You can learn more about Icare at http://www.ifb.uni-stuttgart.de/index.php/forschung/flugzeugentwurf/icare

Also invoved in the planning and logistics were Len Schumann, Karl Kasser, and Micro Schulz, all Stuttgart alumni.

These molds will allow very high qulality wings to be molded at the lightest possible weight.  The molds are being readied for the 10 meter inner wing section, to be built in our new shop in Radovljica, Slovenia.

Only small changes will be needed to the SUNSEEKER III design, to take advantage of this opportunity.

Micro Schulz test flying Icare in 1996

As you can see from the picture, Icare has a beautiful 25 meter wing.  The Stuttgarter’s hope to have Icare flying next summer, and to stage a distance contest between SUNSEEKER II and Icare, probably in Germany.  Sponsors for this event are being sought.

 Proffesor Nitschmann’s design firm www.sfl-gmbh.de is very freindly to our project, and we hope to work togeather in the future on solar powered aircraft.

The latest chapter in the SUNSEEKER saga was presented at the Experimental Soaring Association Western Workshop in Tehachapi, California.

The crowd was entertained by pictures and stories from the 2009 European Tour.

Just before Eric Raymond’s presentation Ray Morgan gave a speech about AV’s solar powered aircraft.

Beautiful Cherokee II

Eric and Ray

Richard Pfiffner was there, acquainting pilots with his amazing “ULTIMATE” GPS display.

This instrument is very useful, and is the centerpiece of the SUNSEEKER instrument panel. It has the brightest and highest resolution display available, and works well with the SeeYou flight planning and analysis tool.

http://www.craggyaero.com/  -  info@craggyaero.com

Solar Flight Team members Floyd Fronius, Klaus Savier, and “RC Dave” Freund

After finalizing our negotiations with Stemme, I traveled to the factory where the Stemme composite parts are made.

My train was met by the owner, Andrzej Papiorek, who took me straight to his factory. Allstar PZL Glider company makes their own design sailplanes, as well as the Stemmes.Andrzej is very enthusiastic about supporting my project to build a new solar powered airplane based on the Stemme S 10.

I was planning only to mold the fuselage parts there in Poland, but Andrzej offered the use of his assembly fixtures and canopy frame molds.

Andrzej weighing a stock S 10 canopy frame.

Mine will be made from high-modulus carbon to reduce the weight.

To learn more about this glider factory, go to http://www.szd.com.pl/

A descriptive page about the S 10 is at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stemme_S10

I was invited at the last minute to an event celebrating 50 years of gliding at the Munster airport airport in the central Swiss Alps. About 60 of the best sailplanes were there, including two electric Antares. Also in attendance was our friend from Buttwil, Hans Uli, with his Stearman biplane.

We owe Hans a debt of gratitude for flying our camera man Floyd Fronius during the Sunseeker Alps crossing on April 14th.

Taking off in Munster, the first stop was my old hang gliding stomping grounds of Fiesch, now populated by hundreds of paraglider pilots.  I had to take care to avoid colliding with the many flyers (there’s five of them in this photo.)

After recharging my batteries while soaring there, I had to climb against the wind to Zermatt, where the Matterhorn was in the clear.

I carefully went around to the upwind side, where I found smooth slope lift.  Several people were on the steep summit.

Return to Slovenia

After our enjoyable visit to Lesce Bled in May, we decided to return for more flying with my new friends during the Women’s Sailplane Workshop.

During May I flew the SUNSEEKER during their National Glider Championships, finding the airport and surrounding mountains perfect for flying.

The first day an Austrian pilot flew in with his SWIFT rigid wing hang glider. He was so interested in seeing the SUNSEEKER that he flew back the next day with a small motor attached.

The cloud bases were lower than in May but I was able to easily climb over the clouds, searching for wave lift.  Although the clouds looked promising no lift was found, but the view was worth the trouble.

After descending below the clouds, I found a very steep mountain with three climbers on top, half in the clouds.  I had to wonder how they could get up there.

Slovenian flying friends

Thanks again to the Lesce Bled Glider club for hosting the SUNSEEKER in their hanger for a second time.