It's a little advertised feature of the FES: at lower battery levels
you can't get full power from the motor (i.e. sufficient to climb). I
know of another FES owner who has ended in a field due to this.




At 06:34 07 June 2019, ripacheco1967 wrote:
On Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 6:15:41 PM UTC-5, Soartech wrote:
On Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 10:40:09 AM UTC-4,
ripacheco1967 wrote:
On Wednesday, June 5, 2019 at 7:58:22 AM UTC-5,
son_of_flubber wrote:
The fireman seemed unaware of the battery fire hazard.
=20
That is scary ... Lithium batteries are extraordinarily
dangerous when
=
punctured... If they were properly trained they would treat it as a
gasolin=
e leak.
=20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DzmCXz3cJ2dY
=20
I know the pilot. We took off at separate airports but decided
to meet
in=
Vermont. We had just completed the flight to VT but a massive,
dark, high
=
cloud deck moved in rapidly making it nearly impossible to get
back
without=
him using lots of battery. This is a rare situation so he had no
experienc=
e on the low end of the charge curve. He said the battery gauge
had 18
minu=
tes left. In the pattern he hit sink behind a ridge and needed
more
altitud=
e. Attempted to power up but he said the motor made a strange
sound as if
t=
he prop brake was ON. By then too low to use the ballistic chute.
He
attemp=
ted to put it into some trees but it fell out into the roof. The trees
prob=
ably soaked up enough energy to save him from injury. No stall
or spin.
Not=
funny.

I am new to gliders but I know some about these batteries ...
These
batteri=
es are tricky... voltage drops suddenly at one point... must know
and
under=
stand how they perform... how they degrade over time... how
temperature
aff=
ects them...

https://i.stack.imgur.com/LV91V.gif