This aircraft is still a prototype, and information about specifics is not available. Yes, the HV batteries discharge much faster than the fuel flow. If you read through the thread you will see some strategies for managing that. It’s not a bug, it’s as designed.
Learn about the plane like I said. You’re spouting nonsense without knowing what you’re talking about.
Yes, they’re battery operated and used for takeoff when you need extra power then turned off and feathered when you no longer need the power. The idea is to be efficient on takeoff and conserve fuel.
As OldpondGL said above, it’s still being tested and isn’t commercially viable it would seem. Yet.
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As I understand it that is actually what would happen if the HV batteries were drained.
I get the frustration, there is little official training on how this thing works (although there are a few videos about) but given this is an aircraft that has never flown before (test flights are this year) we can only take the word of the devs and Heart (who were a development partner!) for this.
They had an old version (battery banks, turbogenerator charged batteries, electric motors on wing for propulsion) where it was charged, and a newer version where the 2x electric motors and 2x off shelf turboprops are independent.
Articles suggest this switch is for practical reasons, easier to deliver a product sooner, and easier to get certification.
Patched together out of what I can find, which is hardly engineering diagrams, there is no connection between the two systems like:
- Electric motors and high voltage battery system that runs the motors
- Low voltage battery system that provides systems/avionics power
- Turboprop engines that connect to the low voltage system but not the high
So the HV batteries drain, those electric motors stop. But the LV system and turboprops should stay going (so the avionics would still be there).
Part of the rationale being the turboprop engines need to be independent as a safeguard, and for longer flights when the LV system actually wouldn’t last without the recharge, but they don’t produce enough power off their alternators make the electric motors spin let alone charge their back up batteries.
With the confusion above, has anyone found or made a solid checklist of procedures for a full flight in this one?
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You can follow the normal checklist, but you need to keep a bit of high voltage battery charge for the approach so you are able to deploy gear and flaps. Personally I do not flick the sixth battery on on startup and instead leave it for approach and landing, you could turn all of them on but manually keep an eye out for the HV charge and turn one battery off when the charge reaches single digits but I WILL forget to do so so I can not do that.
The Standard checklist is also missing the fuel engines shutdown procedure, but it seems to be as simple as pulling the fuel levers to the right of the throttle to cutoff.