Hello readers,

These past weeks have been busy for all teams as we head into the fabrication phase. Our power systems teams has been performing tests and gaining hands on experience of the solar cells. One issue that occurred was that the cells were not receiving the soldering well which led to difficulties when trying to connect several together. For the avionics team, thrust stand testing is underway to confirm power consumption and output data from our motor. An issue that arose was the connections between the ESC, watt meter, and batteries have different connector parts. It was a failure such that not enough research was done considering what kind of wires and connections were properly needed. However, the project must go on! After a few urgent purchases, a solution is underway and results will be obtained soon.

This week, we have obtained most of the fabrication materials including foam, carbon fiber, and various thin film wraps for the solar cell integration on the wings. We have also test flown a model to start training a pilot as well as observing aircraft movements under similar conditions as our proposed plane. Lastly, we have integrated a motor mount into the design to properly secure the motor to prevent the motor from flying off without the rest of the plane.

Thanks for keeping up with us. We always appreicate and welcome feedback.

Blake Theilacker
btheilac@uci.edu