Continuous flight

Krzyhuw · Mar 3, 2015

Hi.

I have to do 4 hour long flight with breaks for battery change only (under 5 minutes). How many TB47 (smaller ones) I have to have to do it without stress? How many power supply?

Flight time will be circa 15 min on one battery (stable shooting like time lapse on one height). Charging time is 80 minutes (let it be 90 min to be sure). Is my math ok if I would have six batteries and four chargers? Flight cycle is 15 min of flight, 90 min charging, 15 min of cooling, then flying again on the same battery. So total time of cycle is 2 hours.

Please help

Regards!

Kilrah · Mar 3, 2015

2 hours per battery sounds good (you want the 15-30min of cooling between flying and charging though, not after charging).

That 2 hour process will start after you've used the first battery, and you need 8 batteries during that (8x15min). So I'd say 9 batteries and 8 chargers (one battery is in the aircraft so one less charger, but if you with 2 chargers less you couldn't put the last used battery on charge straight away if the next available takes its full 2 hours).

That's assuming no pause, as in practice it doesn't really take more than 2min to swap and go again, and you want to put the new battery in as first thing.
You can probably do with one less of each if you do slightly longer pauses, and one more less if charging takes less time, but that's gambling.

Also remember the radio(s) might not last 4 hours, which you can do while flying if you have a mains plug in reach (but needs an extra charger), or with a battery in your pocket (but needs an extra battery).

Oh and the tablets too. They will typically not hold their charge during use with the current supplied by the remote, so you may need spares too as you can't charge them externally during use.

PetePerrim · Mar 3, 2015

And you'll need some poor bastard to frantically juggle this whole high voltage nightmare while you simply enjoy the serene joy of flight, while yelling orders at your subordinate!! I'm jealous.

GenesisKnight · Mar 3, 2015

4 hours of hovering...sounds rather boring

I hope you have a good view of something exciting to watch...lol

damoncooper · Mar 4, 2015

Krzyhuw said:
Hi.

I have to do 4 hour long flight with breaks for battery change only (under 5 minutes). How many TB47 (smaller ones) I have to have to do it without stress? How many power supply?

Flight time will be circa 15 min on one battery (stable shooting like time lapse on one height). Charging time is 80 minutes (let it be 90 min to be sure). Is my math ok if I would have six batteries and four chargers? Flight cycle is 15 min of flight, 90 min charging, 15 min of cooling, then flying again on the same battery. So total time of cycle is 2 hours.

Please help Regards!

Sounds like an interesting use case. Sporting event? Care to share?