We are in Santa Rosa, CA undergoing economy and speed testing hosted by the CAFE Foundation and sponsored by NASA. We are flying our production Phoenix against some pretty specialized prototype electric aircraft to see how our gas burning Rotax does against the electric field.
For starters, we flew our plane from Melbourne, about 2200nm, while everyone else trailered theirs here, so we won that event (in our own minds). Then we got in 3 practice rounds, while only one other competitor managed one test flight on the course, so we won that one too.
The Phoenix easily passed the take off noise test and the climb over a 50' obstacle after 2000' (very easy with reduced power).
But then came the real event, 100mph over a 200mile course burning only 2 gallons. Well, there is no way we can do that, but we did pretty good. The final results are secret until the awards ceremony at Moffett Field on October 3.
Tomorrow (Sept 29) is the speed trial over the same 200 mile course. Stay tuned for more. In the meantime, here are some photos taken by a NASA photographer:
You had too much of a sly smile when Michael interviewed you today - please tell me the Phoenix still qualifies as an LSA Glider ;-)
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