This seems really cool, but I'm not sure I would ever go above ~50 feet in altitude with it. It's a little scary that a leg cramp could cause me to plummet hundreds of feet to my death.
Isn't it supposed to have a very high glide ratio?
Dead Simple Human Powered Airplane (2013)
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: Dead Simple Human Powered Airplane (2013)
#12This seems really cool, but I'm not sure I would ever go above ~50 feet in altitude with it. It's a little scary that a leg cramp could cause me to plummet hundreds of feet to my death.
I'm pretty sure that you'd be able to glide some distance without power. A human powered helicopter, on the other hand, seems particularly dangerous.
Re: Dead Simple Human Powered Airplane (2013)
#13This seems really cool, but I'm not sure I would ever go above ~50 feet in altitude with it. It's a little scary that a leg cramp could cause me to plummet hundreds of feet to my death.
Isn't it supposed to have a very high glide ratio?
Aside from that Vne is like 7 m/s and cruise is 6.1 m/s or about 13 miles per hour.
Also the pilot in level flight would output 300 watts or so. The engineering values are vaguely similar to some bicycle calculations.
Look for
"Or, to put it in perspective, about 19 minutes to raise a 250 pound bike+rider 1000 feet." and thats at an assumed 300 watts or so output. So your descent at zero power out will be similar, it'll take about fifteen minutes to drop 1000 feet.
http://bicycles.stackexchange.com/questions/13090/extra-powe...
Personally I wouldn't worry about gliding to a landing, I'd be terrified of a wing folding up or shearing off and THEN you drop like a rock. Or indirectly (control system fails in full dive, Vne is like 16 mph so the wings rip off, then you descend much faster....
Re: Dead Simple Human Powered Airplane (2013)
#14Is it bad that I imagined 350 people in a 747-400 all peddling on bikes?
Lol, lost 2 karma points for making a joke!
Re: Dead Simple Human Powered Airplane (2013)
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Isn't it supposed to have a very high glide ratio?
Aside from that Vne is like 7 m/s and cruise is 6.1 m/s or about 13 miles per hour. Also the pilot in level flight would output 300 watts or so. The engineering values are vaguely similar to some bicycle calculations. Look for "Or, to put it in perspective, about 19 minutes to raise a 250 pound bike+rider 1000 feet." and thats at an assumed 300 watts or so output. So your descent at zero power out will be similar, it…
I would assume they will not be flying higher than a few feet from the ground ( ~ 20) or that they will carring an emergency parachute..
Re: Dead Simple Human Powered Airplane (2013)
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aside from that Vne is like 7 m/s and cruise is 6.1 m/s or about 13 miles per hour. Also the pilot in level flight would output 300 watts or so. The engineering values are vaguely similar to some bicycle calculations. Look for "Or, to put it in perspective, about 19 minutes to raise a 250 pound bike+rider 1000 feet." and thats at an assumed 300 watts or so output. So your descent at zero power out will be similar, it…
I would assume they will not be flying higher than a few feet from the ground ( ~ 20) or that they will carring an emergency parachute..
I didn't think parachutes were effective below a certain altitude. Off-hand, the only possible solution that comes to mind would be something like the airbag system NASA's been using to land some of the Mars rovers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover#Airbags). Anyone else got any ideas?
Re: Dead Simple Human Powered Airplane (2013)
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aside from that Vne is like 7 m/s and cruise is 6.1 m/s or about 13 miles per hour. Also the pilot in level flight would output 300 watts or so. The engineering values are vaguely similar to some bicycle calculations. Look for "Or, to put it in perspective, about 19 minutes to raise a 250 pound bike+rider 1000 feet." and thats at an assumed 300 watts or so output. So your descent at zero power out will be similar, it…
I would assume they will not be flying higher than a few feet from the ground ( ~ 20) or that they will carring an emergency parachute..
That seems sensible, but in my experience with RC planes, flying low can actually make avoiding crashes very difficult.
Re: Dead Simple Human Powered Airplane (2013)
#18Is it bad that I imagined 350 people in a 747-400 all peddling on bikes?
File an improvement patent:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/17/travel/airbus-saddle-seat-pate...