Glider Day February 2011

Well after a week of pretty crap weather including the biggest thunderstorm ever on the Thursday, Sunday started pretty well! The wind was a bit variable ie it changed direction every few minutes, so we decided to fly the Electric Glider section first.

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The new charging station is active, tested and is ready for use. Here are a few pieces of (hopefully) useful info:

1. The system is inside the transmitter pound
2. You'll need banana plugs to connect your charger to the outlets (or you'll need to improvise)
3. There are 4 banks of 3 outlets, the top is bank 1, then 2,3 and 4 going downwards
4. Each bank is seperately fused and will allow up to 30 amps (note that a typical lipo charger draws about 3 amps, so 3 chargers on one bank isn't normally going to push the fuse limit, but some chargers that handle multiple large batteries do draw a lot more!)
5. The top bank of outlets is very high up - yes, I know that the less tall amongst us might need a stepladder!
6.  The controller automatically switches off a bank if it hasn't drawn current for 1 minute, so if you plug into a bank that isn't being used, press the small red button beside the digital display to 'energise' that bank
7. If you are the only user of a bank and your charger completes the charging process, the bank will switch off automatically 1 minute later so, if your charger is off when you next look at it, the battery is probably full
8. The big red button is for emergencies only. Press it and the whole system is shut down (the digital display will let you know that the button has been pressed). If you turn the big button in the direction of the arrows, it resets and everything should be fine
9. The digital display tells you what is going on, and what each of the 4 banks is drawing. The current drawn by the display is negligible, and it is on at all times
10. Just as a rough guide, in normal sunlight the system is replenishing at the same rate as about 5 chargers working quite hard, so don't be afraid to use it
11. If you have finished charging, and the station is looking busy, please unplug to make room for other people
12. The battery box and control boxes are padlocked - but for tamper protection rather than security. Clive, Peter and Ron have keys if necessary, although there shouldn't be any need to delve inside.

We hope that you get a lot of use out of the charging station. Please let either me or Peter Wyss know if there are any concerns or questions. We'll get straight to it.

Clive