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This afternoon, we reached the final leg of the journey to Darwin, the Stuart Highway. This evening, we'll be camped out at Dunmarra for the night. It'll take us one more day to cover the final 700 or so kilometres to Darwin, where we'll have a few days of R&R before scrutineering begins on the 15th of November.
The primary objective of today and yesterday was to test the car and its components on the road. Each of the car's new subsystems - array, motor, controller, telemetry, front suspension, etc. - have been tested individually, but not together as a single car. We spent most of the morning yesterday integrating the car and making final adjustments...
One thing to note about Central Queensland, it's bloody hot - 40 degrees centigrade (104 degrees Fahrenheit) at 10:30am in the morning. Fortunately, the humidity was low -- eventually we figured out that we could use the same trick on each other that we use on the solar array. A thin coating of water cools the surface it evaporates from...
We had a bit of down time while the final adjustments were being made to the car...
We got the car on the road about midday, in full sunshine. The main objective was driver and fleet training...
Sammy was so happy with the car's and team's performance on the first day. To celebrate, we forewent our usual barbeque for a luxurious a la carte menu at the Barkly Homestead, Northern Territory...
After dinner, we had our first chance to relax and chat since leaving Sydney, although most of us fell asleep pretty quickly...
We carried on with driver and fleet training the next morning. It's just as important to train the fleet drivers and support crew how to drive and behave around the car, since the fleet has to protect and support the solar car and it's driver at all times. For example, on the road, all instructions come from the Control car, while off the road, the team and car is directed by the "Lollipop man". He (Dan Allert) stands between the car and the road to keep an eye on the car, the fleet and the road at all times. This helps to ensure a smooth work flow and safety for the pit crew working on the car. We also deploy the "safety marshal" (Ed Pink) to the rear of the parked fleet to forewarn overtaking cars of the presence of the solar car fleet (and encourage them to slow down). He also warns the fleet and pit crew of approaching cars and trucks.
The weather was cloudy and sunshine levels were low - and because we ran the solar car pretty fast (for the conditions), we quickly depleted our batteries. We stopped around lunchtime to fire up the generator and recharge the batteries. It takes about two hours to recharge the batteries, so we had some lunch. Ken Ferguson amused us with a variety of strange and interesting activities. Ken's first suggestion was an ancient form of a sun dance to try to improve the weather...
A little while later, Ken broke out the gourmet bush tucker menu. The appetizer - termites...
Tomorrow, we're off to Darwin to get set up in our workshop. Stay tuned for more pictures, stories and if all goes well, some timelapse photography of the goings on in our workshop at the Northern Territory University.
Willy The Whale
Willy!
John Han, a 2nd year Bachelor of Photovoltaic Engineering at the University of New South Wales wrote to wish us luck in the race and ask "How did Willy ever get to be the Sunswift mascot, and how did he get his name?"
To which Tim Wardrop (Driver #5) replies: "The whale comes from a 4-ton bit of gear we built to do the array lamination. Why Willy? Our original names were Moby (as in the great white whale) and Willy (as in "Free Willy, the movie). For some reason, "Willy" stuck.
Mail Bag
If you have a question for the team, or would like to wish them well, write to our mail bag, care of Ask Willy. | | | |
