Welcome to my channel! I'm an Airline Pilot, Private Pilot and Aviation Enthusiast. I learned to fly small airplanes before I learned how to drive a car. I love my job transporting passengers in big Boeing 777-300ER Airliners from Switzerland to the world - still I never lost the passion for General Aviation. This channel is dedicated to GA in Europe.
Many innovations in the segment of General Aviation come from Europe. I want to show them to the world! With flight tests, product and app reviews, news reports and project presentations. Feel free to follow along!
If i am informed correctly Velis electro batteries are switched after 700 cycles, once batteries grow a little bigger this will be most likely raised at least to 1000 cycles, as there would be room of reducing DOD for normal traffic pattern situations and therefore extending lifespan. Newer battery technologies will be able to extend number of cycles.
Thanks for sharing what was presented in AERO, so that I did not have to go there! I fly electric only, and also did my PPL training with the Pipistrel Velis Electro for around 30% of the training hours. Love it, and love watching any progress in that industry, even if it's a baby step. Still waiting for the eFlyer 4 (electric 4-seater, still in development), which should be able to handle a 450km distance. That's from Grenchen/Switzerland to Marseille/France, which would be an impressive distance. Keep the channel up, and looking forward to more content focused on electric!
"Still waiting for the eFlyer 4 " keep waiting, my friend my two seater has 6+ hours endurance plus reserves at 130kts; the velis electro has 51 minutes endurance with no reserves. it would be like me taking off with less than 10 liters of fuel. not happening.
@@crono331 The same stupid dumb argument as with EVs... lots of morons stating "my car can go 1000km without any stop at the gas station and thats why i could never ever have an EV" Some people just don't get it. It's not a contest who can cover some huge distance that nobody really needs, it's the task to build a sustainable aircraft that can be charged by cheap and clean power from hydro, wind or solar, that requires very little maintenance, makes less noise and does not need engine oil and vast amounts of maintenance. The Velis electro is, despite it's early design and battery limitations, a great airplane that is very good for flight training, in a few years such a plane will have double range, which makes it very interesting for more flight schools and many private owners that just want a plane for cheap flying without all that dreaded and expensive engine maintenance, ans as batteries improve steadily we will see electric planes with 500km range within the next years, which would be what 99% of clubs and flight schools need. And the most important fact, electric planes, as EVs, save 70% energy compared to their combustion engine counterparts.
What happens on that flight if the occupants get cold and have to take energy from the battery to stay warm? Or forecasted winds are stronger than expected and you have to land at an airport without charging facilities? Not happening.
@@chriswilliams8607 It is clear you have absolutely no clue what you are talking about. Legal minimum reserves for VFR flight is 30 minutes above the fuel required to reach destination. The Velis Electro has total 50 minutes endurance, so you can go nowhere beyond 20 minutes distance assumed you have a recharging station at destination and you can wait 3 hours for the recharge; plus there are many other limitations you clearly ignore. And that endurance is the maximum obtainable by managing the throttle. Basically, the same bogus numbers we see declared for EV. Just for comparison, the Velis Club has 100lt fuel tank, that at economy cruise gives an endurance of `360 minutes plus 30 minutes reserve. The Velis Electro therefore is completely useless except for circuits, and not many of them. Maybe 2, depending on airports. And prey someone does not foul the runway you departed from. "The Velis electro is, despite it's early design and battery limitations, a great airplane" What "early design"? What "battery limitations"? The Velis is based on the various Pipistrel airframes which exists since decades, and batteries are state of the art. Electric airplanes are BS. They have zero applications. "as batteries improve steadily " You really are clueless.
I have some experience from the early days of the electric car revolution. Just converting an existing plane will have limitation and there hasn't been much progress in battery capacity in the last 12 years, maybe 20% at most. What you can do is make a 'flying battery', a plane designed specifically for it. Where the battery mass is maybe 60% or more and a wing that is efficient with high load. It doesn't have to be a 1 or 2 seater or small but it will naturally benefit from some good aerodynamics like a glider. Going into thin air might also help significantly if batteries can reach up there so some light pressurization. Because electric drive is agile you can also depart from the piston prop form factor and make 2 jet like rear motors. Because electric can benefit from thin air and it can be potent, you could imagine a plane that very aggressively climbs and goes 500+km/h in thin air and glides the last part of the trip. A range of 500km is far from unrealistic so if you imagine jet like performance it's suddenly a very capable configuration. Always rethink from scratch. Never do as the past. The first cars looked like horsedrawn carriages just without the horse because of status quo thinking while an intelligent design would have an aerodynamic body. And interesting thought is that it could have looked much like a Tesla today. In principle. It's interesting to realize how big steps were readily possible but weren't taken.
Sorry but this is complete nonsense. Battery technology has improved a lot, capacity has more than doubled within the last 10 years, energy density will continue to grow to at least 1 kWh per kg, maybe more, some research suggests that 1,5 kWh per kg would be possible, even with 1kWh per kg electric planes would have a range above 500km. Once you look at one of the newer aircrafts like diamond or pipistrel (both of them pioneers in electrification) you will see that there is very little potential for further aerodynamic improvements, as those planes are already high end design and have much better specs that old classic aircrafts like a 172 or something like that. There is no magic new aircraft design, and electrification does not need much changes, even with todays battery technology performance of tradition converted planes to electric would be a huge improvement for flight training and short trips, which would cover 90% of usual club or flightschool planes.
@@chriswilliams8607 "capacity has more than doubled within the last 10 years" ah ah. maybe "capacity" but not energy density. get a basic physics lesson before spouting nonsense. "even with 1kWh per kg electric planes would have a range above 500km." that would still be something like a quarter of the energy density of gasoline at 30% efficiency. my airplane has a range of 1400km with standard tank and could double that with a ferry tank.
@@chriswilliams8607 peak density in 2012 was around 240-250Wh/kg and it's close to 300 now. You are simply wrong. The price has dropped a lot though, maybe 3x. 1kWh/kg might be theoretically possible but who is talking about that as a realistic product on any timeline? You are also wrong about a dedicated battery plane design.
Complete nonsense. As a 30 yr air traffic controller, I can guarantee you that your climb/descent profile will never happen in the real world. 300 miles is untenable and thin air up high is VERY cold meaning more power taken from propulsion to heat the cabin. Don’t even get me started on the energy needed to pressurize the cabin. EVs are useful as ground transportation for moderate to warm climates and short trips. Period.
@@danfrederiksen1607 serial production of high end batteries is more than 500Wh per kg now, 700 coming pretty soon, i know what i am talking about :-) price has gone down 90% from 2014 And no, i am not wrong about plane design, that will be a factor for passenger planes, but for small 2 or 4 seaters actual designs of aircrafts like dimona dr40 or similiar is pretty perfect and easy to electrify, and thats exactly what they are doing right now.
Whenever I read such comments it is immediately clear that he/she is not aware about actual developments in battery technology and therefore not competent.
Velis Electro certified and flying for years now and used regularely for flight training and short sightseeing flights, and it is clear for many years now, that electric aviation will be a huge topic in the very near future. As you obvioulsy completely missed this it is better to stop from spewing more self-embarrassing comments as you just did.
@@chriswilliams8607 I missed nothing. The Electro was designed in 2016 when the EVangelists shouted from every rooftop that every vehicle should be battery powered. Pipistrel took the bait and created a heavy, low-range POS that nobody wants today. Battery energy density AND SAFETY are many generations away from scaling up to real-world applications with this plane being the ultra-micro-niche exception. Now that we see the bottom having dropped out of the automotive world EVs values, one can only imagine the fun of shelling out $220,000+ for an aircraft that will be worth less than half of that a year later, if it is even sellable at all. And the really fun part begins at 7000 feet when the battery decides to go into thermal runaway and you can’t step outside and run away. Yes, that definitely sounds like the future of aviation to me.
@@bwalker4194 You seem disappointed by the EVangelists who promised what they could not hold. But I'm wondering why you're following the developments in the industry? Do you hope you'll be proven wrong? Or you hope you'd be proven right? Or you're just interested in general about that topic? Just curious...
@@bwalker4194 Another clown that has no clue whats going on, as EVs are steadily taking over the world and electric planes are regularely used by more and more flightschools. As we know from EVs risk of fire is about 20 to 50 times smaller then with ICE cars and the same will be the case in airplanes, but you obviously fall for the usual nonsense fakenews talking about "all these EV fires". You must be strong now, they are 99% fake, and no, there is no thermal runaway when reaching 7000 feet. If you would be a little bit more into the topic you would realize that almost every aircraft company in the world is doing research for electric airplanes or is already working on one, and we will see lots of them in the coming years. Batteries are improving in energy density, cycle life and safety at a striking pace, and the electric planes that now fly 45 to 60 minutes will triple their flighttime within a few years. Current energy densitiy of serial batteries was 250 Wh per kg a few years ago, is now at or above 500 Wh and will reach 1kW per kg within 10 years, 1,5kWh per kg could be possible.
To provide a small insight from the drone industry into the current state of battery technology. The batteries are theoretically designed for 400 charging cycles. For commercial orders, we fly up to 200 cycles. After that, the batteries are only used for training and educational flights. Under no circumstances would they be used for BVLOS flights, for example. I doubt whether the batteries used in the aircraft are that much better. I take a very critical view of the constant announcements about the miracle batteries of the future. In fact, progress is being made in very manageable steps.
at a 2-3% improvement/year will take a while before batteries improve the 500% required to make electric airplanes viable at least for recreational flight plus there is this www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aaib-investigation-to-ikarus-c42-fb80-bravo-g-cicf
BS, off course it is, that is clear for years now, you are clueless. Velis Electro certified and flying for years now and used regularely for flight training and short sightseeing flights.
@@chriswilliams8607 we have a Velis Electro in our airfield. Renting it costs 5 usd less than the conventional version, but it is down every second day because of technical problems, and because of ridicolous endurance it is used very seldom and only for circuits and a little more. It is useless get familiar with physics, my friend. until they invent the kg that weights a pound, electric airplanes will never happen. one must be mad to spend close to a quarter million to buy an airplane than can hardly venture out of the airfield circuit.
@@chriswilliams8607 We have a Velis Electro in our local school. It is by far the least used airplane, and basically almost nobody uses it even for training as it costs the same as the Velis Club but is heavier, slower, ridicolous range and costs the same per hour.
Foi muito legal conhecer a realidade dessa grande aeronave, que uso no X-Plane 12. Legal também ver o acionamento, retirou muitas dúvidas. Obrigado, saúde e paz!
I was just ouside and heard unfamiliar sound so I looked up and there was small plane crossing the sky. Just by curiosity I opened Flightradar and found out it was a Robin DR40. Never heard of it. And that's how I ended up here.... Great video! Best wishes from Pilsen, Czech republic!🇨🇿🍻🇨🇭
Your Stalls Were Not Valid.. You Never made the stall "BREAK" and the entire time you were working the rudders so it wouldn't fall off on a wing.. Makes me a little leery about the true handling of this aircraft.
I don't feel comfortable about carrying electric bikes on a plane. Even if you can isolate the battery in a bag that is designed for thermal runaway, it does not isolate toxic fumes and you have a very small area in the cabin.
2 месяца назад
How is carrying the battery different day/night/ifr/vfr?
Would have been great to be there and fly one myself. Maybe someday I will be able to come and bring one back home here! My dream come true! What a beauty!
A Swiss Pilot: you've forgotten to say: 10% off if you order with the code: "ASwissPilot24". 😅 just kidding. Thanks for the video, i ❤ the DA50/DA62. Gute Arbeit !
4:45 A note on the GPS, it also supports WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) which is available in most of North America. The GPS uses the WAAS calibration data that the FAA broadcasts to get a more accurate location fix. According to the FAA most mobile devices actually utilize WAAS calibration data too.
Hi great video. Would you say it would be sufficient to select the WiFi- only option and then connect to your mobile hotspot when in air and ensure to have location on all navigation apps? I ordered the WiFi-only option (11” air) but now I’m a little concerned it may not be good enough. I’d be mainly using it to study for my ATPLs and some flying here and there. Thank you in advance
The dream plane with unlimited funds is obviously a Phenom 300 or Honda Elite Jet 2 for Americans. It has the range to travel throughout North America, but can still be flown by a single pilot. These small single engine prop planes just don't have the range to travel around North America.
Bristell have been promising IFR certification for the B23 for years, but it has not happened. Tecnam have set the precedent for IFR approval in Rotax powered aircraft so what is preventing Bristell? Until EASA publish a TCDS with IFR approval, this is a VFR only aircraft however sophisticated the avionics on board.
