My observations are not about the aircraft’s purchaser. Thy are about the aircraft, which presumably is intended for service outside of the Sunshine State, as well.
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Hanson and several other likely conservative ‘NO MASKS AND NO MORE TAXES” naysayers have declared this pioneering effort pointless, suspicious and/or deplorable because
“Note that once again, this is a UNIVERSITY (public money) that is plunking down the $200 G purchase price.”
Nah–the foibles of university “thinking” is just the side show. My comments–like most of those that don’t agree with you, are mainly centered on the impracticality of the plane–such short range as to be impractical for flight training, ESPECIALLY in a high-utilization environment. Commercial operators haven’t bought into the concept yet, because they have to make money–and can’t do it on such short segments–UNLESS, as some have pointed out, it has quick-change batteries (it doesn’t). A university, however, whether public or private, doesn’t have to live with reality–whether funded by government funds, “research grants”, private donations, or the tuition forced on the students. Does ANYBODY have an example of a successful electric trainer?
Is a university more credible than a private concern when it comes to suitability for flight training? I don’t think there is a lot of difference, EXCEPT that if it does turn out to be a dud–whoever bought it will be “covering scat like a cat”–while the private owner simply has to admit “I made a mistake.”
I’ve been complimentary about Pipistrel–as mentioned they are a leader in electric propulsion–and as Paul has mentioned before, they are a fast-moving and adaptive company.
It’s easy to espouse a CONCEPT, when it isn’t your own money involved. IF you believe there is a future in these airplanes, I’m sure that Pipistrel would be glad for you to buy a fleet for evaluation by leasing to universities and flight schools. Let’s see if any of these “true believers” steps up to the post.
Finally, I’m glad to see that the place where it will be “evaluated” is in the far south–where they don’t need heat in the airplane–which shortens range even MORE. That hasn’t worked out well for electric cars (with HUGE batteries) in the northern part of the U.S. Perhaps Pipistrel should be looking at locations even FURTHER south.
I summer near Oshkosh where there’s a Tesla supercharging station. For a long time, I’d never seen any cars in there but last year did. So I walked over to talk with some of them. One guy was moaning because he had to “tell” his car where he was going and then had to go out of his way to get a sip of electrons to get to his far away destination. Another was an Oshkosh local so I asked what he does in winter when temps are really cold. He looks me in the eye and says, “I can work from home.” Swell !! I forgot to ask how he keeps warm when he does drive it in winter … as you aptly point out. Another point is torque. Electric vehicles have lots of that so they better have a system to detect wheel slip and control it. For airplanes, I’d think a system to automatically control prop pitch would improve endurance?
Now multiply that for airplanes where you can’t just pull over for a charge. Multiply that again when a student pilot is involved. Another point no one has brought out is, how accurate are the state of charge indicating systems? I’d sure hope they’re more accurate than the fuel quantity systems in piston airplanes. Lots of folks don’t know that the ONLY place the fuel gauge MUST be accurate is when it’s on “E” for those. It’s taking SO long to certify electric airplanes for a reason.
The first time an electric airplane goes down because it ran out of electrons … things will change FAST.
Realism in the real world … it’s a wonderful thing!
Since Jim brought up the subject, a few words about “quick change batteries.”
First two words: Form Factor.
Third word: Weight.
Anything more than 30 pounds per module is a non-starter. Doubt me? Try hefting around a 5-gallon jug of gasoline.
More realistically, make it 15 pounds, so that 90-pound female flight instructors have a fighting chance at not herniating themselves when “re-fueling” the bird.
If the energy requirement calls for 600 pounds of state-of-the-art battery power, then we’re looking at 40 quick-change battery modules, at a minimum - more like 50 when you consider the weight premium of all of those blind-docking power connectors and the weight of the multiple plastic battery cases.
How long wili it take to swap out those 50 battery modules? If you could get it done at a rate of one per minute (doubtful), it would take almost an hour to “re-fuel” the “quick-change” bird.
Realism’s a bitch.