Thursday, December 02, 2021

Pipistrel Virus. Not, not THAT virus...!

Yes, I know, what a name! Pronounced differently of course, but yeah, still comes across as odd 😁

I was watching a video from Mojogrip [included below], who does a bit of an introduction to the aircraft, but the short version for the 100hp fuel injected version is around 147 knots at 15.5 litres per hour. Some say [social media commentary, so maybe unreliable] that real-world performance may actually be about 130knots at 19 litres per hour.

With those more conservative figures, it would be an impressive 643nm before it goes very quiet.😬 That would be around 12 litres per 100km. When you consider that aircraft can often maintain straight lines more easily than cars and don't have to slow down for road works, it is probably as efficient as most cars out there, excluding battery only models like the Teslas. Very impressive.

I'm still not sure how it would handle the turbulence we get in much of NZ around the mountains [probably not great], and an approach speed of around 55 knots will not be ideal in some situations, but the performance is still very impressive!

Anyway, click here for the specs on the official Pipistrel site if you are interested and here is the video from Mojogrip.

The video is from 2019, but it appears to match the Pipistrel website's specs.

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