Pipistrel’s Velis Electro single-engined full-electric light aircraft is a head-turner. Unobtrusively parked on the ramp, the slender two-seater is often mistaken for a powered glider.
When it taxis, its low noise profile prompts passers-by to stop and stare. As it holds short of a runway, or allows traffic to pass, the propeller stops completely, raising eyebrows. Onlookers mutter, “What IS that?”
With the Velis Electro, Slovenian light aircraft maker Pipistrel has created the almost-perfect modern-day new trainer aircraft. After certificating the airframe in 2020 in Europe, the company is on the cusp of taking the world’s biggest training market – the USA – by storm.
I had the opportunity to test-fly a Velis Electro – the first time in more than two decades of piloting that I would rely on a battery for power, rather than Avgas. I was intrigued to learn how it would compare to a traditional single-engined piston aircraft, which has been a staple of flight training since time immemorial.
The first Cessna 172 Skyhawk rolled of the Textron production line in 1955, and the company has delivered about 45,000 of the rugged, tricycle-gear airframes to date.
STUDENT PILOTS
It is said that the only way to destroy a Cessna 172 is to fly it nose-first into the ground. I was curious to see if the Pipistrel E-811-engined Velis Electro would be as forgiving of the (mostly) unintentional mistakes that student pilots regularly foist upon an airframe.
Pipistrel has celebrated numerous successes in recent years, and its acquisition by Textron in March 2022 in a €218 million ($238 million) all-cash deal gave the company a lease on life and a window to the USA: flight training’s holy grail.
As part of the acquisition agreement, Pipistrel kept its brand name and its production facilities in Slovenia and Italy, and was integrated into Textron’s eAviation division, which the Wichita-based airframer established with the intention of continuing to develop electric aircraft.
Headquartered in Ajdovscina, about 60km (37 miles) southwest of Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana, the company has been successfully producing aircraft for more than 30 years. Founded in 1989, it has advanced from building hang-gliders to manufacturing small aircraft, primarily for pilot training purposes.
The company’s portfolio now encompasses nine models: five ultralight/light sport aircraft (the Alpha Trainer, Virus SW, Explorer, Velis Electro, Velis Club); the Panthera; two gliders (the Taurus Electro and Sinus); and one special mission optionally piloted or unmanned air vehicle, the Surveyor.
A successor to its Virus SW 121, the Velis Electro is not just any kind of trainer. It was the world’s first commercially available all-electric aircraft to secure certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), in June 2020.
So far, Pipistrel has delivered more than 100 of the aircraft in 20-plus countries, including the first 13 to US clients.
The company touts its electric aircraft as a lower-cost, sustainable alternative to traditional single-engined piston type like the Skyhawk.
As the industry intensifies its search for ways to reduce its carbon footprint, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has in recent years also reconsidered rules that would make it easier for new propulsion systems – like those used by electric aircraft – to become certificated.
MODERNISED RULES
The FAA took a big step toward that goal in July 2023, when it published its proposed Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) rule. MOSAIC expands the definition of light sport aircraft (LSA) to include heavier and faster models, and more importantly for Pipistrel, it would remove the requirement that an LSA must have a conventional engine.
My own pilot training journey followed a traditional route: I learned the basics on the two-seat Cessna 152, then moved up to the roomier four-seat 172 Skyhawk. Later, I flew Pipers and Diamonds, and recently graduated to a big-girl single-engined piston – the flashy and powerful Cirrus SR22. Clearly, the Velis Electro would be a very different piloting experience.
The instructor for my flight was Marc Corpataux, who in 2015 founded AlpinAirPlanes, which represents and distributes Pipistrel models in Switzerland. He had been flying a Pipistrel Alpha, and has been involved in the idea of bringing electric aircraft to Switzerland since the concept was hatched in 2016. The aircraft has come a long way since that time.
“The Velis Electro is now all grown up,“ he says. “It can be flown as is, and you don’t have to worry about it at all. The biggest issue now is the endurance.”
A topic we will get to in a moment.
AlpinAirPlanes operates a fleet of 12 Velis Electros, which it rents out to flight schools at nine locations across Switzerland. The company charges CHF99 ($112) per flight hour. The flight schools, in turn, rent aircraft to their students for an hourly rate of between CHF160-190.
In high-cost Switzerland, that is still a steal. A 40-year-old 172 Skyhawk rents for an hourly rate (wet) of around CHF350.
“It used to be niche, but now they’re getting quite a bit of use,” he says. Still, some instructors belittle the new technology, and guide their students away from it – an attitude he is trying hard to change.
“The aircraft is so simple and efficient, and the engineering has convinced me of its value,” he says.
For our flight, Corpataux brought HB-SYR, number 28 off the production line, delivered to AlpinAirPlanes in May 2021, and operated out of Grenchen airport. By the day we flew, it had accumulated a total of 266h.
HEAVY TRAFFIC
Grenchen, located at the foot of the Jura mountains in northwest Switzerland, is the country’s busiest general aviation airport. In 2022, it logged more than 58,000 aircraft movements, according to statistics from the Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation.
It is also the home of the European Flight Academy, a Lufthansa Group training location, as well as four other flight schools.
On the sunny day in mid-June, the airport was buzzing with motorised aircraft, gliders and skydivers. The traffic pattern was full of trainees and certificated pilots taking advantage of a day of stable weather amid a very wet spring.
The Velis Electro’s airframe is smaller than I had remembered, with a high-wing profile and a T-tail. It sports a fixed-pitch, three-bladed Pipistrel P-812 propeller, all of composite construction.
Corpataux led me through the pre-flight check, which began by ensuring that the two batteries – one in the nose of the aircraft and one behind the cabin – were fully charged. Power is delivered by a 345V DC electrical system built around a liquid-cooled high performance battery system, developed and built in-house at Pipistrel.
The battery capacity is 24.8kWh, with a maximum take-off power of 65kW – but that maximum is limited to 90s. The batteries work in warm and cold weather, but are happiest at around 20°C (68°F), Corpataux says.
The outside check was straightforward – ensuring the skin is smooth and unblemished, there are no fluid leaks, the rods, cables and hinges are in good condition, static ports and air vents are clear, and that the tricycle-type fixed landing gear is undamaged.
I searched the right side of the cowling for the flap to check the oil before I remembered – there is no oil. Instead, there is a charging port door. And no fuel tank sumps to drain.
The Velis Electro is certificated for commercial operations, such as flight instruction, in visual conditions, limited to daylight hours. It has no exterior lights – a decision made with weight considerations in mind.
“That is a bit of a shame,” says Corpataux.
The aircraft’s basic empty weight is 428kg (941lb), and maximum take-off weight (MTOW) is 600kg, which leaves just 172kg of payload – for two medium-sized adults. For comparison, a Skyhawk has a MTOW of more than 1,000kg, and a useful load of almost 400kg.
After checking the craft’s airworthiness, it was time to get in. While in a standard Skyhawk or SR22 the feet go into the cockpit first, climbing into the Velis Electro is best done rear-end into the seat first, then swinging up one’s legs into the footwell and positioning oneself as in a sports car.
| Velis Electro specifications | |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 6.47m |
| Height | 1.9m |
| Wingspan | 10.71m |
| Wing area | 9.51m² |
| Weights | |
| Basic empty weight | 428kg |
| Maximum take-off weight | 600kg |
| Useful load | 172kg |
| Engine | |
| Pipistrel E-811 | x 1 |
| Maximum output (take-off)* | 65kW |
| Pipistrel P-812 (three-bladed) propeller diameter | 1.64m |
| Performance | |
| Take-off roll** | 246/241m |
| Operating ceiling | 18,000ft |
| Cruise speed | 98kt |
| Never exceed speed | 108kt |
| Load factor | +7 to -2g |
| Flight endurance*** | 50min |
| Source: Pipistrel Notes: *maximum 90s **grass/asphalt ***plus reserve | |
The aircraft is a tight fit for a tall person. I’m 176cm (5ft 9in), and found that the top of my baseball cap touched the cabin support strut on the cockpit’s ceiling. I found that distracting, so removed it.
But where to put it? Space in the snug cockpit is at a premium, and instead of a baggage compartment behind the seats, there is a battery. The cubby on the left side under the windscreen was just about large enough to hold a cell phone, notebook, voice recorder and my baseball cap, stuffed in on top: I had to leave my flight bag in the airport office. I strapped on my kneeboard with iPad, and we were ready to go.
I noticed the placard on the strut above my head, its message in all capitals, unmistakably clear: “NO INTENTIONAL SPINS”. Thankfully, they were not on my priority list for this particular flight.
INFORMATION CENTRE
The cockpit features dual between-the-legs control sticks with a standard six-pack of instruments on the pilot side. In the centre-right of the console, an avionics display called the Electronic Propulsion System Instrument is the main source of information to the pilot about the operational state of the aircraft – most importantly, the health of the engine and batteries.
Corpataux and Pipistrel are able to monitor the aircraft and its systems remotely, through an app which shows him position and speed as well as take-off and landing times. The aircraft also has a sensor that logs events over a certain threshold, like a hard landing.
“In this way we always know where our aircraft are, and how many hours until the next maintenance check, and also if anything out of the ordinary happens,” Corpataux says.
There is one power lever in the centre console that I slowly pushed forward to begin to taxi. I noticed that the rudders are hard, which Corpataux tells me is due to the braking system. The Velis Electro’s nosewheel is steerable via the rudder pedals, and the main gear’s hydraulic brakes are controlled with toe-pedals.
We set half-flaps (called Flaps +1), the standard take-off configuration, and rolled onto runway 24. I pushed the lever fully forward to the designated 65kW and rotated at 50kt (92km/h) after a few hundred feet. The large gull-wing transparent doors (windows) almost gave me the sense of flying in an open-cockpit ultralight aircraft.
CLIMB SPEED
We climbed over the airfield at a best angle-of-climb speed of 57kt. At 300ft above ground level (AGL) I drew up the flaps and dropped the nose slightly to continue our climb at a best climb speed of about 70-75kt and 46kW power.
We then tracked the pattern back east up to a planned cruise of 5,500ft above mean sea level, the altitude required to squeeze between the top of the Jura mountain ridge and still remain under the broken clouds.
Take-off and climb-out consume about 30% of battery charge, and it was disconcerting to see the “remaining flight time” show 17min as we were climbing, nowhere near 5,500ft.
However, when we levelled off, the battery meter showed about 63% power left, and the timer gave us a maximum possible flight time of 29min.
According to the pilots operating handbook (POH), normal cruise at level flight should be around 78kt at a power setting of 20-36kW. I kept it at around 22kW and motored along at a decent speed.
That is when I noticed that the aircraft is incredibly light, very manoeuvrable and whip-quick agile. Steep turns were effortless, and getting the aircraft to stall was unproblematic – the stick-shaker and an audible warning let me know we had slowed enough to stall. The aircraft showed a clean stall at about 53kt, with full-flap stall at 46kt. Manoeuvring speed is 100kt, and never exceed speed is 108kt – although that would result in a very short flight.
If a pilot gets into trouble, the Velis Electro’s best glide speed is 70kt, with a glide ratio of 15:1 – the number of feet the aircraft travels horizontally in still air for every foot of altitude lost – due to its long, slim, glider-like wings. A Skyhawk’s glide ratio is generally around 9:1.
And on the noise front, Pipistrel is true to its word. The aircraft is, indeed, quiet. In-flight, Corpataux and I took off our headsets and had a normal conversation – impossible in a fossil-fuelled Skyhawk.
One other subtle benefit is the smell, or rather the lack of it.
“I hate the smell of Avgas,” Corpataux says. “There is no fuel, therefore there is no smell.”
The aircraft’s biggest challenge, though, is the feature that Pipistrel is hyping up to create a cheaper and emissions-free alternative to traditional flight training: battery range.
It is advertised as having 1h of battery life – the span of time of a normal flight lesson, during which a student pilot is able to take in information.
On its website, Pipistrel says the aircraft is “optimised for local flights around the aerodrome, i.e. take-off and landing sorties”. The POH states that with a 100% charge, the battery would accommodate eight traffic patterns (defined as a 12km circuit at 1,000ft AGL), with a 10min reserve.
But in reality, and with optimism, the battery endurance is less than 50min.
A good rule of thumb, Corpataux says, is to calculate 2% battery spend for every minute flown – without forgetting the reserves. That means that if your routing takes you beyond the traffic pattern, exact flight planning is a must.
“With the electric aircraft, especially if you are at a towered field, good energy management is essential,” he says. “You have the limited flight time, you don’t have the traditional 30 minutes reserve requirement, and you have to be able to land.”
MISSION PLANNING
On our return to Grenchen, I had intended to perform a touch-and-go, since I anticipated my first landing in a new type would be sub-par. But Corpataux nixed my request. According to the POH, “standard mission planning must consider 30% state of charge as minimum value at landing”, and we were ticking down below that already.
Configured for landing with Flaps +2, I landed hard – as expected – flaring too high above the runway, due to the unfamiliar sight picture. But like the rough-and-tumble Skyhawk, the Velis Electro did not complain, and Corpataux later told me that the landing did not register on his app.
All told, our flight lasted 37min, and we landed with 21% of power to spare.
Even Velis Electro superfan Corpataux admits the battery should probably have a bit more range.
“The 45 minutes are perfect to do landing training at small airports,” he says. “But it would be nice if the aircraft had double the endurance, then you could really use it for everything, including longer cross-country flights.”
Currently, his personal limit is about 50nm (92km). “You really have to know how the wind blows and plan your flight exactly if you want to fly more than 50nm,” he adds.
We brought HB-SYR back to the hangar, where a Pipistrel mobile charging unit awaited. For the moment, that is the only way to power up the aircraft, but Corpataux says an adapter will soon be available that will allow it to be plugged in from a regular car charger.
That update may make it more attractive for flight schools to acquire examples of the aircraft. Corpataux would charge HB-SYR up to 75% before flying out to his next appointment: conducting some low-altitude aerial mapping.
“Hopefully we won’t disturb anyone on the ground,” he quips.
So what is my verdict? The Velis Electro is a very fun, modern, sprightly high-wing bird with big windows to wow the crowd. It is perfect for a quick sightseeing tour, and I can see the value of such an aircraft in a training environment or on for performing low-altitude tasks where noise could be an issue.
That said, range anxiety is real – but perhaps it just takes some getting used to, and a little more trust.
I have already signed up to do the transition, and will hopefully have my logbook endorsement in a few weeks’ time.
