Korum Ellis whipped off his headset, and prompted me to do the same. We had a sensible conversation without competing with the ambient cockpit noise, something I haven’t been able to do airborne since the last time I went gliding.
That’s what you get when an electric motor is swinging the propeller.
But quieter cockpits are just a side-effect of electric aeroplanes; the main event comes in lower operating and maintenance costs, with simplicity of operation thrown in on the side. That’s the reason why my local flight trainer Lilydale Flying School (LFS) added a Pipistrel Alpha Electro II to their fleet.
The Alpha Electro is the classic composite airframe that characterises both the Sinus and Virus range, but the Rotax has been dispensed with and replaced with a 60-kW Emrax electric motor drawing from two batteries totaling 21 kWh. It makes for a very different machine that has been tailored to the basic requirements of ab initio training: short duration, two people, close to the airport and carrying not a lot of bags.
That was a claim that I thought needed testing, and the only way to do that properly is in the air. Hence, I met Ellis at Lilydale on a good flying day when a gap opened in the Electro’s dance card.
Taking it on
LFS Operations Manager Jonathan Merridew was impressed with the Alpha Electro from the beginning, and quickly saw the sense in using the platform for training.
“LFS sees that the Alpha Electro really is proving itself to be a viable commercial aircraft,” he
