10 Turn Spin in a Panthera

Pipistrel is an SLSA maker and this is their answer to a 4-seater. All carbon fiber, retractable gear (titanium) can land in a field and on a runway.
 
Been following the Pantera via Avweb. That thing is slick. It looks like 200 knots standing still!
 
More like 11-1/4 turns. :) Slow spin rate.
 
Neat. Did any one catch the entry and exit alts?
 
Looks good to me. Very controlled. Looks like the prime light sport manufactures are getting into the four place market.
 
Gorgeous airplane, but I bet it'll wind up costing more than my domicile. Still, I wish them every success.
 
steingar said:
Gorgeous airplane, but I bet it'll wind up costing more than my domicile. Still, I wish them every success.
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They were gonna use a Lycoming engine that Lycoming just said they are not longer gonna make, so it's a mystery what they are gonna do since airframes are designed and certified around engines.

Price was targeted around $450k...it's faster than a Cirrus SR22
 
Note the mildly-snarky comment about building a "...spin-safe aircraft."

Slick plane - I wish them well.
 
I don't believe was testing. I believe it was effective marketing
 
FastEddieB said:
If this was indeed "testing", does it not seem odd that...

1) No parachutes were in view, and...

2) Passengers were carried?
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The video says it is to celebrate the completion of their spin testing.

I really like this airplane.
 
Are you referring to the switch to the IO-540 from the IO-390 that was announced back in Feb, or is there now a problem with the IO-540?

CTLSi said:
They were gonna use a Lycoming engine that Lycoming just said they are not longer gonna make, so it's a mystery what they are gonna do since airframes are designed and certified around engines.

Price was targeted around $450k...it's faster than a Cirrus SR22
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FastEddieB said:
If this was indeed "testing", does it not seem odd that...

1) No parachutes were in view, and...

2) Passengers were carried?
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If this was in the U.S. it would be illegal without everyone wearing chutes, and they would definitely not have posted a video like this. Not sure which country this is in, but I imagine the rules are different there.
 
jhausch said:
1500' in about 30 sec or so. Does that sound right?
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Ha Ha! No that doesn't sound right. If you watch the altimeter it looks more like 5000'! Entry looked to be around 10280' and recovery around 5100'.
 
The vapor trails off the wing tips in the tail camera view were interesting.
 
I like watching the pilot's control inputs, when he recovers from the spin.

It looked like he pushed the stick forward, with mostly neutral aileron,
while also changing the rudder input, and then after a few seconds he applied throttle.

I don't understand why they carried passengers while doing this, though. The passengers don't help, so why expose them to this risk?
 
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It's a beautiful plane that can go FAST. And it is gratifying to see that someone can still build a new plane that can be spun. I wish them luck and hope to own something like that someday....
 
NoHeat said:
It looked like he pushed the stick forward, with mostly neutral aileron, while also changing the rudder input, and then after a few seconds he applied throttle.
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That is standard spin recovery, except he pushed the rudder first, not the stick - which is proper.

NoHeat said:
I don't understand why they carried passengers while doing this, though. The passengers don't help, so why expose them to this risk?
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As already mentioned here, the video says spin testing had been completed. Why do you think this would be risky then? They would have already spin tested the airplane at that weight and balance before putting passengers in the plane. There is nothing risky about spinning an airplane with straightforward and tested spin characteristics.
 
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Roscoe, you have forgotten that the modern crop of pilots have never flown a spin.
That old buzzards (like me) understand that a spin is a normal maneuver and puts no stress on the airframe is just not comprehensible to them.
Back in the open cockpit days when a mail pilot got caught on top of a solid cloud layer they would cut the throttle and pull the plane into a spin until they came out the bottom of the clouds because it was much safer than attempting to let down straight ahead and going past red line in a death spiral.
I have spun most of my planes many, many times just for the sheer joy of it - but then I'm old, cranky, and probably confused :rofl:
 
I looked at the technical (performance) data. They use both metric and standard for some of it, but it would be nice if they carried that throughout the entire table, to eliminate the need for conversion for comparison's sake.

What's an IO-390 (210 HP) burn at 75% power at 8,000 MSL?
 
Jaybird180 said:
I looked at the technical (performance) data. They use both metric and standard for some of it, but it would be nice if they carried that throughout the entire table, to eliminate the need for conversion for comparison's sake.

What's an IO-390 (210 HP) burn at 75% power at 8,000 MSL?
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Asumming a specific consumption circa 13.8hp/g, you're looking at 11.4GPH at 75%. That's probably peak EGT. Def not ROP.
 
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