Sport Pilot Talk

In 2014, I installed an Aerovoltz lithium-iron battery in my Sky Arrow. It cranked like crazy when new, and still does. I got over 12 extra pounds of useful load, no small thing in my somewhat porky plane. I never bought a special charger, and have used a standard Battery Tender on only a few occasions when the plane has sat for a while.

When I installed it, I put 2017 on my “Tickle Board” as a reasonable 3-year life. Obviously I’m well past that. They’re $250, so it was easy to wait. But I guess The Most Conservative Action would be to replace it now, before it fails somehow.

Anyone else using an Aerovoltz battery, and if so, what kind of life did you get out of it? As a factor, I can repurpose the old one as a backup car or electronics power pack if pulled before failure.

Thanks in advance!

Eddy,

Could you post a link to that battery you are referring to?
That sounds promising.
Right now, I am equipped with the Odyssey PC310.

Here's a link that I have as I've looked at them before and given the price Eddie paid I assume he bought the GEN-2 360 battery. I also have a Odyssey battery, the PC-680.

https://www.aerovoltz.net/

ShawnM wrote:Here's a link that I have as I've looked at them before and given the price Eddie paid I assume he bought the GEN-2 360 battery. I also have a Odyssey battery, the PC-680.

https://www.aerovoltz.net/

Thank you.

ShawnM wrote: I also have a Odyssey battery, the PC-680.

That's what I've been using (with LoA) since 2010. I get three years out of them.

drseti wrote:

ShawnM wrote: I also have a Odyssey battery, the PC-680.

That's what I've been using (with LoA) since 2010. I get three years out of them.

I'll be tickled silly if I get 3 years from the PC-680. I was using a much cheaper battery similar to the OEM battery and they were barley lasting a year. And I do fly often and was keeping a Battery Tender on the cheaper batteries if I would go too long between flights. 3 years will be awesome. Thanks Paul.

The SportCruiser has an already aft empty CG so swapping out my 15.4 pound PC-680 for a 2 pound lithium battery would really move the already aft CG even further aft.

ShawnM wrote:Here's a link that I have as I've looked at them before and given the price Eddie paid I assume he bought the GEN-2 360 battery. I also have a Odyssey battery, the PC-680.

https://www.aerovoltz.net/

Pretty sure that’s the one. It replaced an Odyssey, which was still going strong. I keep it charged if I ever need to swap it back in.



You can see how much smaller it is. And less than 3 lbs, compared to about 15 lbs. for a lead-acid.

I have a PC-680, and I'm on my third one in 5 years.

$250 for 3-4 years is at least equally cost efficient than $130 every 1-2 years, and less hassle with less frequent failures/maintenance. I think I'll switch next time.

Just curious on battery capacity. The Sting series use a much smaller battery. In Odyssey-speak this is the PC310 which seems to have around 60% of the power vs the PC680 (and weights 11 pounds less). I've never had any trouble starting the Sting and the life of the battery seems to be the same. So why the bigger battery on CT, SkyArrow, SportCruiser and, perhaps, others?

dstclair wrote:So why the bigger battery on CT, SkyArrow, SportCruiser and, perhaps, others?

It might have to do with the avionics installed. I have a lot of electronics in my SportStar (dual Dynon Skyviews, autopilot, NavComm, electric pitch and roll trim, dual GPS, ADS-B in and out, etc.) This all draws about 20 amps of extra current, necessitating dual generators. If one or more of those fails, the bigger battery powers the panel all the way to the scene of the crash.

One thing the Sky Arrow has working against it is a really long cable run from the battery to the starter.

When my ignition modules went bad, the Aerovoltz continued to crank like crazy, but after a lot of start attempts it’s voltage dropped precipitously at the end.

One thing working against lithium-iron batteries is running them completely discharged can ruin them. But they seem to lose charge very slowly.

Update: I decided to budget in $250 for a new Aerovoltz for March. Mine was bought at the LSA Expo in 2014, and even though it still performs as new, I figure it doesn’t owe me anything. 5 years battery life is nothing to sneeze at, and the inconvenience of a failed battery at an inconvenient time has to be factored in. Most Conservative Action and all that! And I’ll have a healthy battery to keep around as a backup, or to use in another vehicle.

Thanks for the input.

FastEddieB wrote:Update: I decided to budget in $250 for a new Aerovoltz for March. Mine was bought at the LSA Expo in 2014, and even though it still performs as new, I figure it doesn’t owe me anything. 5 years battery life is nothing to sneeze at, and the inconvenience of a failed battery at an inconvenient time has to be factored in. Most Conservative Action and all that! And I’ll have a healthy battery to keep around as a backup, or to use in another vehicle.

Eddy,

Any chance you could post a link to the battery you are talking about? My next battery, I may move up to that one. By the way, which voltage regulator are you operating with?

Wm.Ince wrote: Eddy,

Any chance you could post a link to the battery you are talking about? My next battery, I may move up to that one. By the way, which voltage regulator are you operating with?

Linky: https://www.aerovoltz.net/aerovoltz-gen ... m-battery/

I switched to a $35 John Deere voltage regulator a few years back, that has been flawless in operation so far. Pretty sure that’s been discussed here, but a thread from the Vans forum about my installation.

http://www.vansairforce.com/community/s ... f&t=145298


Obvious caveat: only “approved” for Experimentals, of course.

FastEddieB wrote:

Wm.Ince wrote: Eddy,

Any chance you could post a link to the battery you are talking about? My next battery, I may move up to that one. By the way, which voltage regulator are you operating with?

Linky: https://www.aerovoltz.net/aerovoltz-gen ... m-battery/

I switched to a $35 John Deere voltage regulator a few years back, that has been flawless in operation so far. Pretty sure that’s been discussed here, but a thread from the Vans forum about my installation.
http://www.vansairforce.com/community/s ... f&t=145298

Obvious caveat: only “approved” for Experimentals, of course.

Thanks Eddy!