Not that I can see. I’m not sure you can load passengers into any aircraft that isn’t used in career mode. I could be wrong about that though.
I don’t find it’s needed with the fbw and level function.
Yeah its such an easy plane to fly.
It’s a real pilot’s plane in the exact industry slang sense - very easy to fly, responsive, plus it’s fast - I’ve reached 180 knots in zero wind during testing. And yes, you can fly it to the limit to 150 NM range (I did it during QA testing) - you just have to manage battery energy accordingly.
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Agreed. It’s a wonderful machine. This and the Archer. (It’s made me invest a bit in the respective companies stocks).
It indeed is a joyful experience once you get the principle of controls!
Oh, and: I think there is no Pitot Heat? I found myself cruising through the winterly (electric-flying-pioneer-country(?)) Norway and I lost my speed reading; because of that the pods didn’t rotate back to Hover mode and I was forced to do a conventional landing with a lot of speed…unpleasant^^
My Joby spawned a fixed wing inside of it while charging @ SKBO…lol…tried to add the photos…but I am too new…lol
Thoroughly and surprisingly enjoying flying this and the Archer.
Another vote to add an autopilot on the Joby.
I did some rough calculations during a 75nm flight and estimate that the best speed for range is 120kts and range would be about 200nm. That sort of distance easily justifies an AP.
I still had 40% battery remaining having flown most of the 75nm flight at 170kts.
At 160kts I calculated the range to be about 135nm and at 180kts only 70nm.
Like I said these are rough calculations and I was only at 2,500’.
If the Joby had the fully functional AP of the Archer it would be my choice of the two due to the slow cruise speed of 117kts of the Archer. It can be pushed to 130kts but that’s the red line.
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If the real Joby has it, sure, add an autopilot. If not, is it really needed? It has basic heading and altitude hold.
Personal Comments and Observations
Joby will eventually add it as part of the IFR certification, which both leading eVTOL firms still need to make passage through.
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Personal Comments and Observations
About 120 knots and zero wind at roughly 3000’ AGL will net you paper specification 150NM range, based on the LR testing during QA when we built it.
Archer can land easier conventionally - it can do both CTOL and VTOL. As I got closer to the maximum range and lowest battery expenditure, you’ll get a CAS warning that says VTOL is unavailable at current battery life - so you’re compelled to make a CTOL.
As per Joby CONOPs, a conventional landing is really only in emergency circumstances only.
I quickly noticed how incredible the Archer Midnight and Joby S4 is. So I made two tutorial videos for Archer Midnight and I’m going to also do some for the Joby S4. Such fun aircraft to fly and they’re great for island hopping. https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Yx87vWNb8XY
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(Unofficial) Joby S4 Orientation Video for New and Seasoned Pilots
This is an unofficial orientation video to help new and seasoned MSFS pilots in operating and flying the new Joby S4 electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) air taxi.
The views and positions expressed in this video are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any other entity including Flight FX, Joby or Microsoft Corporation.
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Does the 120 kt 150nm range assume a reserve? According to my rough numbers the cruising range at 120kts would be just over 200nm. Even at 150kts I’d expect about 175nm. These numbers are just based on the Cruising Range displayed.
Also, any idea what the Range shown in the Power section is supposed to represent? It always seems to be significantly higher than the Cruise Range displayed in the Flight Data section.
That’s total Range to battery exhaustion - updated based upon current remaining capacity, power applied to engines, speed and altitude. I tend to rely on that bar more the few times we did LR testing.
It’s difficult to estimate an NBAA like reserve for eVTOLs right now - it’s going to take more extensive flight profiling, and given the CONOPS is well inside total battery capacity - I.e., 20 minute flights at 120-130 kias, not above 3,000’ under positive control in restricted corridors - that’s an exercise outside of use case. I’m sure the manufacturer will eventually have those numbers, but it’s early days in certification right now, and it wasn’t the focus of our implementation.
Great work mate.
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If you aren’t including any reserve the 150nm range is difficult to understand.
I’ve just watched your video. Just after you activate the LEVEL mode and the two range numbers settle down the Power section is showing 71% battery and a range of 159nm at 110kts so that’s already more than 150nm. Calculating for 100% would be over 200nm. The Flight Data section is showing a Cruising Range of 127nm. Calculating for 100% would give almost 180nm.
I realize this doesn’t take into account the initial take off and climb to cruise but whichever number is used they’re both well over 150nm.
Any explanation why the two range numbers are different? Very confusing considering they’re both on the same display. Personally I’d be inclined to trust the lower value in the Flight Data panel.
Very detailed video by the way. Well done.
I think one is range plus a 3 minute margin for hover and the other is just pure range at current speeds and conditions.
Hi - I don’t have a full document list from the OEM (and I’m not allowed to post any of it for confidentiality reasons 
) but - I did note a few things:
- The original design spec for Joby performance is 100NM range given the battery performance at the time.
- Somewhere along the way, that baseline number jumped to 150NM - best guess is that the battery tech or management (thermal etc) improved, as it likely will over time.
- Given current L/D ratio and battery power consumption at that point in time of the design, it’s estimated that a 45 minute reserve at 130 kias equals about 38 nm distance.
Hopefully that lets you extrapolate some numbers based on current performance.
I absolutely love the Joby: only discovered it yesterday but I’ve got it totally under control already (great manual!)! Awesome!
However…
What is totally driving me nuts and killing the immersion completely is that freaking Engine malfunction message I get all the time…
Extremely annoying!
PLEASE fix this ASAP because I would really love to ENJOY this plane but as it is now I can’t.