Ex-Walmart CEO pulls chute

Having not NEVER been in a similar situation, it seems to me that a glide down to the road would have been a softer landing than the parachute ride.
Especially surrounded by day VMC..

Glad everyone is OK
 
dustoff17 said:
Having not NEVER been in a similar situation, it seems to me that a glide down to the road would have been a softer landing than the parachute ride.
Especially surrounded by day VMC.
Click to expand...

Depending in the terrain, I would also choose to glide to an off field landing in day VFR. I don't like the idea of drifting down without any control of where/what I hit.

Night, IFR, urban terrain OTOH I would use the chute in a heartbeat.
 
Three souls aboard, three survivors, no major injuries.

Who cares about hypotheticals? Might have gone for a road and hit a powerline, or an unexpected car... then we'd be talking about him and asking "Well why didn't he pull the chute?" or saying "Just bad luck." or maybe "Ah Cirrus, the new doctor killer."

My thoughts anyway.

-Fox
 
dustoff17 said:
Having not NEVER been in a similar situation, it seems to me that a glide down to the road would have been a softer landing than the parachute ride.
Especially surrounded by day VMC..

Glad everyone is OK
Click to expand...
USMCmech said:
Depending in the terrain, I would also choose to glide to an off field landing in day VFR. I don't like the idea of drifting down without any control of where/what I hit.

Night, IFR, urban terrain OTOH I would use the chute in a heartbeat.
Click to expand...


Having flown the Cirrus a bunch, even drifting into something uncontrolled, I'd still pull the chute. Baring some unforseen one off circumstance, you are guaranteed to survive. The insurance company can have it. Plus, now if you manage to not completely destroy the thing in an off airport landing, you don't have to cough up to fix the engine. You just have to pay the deductible.
 
I love how a smartphone (more than likely) was used to record the event (including getting out and walking around the airplane), rather than to call the authorities to get first responders on the way to the scene.
 
Wasn't there a video of a burning airplane on a chute that eventually burned the chute too?
 
mshunter said:
As far as I know, there hasn't been a single fatality from a proper chute deployment.
Click to expand...

There was at least one case of a guy who had an engine fire and he pulled the chute. It kept him in the air long enough to burn to death. There have been several cases of Cirrus descending under canopy into landing sites that were quite possibly more dangerous than if they had attempted power off landing.

The CAPS chute is an important safety tool, but like all tools, it has it's time and place to be used as well as scenarios that it can make things worse. I don't care one bit about saving the airplane, either way the plane is going to be totaled. But retaining control over where/what I hit as long as possible is the most important factor in surviablity.

If if's a beautiful day and I am over miles of wheat fields, I will probably perform a conventional power off landing. If it's at night or IMC where I have no idea what I'm going to run into, then I will gladly pull the chute. Even in day VFR, if the terrain is questionable (such as a dense urban area) I will then pull the chute.
 
Disclamer, I've got 200 hours in the SR-22 and it is my all around favorite airplane.



Finny said:
Pull the chute and survive... That easy.
Click to expand...

That's the kind of nonsense that leads inexperienced pilots to do dumb/dangerous things in Cirrus airplanes.

Pulling the CAPS parachute is the civilian equivalent of ejecting from a military airplane, but Cirrus glosses over the very real hazards of using the parachute. Military pilots are extensively trained on the limitations and hazards of pulling the yellow handle as well as the scenarios where they should use it.

First off, as I already noted, you no longer have ANY control over where you land. Do you want to be drifitng toward an electrical substation helpless to do anything but pray? According to BRS's own website..
Q. What are some of the deployment scenarios for using the BRS?
A. • Mid-air collision
• Single-engine night operations
• Pilot incapacitation
• Stall/spin on approach
• Structural failure
• Loss of control/icing (component failure, icing induced or pilot error)
• Engine out over hostile terrain
Click to expand...
(emphasis mine)

Secondly the impact when descending under canopy is the equivalent of dropping the entire aircraft from 35 feet in the air. According to BRS's website the vertical velocity under a stable canopy is 25 FPS or 17 MPH This is a severe vertical G loading that has caused many back injuries among pilots and passengers. Consider the fact that the Cirrus test pilots have never ridden a CAPS chute all the way to impact, it was considered too dangerous.

Third and most important. Many inexperienced pilots buy Cirrus airplanes because of the "safety" feature of the CAPS chute beilieving that if they get into trouble, they can pull the chute and it will save them. They then allow the option of a parachute to influence their go/no go decision making. Many Cirrus accidents happen in scenerios (such as CFIT, low altitude stall/spin, ect) where the CAPS will do absolutely no good.


This video is not related to the CAPS system, but helps illustrate my point.



One curious effect of almost all safety equipment is that at least initially they make things worse instead of better. The auto industry learned this when ABS and airbags became standard safety equipment. Drivers continued driving in poor conditions believing that ABS would let them stop sooner. When they needed to stop quickly, they pumped their brakes which deactivated the ABS system. Pyrotecnic airbags are designed to stop full grown men, but in several crashes they also killed a few small women and children.
 
image.jpeg
Was sitting in my apartment drinking my morning coffee when I heard a loud pop noise- what I now know was the chute deploying. Plane landed about 1000 feet from the high school and 1500-2000 feet from an apartment complex. Hilly area with no real strips around to put the plane down, though they weren't too far from KFYV. My friend gave him instruction when he bought the cirrus. Pretty new airplane. Glad no one was hurt.
 
Last edited:
USMCmech said:
Secondly the impact when descending under canopy is the equivalent of dropping the entire aircraft from 35 feet in the air. According to BRS's website the vertical velocity under a stable canopy is 25 FPS or 17 MPH This is a severe vertical G loading that has caused many back injuries among pilots and passengers. Consider the fact that the Cirrus test pilots have never ridden a CAPS chute all the way to impact, it was considered too dangerous.

Third and most important. Many inexperienced pilots buy Cirrus airplanes because of the "safety" feature of the CAPS chute beilieving that if they get into trouble, they can pull the chute and it will save them. They then allow the option of a parachute to influence their go/no go decision making. Many Cirrus accidents happen in scenerios (such as CFIT, low altitude stall/spin, ect) where the CAPS will do absolutely no good.
Click to expand...
I guess the honeycomb aluminum in the seats don't do much to take the force of the impact? The biggest issue I see with Cirrus pilots is the inability to fly if their PFD/MFD doesn't tell them exactly what to do. That's why I hate training primary students in a Cirrus. They get so enamored at the avionics that all their attention is focused on the inside. I have to dim the screens in order for them t look outside and keep reminding them to look outside. I always remind them they are VFR. 90% outside
 
BarbieDreamPilot said:
Similar attitudes prevailed in the Air Force about being macho and not ejecting. Just give it time.
Click to expand...
My dad was in the AF in the 50s. He bailed out of two different fighters in his career. One an F86, one an F100. Back then it was, "Get the frack out, now!!" Planes were cheap, pilots were expensive. He could never understand why I am a skydiver.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top