Cirrous Escape Pod?

kostcoguy

New Member
I am trying to remember where I heard this from but I cannot recall at the moment. I heard about a certain Cirrous (not sure exact model) but the left aileron got stuck completely and then broke and put this plane in a downward spin. Apparently the pilot pulled a handle and the cockpit, or escape pod if you would like to call it, detached away from the airplane and a parachute deployed, which let it safely sail to the ground. The pilot got away unharmed and landed on a golf course. Anyone first of all heard of this story or know about this special escape pod thingy? I was wondering if people even feel any safer with it or anything like that?
 
www.cirrusdesign.com I guarantee you that the pilot of that plane felt safer. I took a demo of the SR-22 the demo pilot said that the guy that pulled the parachute collected the insurance money and bought another Cirrus.
 
Yeah, it ruins the airplane, but will get you down safely.

Even with the parachute aside, the Cirrus is very a cool airplane.
 
Actually that plane is flying once again. Cirrus owns it now and uses it as a promotional tool to demonstrate their added safety. I saw this plane recently at the AOPA Expo in Phila.
 
There was a really great artical by the designer of Xplane about his buying a new cirrous. I can't seem to find the link right now. <rant>I don't really like the guy. Granted Xplane is a great product, but he charges SO darn much for it and yet he is posting all over his website how he just got a new Segway and how he was racing his corrvette against it blah blah blah... (not to mention the whole cirrous thing). I mean really... if he is doing so well, couldn't he charge a little less for his product. But then I guess he couldn't pay for all his toys. </rant> Ah... I feel much better now.

Ethan
 
X-plane IS a serious home flight sim competitor and is well worth the cost. The problem is now you need a really really fast computer and video card to ru n version 7 to the max.

Also, the latest version 7.30 is on sale for $50.00 right now and it includes updates all the way to version 8.. Its only half price and just as much as MSFS. Besides it blows MSFS out of the water, not even a comparison. That is why Piper uses it to test their aircraft flight characteristics as well as Carter Copter. It is also FAA approved for Instrument, Commercial, and ATP training when applied to a FAA approved simulator. I think MOTUS simulators are the ones that are using the x-plane software in their sims now.
 
It isn't a serious competitor, it just isn't selling at the same levels as MSFS on a home basis.

It may be a better sim, but on a sales level for your average flight simmer- MSFS is way ahead. The pricetag is one main factors (also, a lot more people know of MSFS than Xplane).
 
Im not sure what folks like about X-Plane. I hear the "its got better flight dynamics' argument and maybe it does. I sure as hec cant tell when I use it though (I do use better models than the default MSFS aircraft). In the end a computer sim isn’t about learning how to fly its about practicing procedures. I find MSFS 2004 blows away X-Plane 7.30 for day-to-day use for approach practice.

I have them both (I have had X-plane since 6.0 and had hoped it would be much better now) and I use MSFS 2004 100% of the time for approach practice. I use X-Plane for goofing off.
 
[ QUOTE ]
In the end a computer sim isn’t about learning how to fly its about practicing procedures. I find MSFS 2004 blows away X-Plane 7.30 for day-to-day use for approach practice.

[/ QUOTE ]I disagree. Thanks to its use of OpenGL graphics, the needles and gauges in X-Plane move FAR more fluidly than MSFS 2004, updating their position at the sim's frame rate (far more often than MSFS does), which for my money is much more realistic. Granted, some tinkering is necessary in X-Plane to get things truly up to snuff--I modified X-Plane's C-172 panel, getting rid of the crap "GPS" and installing a DME receiver (and replacing the DG with an HSI
cool.gif
). (BTW, the C-172 that shipped with 7.20 and 7.30 has issues, a result of it being a user-contributed aircraft and somebody lying to Austin, convincing him to distribute a bogus version--go back to the 172 distributed with v7.15)

X-Plane's flight model will always be more accurate than MSFS'--MS has publicly stated they're sticking to performance table lookups rather than doing the math on the airfoils in real-time as X-Plane does. I haven't flown any heavy metal for real, but I've flown both DC-9 and KC-10 simulators and X-Plane's jets "feel" just like those megabuck full-motion sims.
 
I understand the differences in design. However unless you are using some high end hardware the flight model advantage is lost in the plastic CH-Yoke. When I use some of the better flight models for MSFS (not the ones that come with the sim) I really cant tell the difference between the two programs. As far as the navigation equipment goes I much prefer microsoft. Again Im not using the default aircraft or panels so that may be the difference. I will keep my copy of x-plane, but I really only use it to practice flying the space shuttle or flying on Mars.

Ditto to the tweeking part. I dont think MSFS does all that well out of the box. I have had to make many adjustments and swap out a number of files to get things working the way I like it.
 
One of our 172's at my school has a BRS system in it. Makes the plane feel wierd on T/O. Lands nicely though
 
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