I also wondered why the plane wasn't flyable. Wings looked fine on the
ground. He didn't have a lot of time to make the decision at 1000 feet, so
he probably figured it's now or never. It would have taken some of that
precious time and altitude to determine the plane was flyable. With more
altitude, I'll bet he would have let it fly for a while and maybe have been
able to determine it was flyable, but down low, there's just no time for
that. Those chutes use up something like 700 or 800 vertical feet to fully
deploy, I believe.

mike

"Ron Natalie" wrote in message
...
Mxsmanic wrote:

I'm surprised that the pilot believes he is alive today because of the
parachute. The aircraft doesn't look severely damaged; the control
surfaces
are in place. What would have prevented him from gliding to a landing?

Because it requires more skill than just typing CTRL-ALT-DELETE you.
Don't second guess real pilots.