Ron,

It's interesting to read of your anti-safety perspective...the
approach that if a pilot errs, he is sentenced to death. If you go
back into aviation history writings, much of what you said is straight
out of the arguments of those in the Army and Navy aviation wings that
were against giving pilots parachutes in the late 19 teens and early
'20s. By gawd, that pilot is taught to bring the airplane back, not
jump out of it (same argument initially against giving pilots flying
the mail parachutes). (Don't forget that Lindbergh jumped from his
mail plane three times during his air mail career...thank goodness.)

Fortunately, logic prevailed and military and mail pilots got to wear
chutes, as did test pilots. It did take some very severely worded
orders and actions to get the pilots to use them, as the macho problem
kept cropping up...if a pilot jumped, the Monday-morning quarterbacks
and macho meatheads would promptly criticize the guy for relying on a
crutch, the parachute, instead of dying like a man.

Thank goodness that crap died out as the military was absolutely
insistent that a pilot bail out when things did not make sense and he
couldn't make them make sense.

Now technology has progressed to the point that we can have a
whole-airplane parachute. Of course, it brings out the boneheads who
are critical of those who live because they got to the point that they
decided that they could not successfully continue the flight. Maybe,
if every pilot who is rewarded by living because he had the guts to
use the chute, knowing that half-wits would criticize him could be
allowed to select one of the loudmouths for capital punishment...to
die in his place, as it were....

Don't forget there is one Cirrus accident in which the aircraft spun
in. It had two pilots aboard and apparently neither activated the
chute. (It appears the rocket cooked off in the post crash fire and
deployed the chute.) Can't you just see the discussion going on as
one pilot wants to pull the handle and the other insists that he not
do so because they will be the subject of criticism?

Yep, if you want to follow the "it's better to be dead than
embarassed" rule of aviation, press on. However, I kind of like
technology, it's what allows us to rise off the ground in the first
place, so we might as well have, and use, the safety technology as
well.

BTW, as you may know, in early World War I, many British troops were
not allowed to wear helmets in combat...it was considered cowardice in
the face of the enemy. Thank goodness that line of thinking doesn't
always prevail. When I teach aerobatics I tell my students that if
the airplane is doing something you don't recognize and you cannot
make it do something you do recognize by the time you get down to the
altitude selected prior to flight, quit screwing around and jump out.
If I get into that sort of situation in an airplane with a CAPS, I'll
use it because I do NOT know what is wrong, cannot correct it and
don't have time to trouble shoot it, whether or not I was the cause of
it, my obligation to do my best to save my passengers and myself.
I'll pull the handle.

All the best,
Rick

(Ron Lee) wrote in message ...
First off Thomas...I smoke nothing. Nor do I consume any mind altering
substances. Frankly, I cannot see your point of view. Instead of
doing something to keep pilots from making idiotic judgements, you
prefer a crutch (CAPS in this case).

I am able to make judgement calls about when to fly and not fly. I
can divert when weather dictates. If the ultimate facts in these two
events lead to pilot error as a primary factor, you need to address
that instead of relying on crutches.

If your goal is to prevent deaths, CAPS is not likely to be in a
significant number of aircraft so you have to find a way to fix the
pilot element for the non-CAPS equipped aircraft.

Fact of life though...people screw up and people die. At some point
Darwinism takes over

Ron Lee

Thomas Borchert wrote:

Ron,

know at least one person here is a fan of the CAPS. I wonder if it
is a last resort for pilot incompetence?


Yeah, the pilots should have rather died honorably than having been
offered a further option through CAPS. After all, real pilots don't
make errors, which can be clearly seen in the accident statistics.

What in the world have you been smoking?

Sorry, no offense meant, but this attitude really ticks me off. Most GA
accidents are caused by the pilots doing something obviously
incompetent. So what? The chute is just one more option out

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)