On Aug 19, 10:56*pm, "Morgans" wrote:
It would seem like it would be a big advantage to come down level, for
the aircraft and the passengers.

*To heck with the aircraft. *At that point it has already done something
to let me down, so to speak. *Now it's only purpose in life is to absorb
as
much of the impact energy as it can and keep that energy from me and my
passengers.

Which is why I put the "and the passengers" in there. *You can't beat all
the ways a level aircraft can protect the passengers. *The gear gives and
holds, or collapses and absorbs energy, protecting the passengers. *The
seats give and hold, or collapse and absorb energy, protecting the
passengers. *The cushions (if it has them) absorbes a little energy. *The
seats hopefully are contoured to support the passengers, thus spreading the
remaining energy throughout the body rather than making one part of the body
take all of the punishment. *If the seats are nicely reclined, they help
protect the back even more. *The fact that you are not moving forward, like
a nose first impact, will keep the engine from ending up in your lap, and if
it has a header fuel tank, it will be less likely to rupture and burn.
Also, your body will be less likely to smash into the instrument panel and
other forward structures.

So yes, the heck with the aircraft. *Level is good. *It just so happens that
if the aircraft comes to rest level and on even, forgiving terrain, well
designed landing gear and energy absorbing seats might be about the only
thing that has to be replaced.

Someone mentioned it is like dropping from 15 feet, at 23 MPH. *Shoot, most
of the time a person will survive a fall of that distance without anything
to protect them. *Having a plane and a seat to take some impact should be
gravy.
--
Jim in NC

Jim, a 15 foot fall -- think of falling from the roof of a two story
building -- does real damage, but in the case of a rescue parachute
you're in a metal cage. Level impact in something like a 182 has the
fixed gear that have a lot of flex -- a few inches of spring yield
would reduce the G forces a lot, and the history shown in one of the
urls I posted has the people walking away from the crash.

A Mooney might be a different story. the gear is fairly stiff, they
connect right to the wing spar which is not attached to the fuselage
but goes right through it -- one piece, end to end. I think a 15 foot
pancake drop in my airplane would hurt a lot more than in a Cirrus or
a Cessna.

So you've had an engine failure or the like, you're at best endurance
glide, in a perfectly fine airplane except the fan stopped turning,
it's IMC, and that red handle is right there. If you pull it you're
probably going to inflict several hundred thousand dollars on the
airplane, if you get under the cloud deck just maybe you can
land. . .

You really want to have thought about all of that beforehand, and have
programmed yourself to pull the handle in a circumstance like that. I
am thinking the prudent pilot would say "Dammit" and deploy the
parachute.

I had best write a decision tree and do some calculations, I'm
starting to talk myself in this thing. I've got a couple of thousand
hours PIC, never had to do an off field landing (the airplane and the
pilot are both well maintained), but things do happen. . .