On Jan 19, 8:35*pm, Sparkorama
wrote:

...I think they should be mandatory in every new glider built...
Thoughts?

I think that the idea is well-intentioned but ill-conceived. Others
have already pointed out that BRS totals the aircraft in most
deployments, usually results in injuries to the occupants, and is
otherwise very far from being a panacea.

If there were an affordable and reliable system that was guaranteed to
work in all sailplanes across a wide variety of conditions, I'd
probably not object so strenuously. However, that is not the case. The
systems that are available are bulky and expensive, and can be
difficult or impossible to fit into something small aircraft where
interior volume is so scarce.

Sailplanes present special challenges for ballistic recovery systems.
Their requirement for low drag can make it difficult to install the
suspension bridles without performance-robbing bulges and blisters,
and their wide range of operating weights makes it hard to tailor the
parachute size to the aircraft mass.

My strongest issue with the idea is the underlying assertion that
there is or should be some bureau or agency responsible for making BRS
"mandatory in every new glider built." Required for gliders that
receive type certificates after some certain date, I can sort of see
that. That's the sort of thing that the NTSB might recommend to the
FAA in a decade or two, and which the FAA might take under advisement
for a similar span. But required for gliders being manufactured under
current type certificates? No, sorry, I think that retroactive
requirements like that set a very, very bad precedent. And required
for Experimental, Amateur-built, and Experimental, Racing gliders? No
way. That would very much stifle the kind of innovation and
competition that those (non-)certification categories are designed to
foster.

That said, in the glider I am developing now, I have indeed reserved a
modest volume for a ballistic parachute system should some customers
express an interest in it. However, that volume is not available in
sustainer or self-launch versions, so you would have to choose between
the motor and the parachute.

In the overall scheme of things, the place to look for the deployment
of new systems like this are customers and insurance companies. Both
of them vote with dollars, and in the free market that's pretty much
the only vote that matters.

Thanks, Bob K.
http://www.hpaircraft.com/hp-24