Cirrus chute deployment -- an incredible story

"Peter R." wrote in message
...
Jose wrote:


The author and pilot mentioned his reasoning for pulling the 'chute. He
questioned the structural integrity of the aircraft after his unusual
attitude recovery


This is a great advertisement for the benefits of acro training.

There is no reason to think that momentarily exceeding Vne would render an
aircraft structurally unsound. Unless he over-G'd the aircraft on recovery,
or experienced severe flutter, there should be no damage to the aircraft.
The cirrus is rated to +3.8G, which means it is engineered to withstand up
to 5.7G before failure. With some acro training, he would easily recognize
the physical sensation of exceeding either of those limits. From what I've
read, any flutter violent enough to cause structural failure would also be
easily recognizable to the pilot. I've accidentally exceeded Vne a couple
of times doing acro, without ill effect to myself or my plane.

So if he recovered from the unusual attitude without experiencing physical
indications of structural failure, the odds are very high that the aircraft
was undamaged and capable of continued flight to land. Balance those odds
against the risks of deploying the parachute at an airspeed much higher than
the rated limit.

As for the physical impairment, if he was capable of recovering from the
unusual attitude, then he was capable of getting the aircraft level, getting
the airspeed under the parachute deployment limit, declaring an emergency,
and taking a few moments to more accurately assess his physical condition.
You know, shake it out a little, see if the leg comes back.

I don't want to armchair quarterback the guy, but it's fairly apparent that
he panicked. That's pretty understandable, given that he had just regained
consciousness. I've been woken from a deep sleep a few times by fairly
alarming events (mortar attack), and the momentary feeling of disorientation
and panic is overwhelming. Had to take a few seconds and shake the cobwebs
out to think straight. Not faulting him or saying he's a bad pilot;
nobody's brain would function clearly right after a seizure.

Once I was flying a Decathlon and my stick locked in the full rear position
as I pulled out of a loop. My first reaction was to bail out. Then I
thought about it and decided I had a few moments to sort out the problem.
Afther thinking it through, I realized my rear seatback had hooked on the
rear stick. I got the aircraft in a stable attitude (not easy), unstrapped,
reached back and freed the controls. A potential disaster became a minor
story.

Good advice for any pilot: take a moment and sort it out before you do
something rash. But I"m glad it worked out well for him.