BRS for emergencies

At 17:36 13 September 2007, Bikensoar wrote:
On Sep 13, 9:05 am, JS wrote:
The Sparrowhawk which was repeatedly flown far over
redline, ripping
the wings off, provided an interesting BRS experiment.
Opening shock was sufficient to launch the pilot out
of the fuselage.
Fortunately he was wearing a pilot emergency parachute.
There is evidently more to develop in BRS technology.
Aircraft which
deploy ballistic chutes don't always look or behave
like the Cirrus or
Discus used in the certification experiments.
Jim


Jim......You are misinformed about the Owl project.
The BRS was
never deployed by the pilot. The glider went well
past redline. It
reached flutter speed. the glider literally disintegrated
with the
pilot
being ejected through the canopy still strapped into
the seat pan.

The BRS deployed somehow on its own and the wreckage
descended
safely to the ground.

It would be difficult for any recovery system to work
well once the
aircraft was 40-50 knots over redline.

The fact that the BRS worked at those speeds is very
encouraging
to me.

The truly amazing thing about a system like BRS is
the lives that
have been saved at very low deployment altitudes.
There have
been saves as low as 200 ft. agl.

And once again, spreading half facts and misinformation
on this
site does a disservice to BRS and Windward Performance.

George Y

George, I just attended the ESA (Experimental Sailplane
Association, formerly SHA) western workshop in Tehachapi
where Greg Cole (Sparrowhawk designer/Windward Perf
owner for the uninformed) covered the 'Owl Project
incedent' in his presentation, and Jim is basically
correct. BTW, this is the incident I was referring
to in my earlier post about a flutter breakup and how
smart it was for the pilot to also have a personal
chute cause' it saves his a$$ when the BRS ejected
him, but did not want to mention names at that point,
out of respect. But since it is out for open discussion,
I will add this. The wings fluttered off at 170kts
(the calculated flutter speed BTW) during a botched
'extreme envelope test' involving manually performed
aerobatic maneuvers to gather data for an autopilot
system destined for it's UAV application. When the
BRS was deployed, by the pilot, he was ejected through
the airframe under the extreme G's (I forgot the exact
number they calculated, but it was very high) pulled
during the ensuing deceleration in lawn dart configuration.
Good thing he had his personal chute (and I believe
a helmet too for that matter)...
I am not at all against the BRS (and certainly not
against Windward, I personally love the Sparrowhawk,
which performs quite admirably within it's design parameters),
I just think a BRS should not be considered a 'substitute'
for a personal chute, but rather a nice addition. Most
people need a cushion in the cockpit. Yours can be
made of dirty laundry if you wanted, but I will always
use a chute to fill that role, and think that others
should be encouraged to do the same. I have had this
conversation with several of the pilots at my club,
where incidentally the only fatality there was a fellow
who was not wearing his chute (that day only) when
his HP-14 controls jammed and a spin became unrecoverable.
A BRS would have done the job nicely that time, but
from 5,000 AGL he also had plenty of altitude to jump
ship.
Wear your chutes folks, accidents are not planned events
and you can't guarantee the BRS will operate properly
after an incident/accident that requires you to use
it, but get a BRS if you can as they are indeed great
inventions.

Paul Hanson
"Do the usual, unusually well"--Len Niemi