SR22 crash involved racecar driver

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The Visitor wrote:
There is the chance that the parachute will ice up itself; when deployed
in icing conditions. If long enough(duration) in icing conditions there
is a risk of collapse. Of course it will deploy but it is not made to
collect ice and function properly.

Thank you. That was my question ... not whether or not a parachute could
sustain an airplane with ice, but whether or not a parachute itself is
susceptible to ice and resulting failure.

Bogus answers.

The amount of time under chute is brief, and significant icing would not be
likely in that amount of time. Even if ice did build up somewhat, this is not
an airfoil parachute, like some skydivers use, so performance degradation would
be minimal, most likely.

The real answer is that the parachute has not been tested to not tear away, at
deployment speeds above 133 knots (I think, but that is close) so there is some
question at what speed it would tear away. Your are a test pilot at speeds
above the maximum tested speed, but it might hold and save you at speeds higher
than that. The fact that icing was significant would mean that the plane has to
fly faster to stay in the air without stalling, so it might not have been
possible to slow down enough to get under the deployment speed. It seems like a
intentional flat spin would slow you down enough, to me, but that is just an
idea.

The real rub is that because a totaled airplane is likely to be the result of
deployment, and saving your life is not guaranteed, so a pilot is liable to try
to fly it down and land, and if the plane stalls and spins in at too low of an
altitude, there is no time for the chute to save you. This is a possible
scenario in this accident.

We don't know why he flew into the icing. It is obviously best not to fly into
icing, thinking the chute will save you. Anything after that is a gamble.
--
Jim in NC

Morgans writes:

The amount of time under chute is brief, and significant icing would not be
likely in that amount of time.

Sometimes icing can build up quickly, one reason why it is dangerous.
A parachute would not be immune to icing if the airframe was not,
although it might not build up as quickly (since the parachute is not
moving as quickly), and it might have less effect since the parachute
does not act as an airfoil. If it gets too heavy with ice, though, it
might stop doing its job.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

unicate wrote:

Thank you. That was my question ... not whether or not a parachute could
sustain an airplane with ice, but whether or not a parachute itself is
susceptible to ice and resulting failure.

Yep even a half-minute in icing is dangerous because it is an unknown. I
would guess totally untested. Many chutes have airflow around and
'through' them (important, it maintains a pressure gradient that way)
and will ice up. And the air flowing through them is actually needed for
them to keep their canopy.

If the ice was bad enough to bring down an aircraft, I would guess a
chute could get plugged in a heartbeat, or two. Flying through colud
tops in my plane I have gotten easily 3/16 of an inch in five seconds.
(disclaimer for the bashers, yes it was legal, known icing package and
ifr clearance) But I was going faster than a chute. But you plug that
chute, it could easily cave in. What could plug it, a 16th, a 32?