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.

On 7/6/05 11:02 AM, in article ,
"Jose" spewed:


Once the pilot had recovered, the =emergency= was over. It was still a
crisis situation, but time was no longer of the essence. One should
consider all available options, including looking out the window before
pulling the chute if there's time to do so (which there was).


He had no guarantee that what caused his blackout wouldn't happen again in
the new few moments creating a second, unrecoverable emergency. Pulling the
chute was his best option.
--
Jeff 'The Wizard of Draws' Bucchino

Cartoons with a Touch of Magic�
http://www.wizardofdraws.com

More Cartoons with a Touch of Magic�
http://www.cartoonclipart.com

Wizard of Draws wrote:

He had no guarantee that what caused his blackout wouldn't happen again in
the new few moments creating a second, unrecoverable emergency. Pulling the
chute was his best option.

Interestingly the author didn't mention that particular concern in his
account of events as one of the factors that led him to launch the
parachute.

The only health-related concern he mentioned was the weakness in his right
leg.

--
Peter
























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On 7/6/05 9:48 PM, in article
, "Peter R."
spewed:

Wizard of Draws wrote:

He had no guarantee that what caused his blackout wouldn't happen again in
the new few moments creating a second, unrecoverable emergency. Pulling the
chute was his best option.

Interestingly the author didn't mention that particular concern in his
account of events as one of the factors that led him to launch the
parachute.

The only health-related concern he mentioned was the weakness in his right
leg.

I noticed that. Unconscious realization maybe? In any case, not being in the
cockpit at the time, I find it difficult to second-guess the man in light of
the fact that he is still here to write about the incident.
--
Jeff 'The Wizard of Draws' Bucchino

Cartoons with a Touch of Magic�
http://www.wizardofdraws.com

More Cartoons with a Touch of Magic�
http://www.cartoonclipart.com

(from a medical standpoint, he is right, his flying days are
over...

His flying days are not over unless he wants them to be. What are over
are his days as PIC. He can still fly with medically qualified and
rated pilots and CFIs. Sure, it's not the same, but it's not chopped
liver, either.

-- dave j

"Ed H" writes:

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.

The situation started when he lost consciousness unexpectedly and
without notice. He seems to have decided it might well recur. Can we
really say that's the wrong choice? Under that scenario, delay is
risky.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/

Jose writes:

I think it was very prudent to activate the chute after an in-flight
discovery that you have a neurological problem that leads to blackouts
and physical weakness.

He didn't discover this until the hospital. He just discovered that
he had a blackout, and was a bit weak.

So he doesn't know it's a neurological problem. He *does* know that
*whatever it is* leads to blackouts and weakness, since he's just
experienced those.
--
David Dyer-Bennet, , http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
RKBA: http://noguns-nomoney.com/ http://www.dd-b.net/carry/
Pics: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/SnapshotAlbum/
Dragaera/Steven Brust: http://dragaera.info/

Ed,

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.


Well, but you do - in the worst way, IMHO. This guy just got unconcious out of
the friggin blue! He had absolutely NO idea when his next attack of
unconciousness would come. Could be during the "few moments" you recommend
taking. Could be while "you know, shake it out a little". Could be on final.

Again, what you recommend is typical pilot machismo. The kind of pilot machismo
that clearly shows in the statistics.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Jose,

Once the pilot had recovered, the =emergency= was over.

No, it wasn't. The reason for his blackout was completely unknown. The next
blackout could have come any time. He had no idea how likely that was. The
emergency was still in full progress.

As I said in another post, the underlying attitude shown by some here is the
typical pilot machismo we all know so well - from accident statistics.

My understanding of the Cirrus (I've never flown one) is that the chute
decision is to be made pretty much instantly (to preclude further
development of the spin for which it is designed). This training leads
to sub-optimal results when the emergency is not a spin.

So what was "sub-optimal" in the result of this? The guy lives, no one got
hurt.


--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Peter,

Interestingly the author didn't mention that particular concern in his
account of events as one of the factors that led him to launch the
parachute.


Well, consider his situation when writing that, and you might begin to
understand.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)