On Mon, 19 Apr 2004 01:45:04 GMT, Dillon Pyron
wrote:

On Sun, 18 Apr 2004 02:18:01 +0100, "Model Flyer"
wrote:
The above would make me leary of ever investing in a Cirrus, so many
are ending up deploying there chutes, or is it bad pilot skills?

Seems to me that having a chute might encourage pilots to bail on a
situation sooner than they should or take chances that are beyond
their skills.

Same argument the Americans, French, Italians, and British (but not the
Germans...) used during WWI, relative to letting pilots wear parachutes.
Can't let those cowards run off and save their worthless lives, can we?

Go down to the driver's license office, and grab the first proud
16-year-old kid you see with a brand-spanking-new driver's license. Take
him to a field an introduce him to a basic 1918 automobile. Odds are, he
can't drive it. Spark advance? Gears? Clutch? Hand brake? *Mechanical*
brakes? Non-powered steering? Starting on hills? Huh?

But take a kid who just soloed an airplane for the first time and plop him
in a basic 1918 aeroplane, and he can probably take a pretty good stab at
it...especially if he learned to fly on a taildragger like an Aviat Husky.
Which, of course, is currently in production.

Everyone bitches about how we're still flying 1930s engines...well, guess
what, folks, General Aviation is still flying 1920s airplanes, which, for
the most part, require 1920s skills. We measure our speeds with a
mechanical pressure gauge, we change our attitude with levers attached to
cables that run over pulleys and move control surfaces, whose relative
positions have to be coordinated and change with the application of power,
amount of fuel burned, etc.

I'm not personally complaining, mind you...I fly for the fun and the
challenge. But if someone has the attitude that flying is *supposed* to be
difficult; is *supposed* to take 1920s skills, and if you don't measure up,
you are expected to buck up and die like an aviator... well, I hope those
who hold that attitude don't own tricycle-geared airplanes. People
complained about THAT newfangled invention, too.

The Cirrus represents the first true innovation in General Aviation in
about 50 years. We homebuilders should be proud. We proved the viability
of composite structures for everyday aircraft, and full-aircraft ballistic
recovery parachutes proved themselves in the ultralight/homebuilt world.
Other innovations, like electronic ignition, got their start in
homebuilding as well.

Sure, there are going to be cases where guys use the CAPS where a skilled
pilot could have recovered the aircraft without damage. But the point of
the CAPS is to save lives, not nurse egos. I'm content to leave that
particular controversy to the insurance companies and courts to decide.

Ron Wanttaja