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Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

flyingmag.com

41–50 of 155 posts

Re: Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

#41
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Engine failure, running out of fuel, stalls, spins, midair collisions, disorientation, etc. Cirrus has a history of CAPS deployments, linked in the article and copied here: https://www.cirruspilots.org/Safety/CAPS-Event-History

I am not a pilot, not even a little bit; But I was under the impression that pilot training has a lot of attention on recovery from a stall or spin, and unless at low altitude, those are generally recoverable (in a small aircraft). Would love for someone with actual knowledge to weigh in, thanks!

It can take time and altitude to recover a spin, and low altitude maneuvers are often where unintentional spins occur. That said, I don't know what the minimum altitude for a parachute deployment is. That'd be important.

Re: Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

#42
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Engine failure, running out of fuel, stalls, spins, midair collisions, disorientation, etc. Cirrus has a history of CAPS deployments, linked in the article and copied here: https://www.cirruspilots.org/Safety/CAPS-Event-History

Very impressive to see how many people were able to walk away from these incidents, I wonder what the counts of injury or worse would look like without this system? Also it seems like these small planes have a lot of incidents, I'm guessing due to relatively inexperienced pilots?

General Aviation/Private Aviation is as dangerous as riding a motorcycle, per hour of participation. At least the last time I checked the statistics. It might have improved with navigation technology and flight planning software becoming more affordable.

Re: Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

#43
post #8

awesome to see the first real world example of a caps parachute deployment on the vision jet working out well. the caps parachute results in “a good day for the passengers — walk away, bad day for the insurance company — plane will never fly again” the vision jet also has a “safe return” feature that will 100% autonomously land at the nearest suitable airport. both brs and safe return are designed to be initiated by…

I am sure the plane can fly again on most cases, they just don't want the liability and they want to put "pressure" on the pilots to only deploy it when necessary.

A Cirrus pilot that loses an engine at a safe altitude will not think of deploying it because the plane will be gone.

Re: Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

#44
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What sort of circumstances would they use this parachute? Engine failure? In a spin?

let's say your wing detaches... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4a8cntPdRtk

That was both a very bad day and a fantastic day to be flying that particular plane.

Re: Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

#45
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Engine failure, running out of fuel, stalls, spins, midair collisions, disorientation, etc. Cirrus has a history of CAPS deployments, linked in the article and copied here: https://www.cirruspilots.org/Safety/CAPS-Event-History

I am not a pilot, not even a little bit; But I was under the impression that pilot training has a lot of attention on recovery from a stall or spin, and unless at low altitude, those are generally recoverable (in a small aircraft). Would love for someone with actual knowledge to weigh in, thanks!

Small plane PPL pilots are not always as experienced/well-trained as full time commercial airline pilots.

Re: Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

#46
post #35
post #15

"no life threatening injuries", but notably did not walk away from the crash. There's a lot in between those two.

> One occupant was seriously injured, and two of the three occupants received minor injuries. https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20220909-...

Looking at those photos, it seems likely the injury was probably because a tree branch probably smashed through the cabin.

Not really the parachutes fault...

Re: Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

#47
Cirrus had a bad safety record when the aircraft first came out (this was the SR series). In essence it was a similar story to the “doctor killer” mantra that plagued Bonanzas early on… essentially pilots with more money that flying skill. The SR series are nice aircraft but also not “docile” relative to other single engine pistons. One can get into trouble real quick if flying outside the numbers and envelope.

Cirrus really revamped their training and that had a big impact. They also changed training to really emphasize chute pulls, which had probably led to some hair trigger pilot pulls but has also saved lives.

Will be interesting to see what happened here when all the details come out.

Re: Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

#48
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small plane pilots are generally “not as experienced as they could be” and so Cirrus pilots are trained “when in doubt pop it out” as you might be able to successfully crash land or make it to a landing field, but the chute doesn’t work below a certain altitude.

Lots of ATP certified folks end up in NTSB reports. At some point, it boils down to smaller aircrafts being more at the mercy of weather.

This incident looks like it may be one of those cases. The pilot was on the glide slope to the airport when he runs into a microburst and decides to pull the lever before getting pushed down into the lake.

Re: Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

#49
post #3

For those wondering at the context, this is a company that builds well-liked small aircraft with the unique feature of having a last-resort emergency parachute for the entire plane built into the fuselage.

Some more context - this the first deployment of the BRS system in their flagship; the Vision Jet. The Vision Jet is also the only turbine (jet) engine powered aircraft with such a system. It also boasts the Garmin Safe Return system; where the autopilot lands the aircraft in case of Pilot incapacitation - doing everything from radio calls, selecting the appropriate airport and runway, flying the approach and landing…

Are the radio calls one-way, or can it understand directions from the air traffic control tower (e.g. Don't use Runway 6, Runway 8 is clear)? How's that work, voice recognition or teletype or something?

Re: Cirrus Vision Jet Pilot Pulls Chute in Florida

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see why not but passenger aircraft are incredibly safe and the pilots are usually very experienced with at least in co-pilot. Even more so if you exclude war and runway related accidents which wouldn't be helped by a parachute.

A parachute in the right place could help some of those landing/runway incidents too. But hard to imagine many pilots deploying the chute on a landing they thought they were good for.

Chutes take some period of time before they begin slowing the aircraft. If distance to impact is less than the distance to deploy the chute, the chute does not help.
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