![]() 05/31/2020 at 10:49 • Filed to: None | ![]() | ![]() |
This is the 111th deployment of a Cirrus Airframe Parachute System. Report is the plane had two occupants onboard and both have been rescued safely despite the plane ending up inverted in the water.
![]() 05/31/2020 at 10:58 |
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I wonder if that massive spike in airspeed indicates a loss of control, a data glitch or perhaps a structural failure of some kind. I’d hate to think that the pilot purposefully put it into a dive...
![]() 05/31/2020 at 11:07 |
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whats odd is speed spike without a drop in altitude. if you dove, youd see the altitude drop with airspeed increasing. Unless the airspeed spike calculated is byproduct of acceleration from the chute opening.
![]() 05/31/2020 at 11:09 |
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Glad everyone’s ok!
My best friend in high school was the stepson of one of the founders of Cirrus. He was kinda a dick. W e were also fairly shitty teenager potheads so.......
![]() 05/31/2020 at 11:24 |
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T hat might have been the parachute being deployed. It’s interesting that the airspeed stayed at ~120 kts for the next minute and a half after the spike. That doesn’t seem to align with the videos I’ve seen on parachute deployments.
![]() 05/31/2020 at 11:53 |
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It’s an odd looking chart. At a glance it seems unusual to deploy the chute on a clear day, but could be a bird strike, or some kind of airframe failure.
Glad that those on board seem to have come away unscathed!
![]() 05/31/2020 at 12:37 |
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Ok so this got me curious and I looked up Cirrus’ manual.
They strongly recommend deployment when power is lost in the vast majority of situations. Basically unless you're within easy gliding distance of a runway. And even then they recommend considering it.
![]() 05/31/2020 at 13:10 |
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Imagine that, we prefer you use our product at the earliest possible moment, and we would be happy to sell you a replacement after use. :)
![]() 05/31/2020 at 13:45 |
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I was thinking it was more to do with lawyers covering the company’s butt, but there’s some strong evidence that Cirrus’ recommendation is a good one.
This is a pretty good article- AOPA is very knowledgeable on accident analysis, with the caveat that they're huge GA supporters and will never, ever, say anything actually bad about an aircraft or its manufacturer.
https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2016/july/24/how-cirrus-reduced-accidents
![]() 06/01/2020 at 10:06 |
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One of the interesting things from the FAA’s report on Roy Halladay’s fatal crash was that his plane was equipped with a parachute system, and even at low altitude he was flying at it sounded like it could have made a difference. Unfortunately, it seems like he was probably not in a mental state to activate it (or even realize he was in a situation where he’d need it). Also IIRC, he hadn’t removed the arming pin before flight, so getting it to deploy would have been more time consuming.
![]() 06/01/2020 at 10:26 |
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Need to replace a lot more than just the parachute when you use it. The initial force of the deployment sends some serious stresses through the airframe.