Cheltenham Chuting
Thread Starter
Cheltenham Chuting
Hi all,
I thought this might interest some of the light aircraft aviators on the Mil site.
Pilot, 76, walks away from plane crash with just minor injuries after deploying emergency PARACHUTE which allowed his light aircraft to float to safety in a quiet Cheltenham back garden | Mail Online
I've heard of these safety chutes but never seen one in action. Looks effective unless it lands on your head.
Smudge
I thought this might interest some of the light aircraft aviators on the Mil site.
Pilot, 76, walks away from plane crash with just minor injuries after deploying emergency PARACHUTE which allowed his light aircraft to float to safety in a quiet Cheltenham back garden | Mail Online
I've heard of these safety chutes but never seen one in action. Looks effective unless it lands on your head.
Smudge
Remains to be seen "why", but cannot but think learning to do forced landings would have less risk to the general population and also preserve the aeroplane and pilot, and the latter's dignity, but then I am VERY old fashioned
I'd prefer the parachute arrival in the case of structural failure, or forced landing into forest or over water. I'm sure there's also a good case for it to be used if departed normal flight.
Below the Glidepath - not correcting
Inadvertent IMC followed by departure from controlled flight is another scenario - as long as you don't exceed the TAS "pulling" parameters. But as you can see, it was a relatively safe landing in a 25 foot garden as opposed to having to find a 300 yard clear strip, assuming the aircraft made it to the clear strip in the first place. A few pilots have been unsuccessful after pulling the handle in a Cirrus, but mainly because they were outside the entry parameters i.e. they waited too long before acting. You might argue the chute is simply protecting GA pilots from natural selection in those cases but it undoubtedly saves some lives.
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Blades are bent as if the engine producing power.
Why would you leave the engine running?
Why would you leave the engine running?
This is an example of power on
http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/749...boston1941.jpg
Last edited by NutLoose; 6th Jun 2013 at 18:23.
Thread Starter
I'm no pilot, only around 400 hrs gliding(300+ solo) but I personally think that if there was not a serious structural failure, all the normal dangly bits are present in the photographs, and the engine was at least "ticking over", why has this type of landing been used. Surely*, before pulling the handle, the pilot could have attempted to make sure his landing, by parachute, was over greenfield geography. My memories of "landing out" in a glider was the 5 s's, Size, Slope, Surface, Surrounds and Stock. This must be something the pilot felt was beyond a glide to an out of town destination. I hate to think of the result of this chute landing in a shopping centre, prop ticking over, mincing the populous. Whatever, I suspect a few might well ask if a few hundred pounds of "alooominum" arriving on their heads was something we ought to check we are covered for with our life insurers.
*sorry chaps I know " don't call me Shirley"
Smudge
*sorry chaps I know " don't call me Shirley"
Smudge
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@ Two's in
A few pilots have been unsuccessful after pulling the handle in a Cirrus, but mainly because they were outside the entry parameters i.e. they waited too long before acting.
The engine should have been stopped - see http://vftaviation.com/home/wp-conte...nersManual.pdf
The drills are normally something like:
1. Mixture cut off
2. Deploy chute
3. Fuel off
4. Battery Master off
5. Brace for landing
That said, if the pilot could not do these simple actions what are the chances of them carrying out a Forced Landing by gliding to a field. I have been of the opinion for a while that most engine failures on light singles are survivable - most touch down at about 45-60mph, and imagine driving a car in a field at that speed and most things are survivable as long as you don't come to a hard stop. But there lies the problem, a lot of pilots panic, get things wrong and either stall on short final approach in the glide (and come to a hard stop in the vertical) or hit something hard that they normally could have avoided. So maybe the Ballistic Recovery System (BRS) is the best idea to reduce the chances of this type of fatility - it stops the under-experienced and rusty pilot from c0cking up (it even works if they fail to complete the normal BRS drills).
I wonder how long it will be before there is a clamouring to fit these to MoD light aircraft (Tutors, Vigilants, Vikings, etc...) when the next fatality occurs from a mid-air, loss of control, structural failure or such like?
LJ
The drills are normally something like:
1. Mixture cut off
2. Deploy chute
3. Fuel off
4. Battery Master off
5. Brace for landing
That said, if the pilot could not do these simple actions what are the chances of them carrying out a Forced Landing by gliding to a field. I have been of the opinion for a while that most engine failures on light singles are survivable - most touch down at about 45-60mph, and imagine driving a car in a field at that speed and most things are survivable as long as you don't come to a hard stop. But there lies the problem, a lot of pilots panic, get things wrong and either stall on short final approach in the glide (and come to a hard stop in the vertical) or hit something hard that they normally could have avoided. So maybe the Ballistic Recovery System (BRS) is the best idea to reduce the chances of this type of fatility - it stops the under-experienced and rusty pilot from c0cking up (it even works if they fail to complete the normal BRS drills).
I wonder how long it will be before there is a clamouring to fit these to MoD light aircraft (Tutors, Vigilants, Vikings, etc...) when the next fatality occurs from a mid-air, loss of control, structural failure or such like?
LJ
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Knowing Cheltenham having lived there for a long time and having done 200hour PPLing in and out of Gloucester over the last 10 years i'd have thought there would have been plenty of places he could have effected a forced landing presuming he was at a reasonable height however there are a lot of Pylons in those fields to the west..
Over that part of town 1000' isn't un usual for a direct 27 approach If we was too low, he was too low and as they say the refs decision is final, so he did what he did for a reason.
If you Google Earth Loweswater Close and select satellite you can see plenty of green fields.If you were asked to do an overhead join you would have considerably more height and might have attempted a glide approach to the airfield ...depends on the circumstances...I guess if he was too low for whatever reason he is where he is and his options are more limited...
Over that part of town 1000' isn't un usual for a direct 27 approach If we was too low, he was too low and as they say the refs decision is final, so he did what he did for a reason.
If you Google Earth Loweswater Close and select satellite you can see plenty of green fields.If you were asked to do an overhead join you would have considerably more height and might have attempted a glide approach to the airfield ...depends on the circumstances...I guess if he was too low for whatever reason he is where he is and his options are more limited...
Last edited by simon brown; 7th Jun 2013 at 12:25.
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Over that part of town 1000' isn't un usual for a direct 27 approach
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I was talking height for that general area of town not specifically location he floated down to and ended up in.
Do you know Cheltenham well and have you operated out of there on numerous occasions? Its a GA airfield not Gatwick and Cheltenham isn't a city.
Do you know Cheltenham well and have you operated out of there on numerous occasions? Its a GA airfield not Gatwick and Cheltenham isn't a city.
Last edited by simon brown; 7th Jun 2013 at 14:50.
...could it have been the pilot that was the problem?...health issues, maybe? or something that incapacitated him and this was what made him throttle back and "Pull the Handle"* instead of making it to the airfield.
(*could be push a button - I don't know)
(*could be push a button - I don't know)
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Any aircraft that doesn't hit a school, by it's actions in landing misses one, just some are closer than others...
As for the engine running, not a good idea when you have all those chute lines about to have a big 3 bladed knife whizzing round.
As for the engine running, not a good idea when you have all those chute lines about to have a big 3 bladed knife whizzing round.
Thread Starter
There's some interesting input here. Obviously the aviators, who know the area, can see where he was, and seemingly question it. I'm still at a loss to understand why a pilot of a fixed wing aircraft would deploy a parachute of this sort, knowing he would land in a built up area. The fact that it seems that the engine was still running is also a mystery, engine running, wings still attached, a glide clear of the town seems a possibility. One thing that runs through my (admittedly limited) mind is the possibility of a switchpigs. It seems to me that this, whole aircraft parachute, is fairly new, and I wonder how protected its deployment is ? Is it possible to accidentally deploy the chute and render the aircraft unflyable ? Lots of questions, someone must have a few answers.
Smudge
Smudge
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