Originally Posted by
EXDAC
Anyone know why this attempt used a speed brake when there have been several successful skydiver entries of aircraft in near vertical descents slowed by a chute?
The only difference I see is that the pilot left the aircraft. Chute is stabilizing in pitch and yaw and the autopilot would only need to zero the roll rate. Clearly the autopilot did a poor job of stabilizing one of the aircraft in both pitch and yaw in this failed attempt.
I would imagine that its because the speed of an aeroplane diving near-vertically (without such things as beta prop pitch) would easily exceed the free fall speed of a skydiver.