In addition to this, somebody mentioned that if you're sitting more or less upright, and are properly strapped in, your body can sustain 50G in the horizontal, but only 15G or so in the vertical, because your spine is relatively weak in compression. I haven't done the sums (and they would depend on the size of the horizontal and vertical crumple zone anyway) but based on this it may well be that crashing horizontally into something at stall speed is more survivable than crashing vertically into something under a partially inflated chute.
Good point - I know helicopter seats have energy absorbing properties to help protect the spine against high G in a hard vertical landing, does the Cirrus have anything similar? I presume that the sprung landing gear of a Cirrus will also help reduce the vertical G shock on the body as well.
I remember when former Formula 1 driver David Purley crashed his car in the late '70's and a quick google search has shown this was a 179G crash and he survived
- perhaps aircraft designers could learn a lesson about building light weight but strong energy absorbing airframe 'tubs' from the motor racing brigade!
As we all know, it's not the fall that hurts, but the sudden stop at the end
