Ballistic Parachute in an RV-8A?

[Jay Honeck]

Anyone tried it? It seems like the forward luggage compartment might work?

(Back story: Mary and I were talking about safety enhancements, on a 2 hour flight today, and how much safer flying is thanks to things like synthetic vision, highway in the sky approaches, on-board weather, etc. We decided that, after we add vertical navigation to our autopilot, really the last thing left to enhance flight safety would be a full-aircraft parachute system.

The back luggage compartment/turtledeck wouldn't work, due to the sliding canopy, but the front one might.)

 

[tsts4]

Not that I've heard of: for any RV. I would think that although not impossible, it would require some pretty significant re-engineering of the fuse to make it work.

 

[Jay Honeck]

Not that I've heard of: for any RV.. I would think that although not impossible, it would require some pretty significant re-engineering of the fuse to make it work.

Well, the rear luggage compartment is out, since deployment would making opening my sliding canopy impossible. (I suppose a flip-up canopy would work.)

The forward luggage compartment seems like it would work just fine. It's close to the CG, and there's plenty of room. Given the innovation of RV builders, I'm surprised no one has tried it -- but I posted this question over on the Van's Air Force group, and all I heard were crickets...

 

[tsts4]

IMO it's not the space but the surrounding structure and ensuring it could handle the deployment loads plus ensuring the aircraft remains more or less level in decent under canopy. As for the sliders I guess that would ultimately depend on the number risers and where they attach to the fuse (eg a central point or multiple). In any event, unless you wanted to open the canopy on the way down conceptionally I would think it might not be an issue once on the ground and the chute has deflated.

 

[Jay Honeck]

IMO it's not the space but the surrounding structure and ensuring it could handle the deployment loads plus ensuring the aircraft remains more or less level in decent under canopy. As for the sliders I guess that would ultimately depend on the number risers and where they attach to the fuse (eg a central point or multiple). In any event, unless you wanted to open the canopy on the way down conceptionally I would think it might not be an issue once on the ground and the chute has deflated.

Remember the guys in the Cirrus that burned while hanging under canopy?

Yeah, I want to be able to open my slider -- even if it's just to throw myself over the side to avoid their fate.

 

[Subsea]

Personal parachutes and unbelted inverted flight with the slider open?

 

[Jim Logajan]

Contact the only experts that can tell you what you need to know:

http://www.brsaerospace.com/brs_aviation_home.aspx

Give them a call and ask them - then let us know what you find out. I know that BRS chutes are available for the RV-7 and RV-9.

 

[txflyer]

I was going to say .. why not just some parachutes? They make good slim ones what I hear.

They're portable too.

 

[tsts4]

Ok. We'lll based upon the photos I've seen of the deployed BRS chutes it would appear they are designed for riser attach points forward and aft of the cockpit/cabin. The stowed risers are buried in the fuse. Seems the aft risers could be placed far enough aft to clear the canopy opening, but I'm just guessing. I'm thinking you heard crickets over on VAF because most have concluded that the juice simply isn't worth the squeeze for thr typical homebuilder based upon the amount of work t hat would be required to pull this off. And of course there's the issue of testing to see if the design works.