Experimentals with a parachute deployment?

genna

genna

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Cirrus may get all the attention on this, but it isn't the only plane that may have a BRS system installed. Has there ever been a parachute deployment on an Experimental plane? Successful or not.

And, for that matter, has there ever been a non-Cirrus parachute deployment?

And please, let's not get into the list of why and what's better. I'm just curious if there is a recorded deployment on a any other plane.
 
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I don't know the type but there's this. The pilot bonking himself with the canopy at the end gets me every time. 'Wow I just survived a plane crash and I'm fine. Now I just have to get out.' BONK!!!!



I've wondered the same thing though. One of the things I like about the Sling stuff is a parachute as a factory option. But when I did some searching for successful deployments, the only thing I could find was a failed deployment during a flight test on a prototype. IIRC, got into a spin and it wasn't responding to recovery inputs. Pilot pulled the airframe chute. The charge fired, but the chute got caught up in the airframe so the pilot opened the canopy, jumped and used his own chute.
 
Juliet Hotel said:
I don't know the type but there's this. The pilot bonking himself with the canopy at the end gets me every time. 'Wow I just survived a plane crash and I'm fine. Now I just have to get out.' BONK!!!!



I've wondered the same thing though. One of the things I like about the Sling stuff is a parachute as a factory option. But when I did some searching for successful deployments, the only thing I could find was a failed deployment during a flight test on a prototype. IIRC, got into a spin and it wasn't responding to recovery inputs. Pilot pulled the airframe chute. The charge fired, but the chute got caught up in the airframe so the pilot opened the canopy, jumped and used his own chute.
Click to expand...

The reason I wondered about this is that Cirrus was designed around that chute. And it took them a while to perfect it. But most of the planes BRS installs into seem to have it as an addition. I'm curious as how effective it is.

There seem to be quite a few ultralights deployments and, evidently, at least some aerobatic deployments. I'm more curious about "traveling" planes, but still. Good to know.
 
Here are two more , one in Germany and one in Canada ..


 
From BRS's website:
Q. How many aircraft saves are credited to a BRS Whole Aircraft Rescue Parachute System?
A. As of August 2017, 376.
 
flyingron said:
From BRS's website:
Q. How many aircraft saves are credited to a BRS Whole Aircraft Rescue Parachute System?
A. As of August 2017, 376.
Click to expand...
But does a pull automatically equate to an aircraft save? Without the BRS how many of those would have ended up okay?
 
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flyingron said:
From BRS's website:
Q. How many aircraft saves are credited to a BRS Whole Aircraft Rescue Parachute System?
A. As of August 2017, 376.
Click to expand...

But how many were NOT CIrrus? That was the original question.
 
Non Cirrus chute deployment after a midair POV

 
Hank S said:
But how many were NOT CIrrus? That was the original question.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure in the context I lifted that q/a from they were counting any of the CAPS activations in the number. This product was listed for about 200 non-Cirrus airframes.

There have been 96 CAPS activations, for comparison.
 
genna said:
Cirrus may get all the attention on this, but it isn't the only plane that may have a BRS system installed. Has there ever been a parachute deployment on an Experimental plane? Successful or not.

And, for that matter, has there ever been a non-Cirrus parachute deployment?

And please, let's not get into the list of why and what's better. I'm just curious if there is a recorded deployment on a any other plane.
Click to expand...

There have been several including a 182 deploy one

https://www.flyingmag.com/news/another-brs-save-time-cessna
 
Mtns2Skies said:
But does a pull automatically equate to an aircraft save? Without the BRS how many of those would have ended up okay?
Click to expand...

You will never be able to truly quantify how many aircraft or lives were saved by a pull. Many are obvious such as the video you posted. Many others can be debated whether the pull was necessary or if the plane could have been safely landed instead. Classifying every pull as a “save” might be a bit disingenuous but I guess it goes under the better safe than sorry category. Has a pull ever caused things to be worse from a human safety standpoint?
 
Warmi said:
Here are two more , one in Germany and one in Canada ..

Click to expand...

A guy named Darryl Zubot was flying that Pipistrel in the second video. One blade of the prop spun off, and he pulled the chute.

He has a bunch of good videos on YouTube, including one where he takes his Virus up to 16,000 to try out his Mount High oxygen system. He flies everywhere and all the time in that little Virus, including one 1,000 NM cross country. :)
 
Stephen Poole said:
A guy named Darryl Zubot was flying that Pipistrel in the second video. One blade of the prop spun off, and he pulled the chute.

He has a bunch of good videos on YouTube, including one where he takes his Virus up to 16,000 to try out his Mount High oxygen system. He flies everywhere and all the time in that little Virus, including one 1,000 NM cross country. :)
Click to expand...
I want a certified Virus so bad... and I know that sounds weird.
 
IIRC the failed Sling deployment was related to the position of the chute install. My Sling has the chute installed in the same spot on the airframe as the Cirrus but the newer models have the chute installed behind the firewall.

There may be fewer chute deployments in LSA/experimentals due to narrowed deployment envelopes and lower engine out landing speeds - The BRS in the Sling can only be deployed above 1000ft (not sure about other experimental installations).

Having trained on the SR20 where the chute is always in play, I think that in the Sling I'd only deploy for an airframe failure/mid air or an engine failure at night..
 
Mike Blackburn said:
the newer models have the chute installed behind the firewall.
Click to expand...
I believe the Sling 4 Tsi is their newest model. Looking at youtube clips of that plane, it sure looks like the chute is behind the baggage compartment the same or similar to the Cirrus.
 
The Glasair Sportsman also has a chute as an option, but haven't heard of any pulls. In the Sportsman, there is a tube cage around the cockpit, so that's what the chute attaches to.

As for retrofitting it to existing designs, there are aftermarket options for chutes on 172s, so money and engineering can obviously over come the issues.
 
When Popov made his first ballistic parachutes, they were designed for hang gliders. Until then, we had to rely on a chute that was attached to the pilot's harness.

This was a sewn on Dacron pack located in the stomach area. It had a Velcro closure, and the risers were connected to the hang point at the top of the control bar where the CB and keel met. The canopy was packed inside a lightweight Dacron sack and inserted into the pack on the harness.

In the event of a structural failure, the deployment sequence was rip open the pack, grab the handle sown onto the Dacron bag, and throw it in a manner that avoided the six cables that ran from the control bar to the front and rear of the keel and the two ends of the cross bar, and hope you got a clean deployment. All this while the glider was spinning to earth like a maple seed.

Good luck with that.

The BRS chute was contained in a 4" diameter tube that attached to the kingpost and aimed so it would miss the four upper wires that were attached to the keel and crossbar ends when the rocket fired.

I felt a helluva lot safer flying with the BRS instead of the toss and hope bag method.
 
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