Successful Cirrus emergency landing enroute to Key West today

Nice job! He could have panicked and pulled the chute. He did what a good pilot does when the engine quits, fly the airplane. ;)
 
From the video, looks like he had a good lineup with what looked like a decent landing area.

All the fire trucks and medivac shut down the road anyway....
 
Geico266 said:
Nice job! He could have panicked and pulled the chute. He did what a good pilot does when the engine quits, fly the airplane. ;)
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Of course, if he would have hit a stump or something and flipped over then we would be saying "Should have used the chute!" ;)
 
pmanton said:
He's nowhere near the highway--no dead bodies---but shut down the highway anyway:mad2:
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Had to land the rescue helicopter somewhere!

Interesting note, begin glide at 1000fpm. That's a pretty hefty sink rate.
Is that standard for a Cirrus?
 
flyingmoose said:
Of course, if he would have hit a stump or something and flipped over then we would be saying "Should have used the chute!" ;)
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Since he was over water, NOT pulling the chute was the best choice.....my understanding of the Cirrus chute system is that it is designed to work in conjunction with the gear to dissipate the downward energy. Not possible when coming down on water. Back/spine injuries can be expected.


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Fearless Tower said:
Since he was over water, NOT pulling the chute was the best choice.....my understanding of the Cirrus chute system is that it is designed to work in conjunction with the gear to dissipate the downward energy. Not possible when coming down on water. Back/spine injuries can be expected.
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Not backed up by data. There was one back injury where the pilot left the engine running. BRS suspects this caused air to spill from the chute. The gear is part of impact energy dissipation but the rounded hull hitting water has a similar effect. The Bahamas chute pull is a good example. I still think pulling would have been a good choice but it's hard to argue with such a good outcome. However, this off airport landing didn't end as well.
 
A Cirrus pilot who I know has told me that, in the event of an over-water engine failure, pulling the chute is the safest option. So apparently there are conflicting theories here.
 
I was taught to pull the chute over water in the training syllabus for Cirrus.



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Fearless Tower said:
Since he was over water, NOT pulling the chute was the best choice.....my understanding of the Cirrus chute system is that it is designed to work in conjunction with the gear to dissipate the downward energy. Not possible when coming down on water. Back/spine injuries can be expected.


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Wouldn't matter there, actually the water there is helpful. He wasn't over water, he was flying over land the route most people who live here or in the Keys take. Thing is on the Gulf side you have large very shallow nice sand bottom estuarine flats ranging from 1"-12" deep with little tidal variance. That shallow of water will actually serve as a damp damper on the damping gear without damping the damping gears designed damping damp.:D That and there are about 9 emergency landing strips with most of them being paved runways. The trick is to get to the highway before something eats you. That's why we stick within gliding range of US1.
 
Higher Cirrus premiums in 3,2,1....

Arguments why Cirrus are safe in 3,2,1...
 
Cirrus premiums don't get any higher, they are already full tilt full time.:rofl:

Seriously, if some Cirrus Owners with >100hrs and >250hrs in make and model could chime in with what they have including panel type/system, the insured value and premium? I would be most interested to know what the final rates are.
 
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BillTIZ said:
Interesting note, begin glide at 1000fpm. That's a pretty hefty sink rate.
Is that standard for a Cirrus?
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Probably. 1000 FPM is standard for my Cherokee heavy at best glide.

For a Saratoga it's even worse.
 
BillTIZ said:
Had to land the rescue helicopter somewhere!

Interesting note, begin glide at 1000fpm. That's a pretty hefty sink rate.
Is that standard for a Cirrus?
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IIRC it's got a pretty healthy forward glide speed as well so the angle is less than awful.
 
So... dumb question, will the plane fly again? It looks pretty intact and the water isn't even fully covering the nosewheel pant.
 
2006 Cirrus SR 20, full glass cockpit, etc. Bought the plane with 50 hours TT and insurance was $1780 per year. I sold the plane and have been plane shopping recently. A 2007 SR 22 Turbo, $300K would be $3200 the first year. Not sure how this compares to what others have.
 
MSPAviator said:
So... dumb question, will the plane fly again? It looks pretty intact and the water isn't even fully covering the nosewheel pant.
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Maybe, maybe not. Depends if market or salvage value are higher. It's glass so no biggie on the airframe. Engine was likely shot already; clean up and treat all the hardware for corrosion....
 
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