Jack Emery

[Guest ossieossieossie]

Hi, Members. I am a new member, retired mechanical, electrical and gas Engineer, draftsman & building designer.

 

I had trouble joining this group because,in answer to the test question "do aircraft fly", I inserted "pilots fly". I forgot about the drones apparently.

 

I am interested in the safety of light aircraft, in particular how to avoid fatal crashes when the plane stops flying in mid-air.

 

I want feed back on my hobby-horse subject, which is:-

 

Why cannot light aircraft be fitted with a parachute/parachutes which can be deployed to allow a disabled plane to make a soft landing.

 

Looking forward to your responses telling me why.

 

Jack

 

 

[Guest Glenn]

Welcome aboard Jack

 

Some aircraft are fitted with ballistic parachutes

 

 

[Guest Darren Masters]

Welcome to the forums Jack My personal opinion on BRS systems is unless the situation is absolutely critical and there is no other option, do not ever rely on a BRS system. Every pilot should be comfortable at an engine out landing and not rely on the fact there is a BRS system fitted to an aircraft. My two cents...again, welcome

 

 

[Guest ossieossieossie]

I have never heard of one being deployed in OZ. How are they deployed? Do they keep the plane on a level keel m?

 

They should be made a compulsory item in my opinion, especially on single engined aircraft

 

I have thought they could easily be made steerable so that the pilot could manoeuvre his descending plane to avoid dangerous obstacles.

 

Jack.

 

 

[Guest Darren Masters]

I have never heard of one being deployed in OZ. How are they deployed? Do they keep the plane on a level keel m?They should be made a compulsory item in my opinion, especially on single engined aircraft

I have thought they could easily be made steerable so that the pilot could manoeuvre his descending plane to avoid dangerous obstacles.

 

Jack.

They have been deployed in Australia on numerous occasions and no, they are not steerable once they are deployed. The stability depends on the circumstances at which they were deployed.

 

 

[siznaudin]

Welcome to TAA "The Friendly Way", Jack - I, like yourself, am retired so we can consider ourselves the lucky ones in most respects other than (in my case) the dwindling less-than-superannuation kitty. And with Victoria's fire disaster , VERY lucky!

 

Go to the ultralights section of the gallery for 3 images of an a/c with the soft landing parachute you've mentioned: I'd seen ads for it in the mags but this was the first one I'd encountered. At the Truro (SA) "Toy Run" fly-in last December.

 

And again - welcome.

 

Geoff.

 

 

[Guest ossieossieossie]

I have thought that in view of the ongoing occurrences of light plane crashes with their consequent tragic loss of life, that manufacturers would by now be offering mechanically deployable, steerable parachutes controlled by a single electric joy stick sequentially coupled to a series of winches each handling one cord from the steerable parachute, which would be housed in the wings for two, or in the fuselage for one, with the housing covered by a ruptureable membrane which would be burst open by compressed air to likewise compressed air power deploy the parachute at the touch of a button. The pilot would thereafter control his plane soley by the joystick. Too much to expect amateurs to build in, I suppose, but well within the province of commercial producers, and well worth the cost for frequent flyers.

 

All my flying , apart from a couple of joyflights, has been done economy class, so you must excuse my arm-chair science. Jack.

 

 

[Guest Michael Coates]

As the local expert on ballistic parachutes (so I'm told) I have to agree that they should only be deployed when no other method of flying the aircraft can be used, e.g. there has been a midair accident and your aircraft is uncontrollable and spiralling to the ground, the fire extinguisher has accidentally gone inside the cabin and nobody can see outside etc etc. You are taking the grandchildren for a fly and suffer a heart attack etc... These would be situations where a ballistic parachute would be deployed.

 

There have been several ballistic parachute deployments in Australia all resulting in a positive outcome. One of our customers who had a ballistic parachute installed on a trike survived the descent without any problems and went on to purchase another aircraft which was also fitted with a ballistic parachute (I wonder why).

 

Most of the ballistic parachutes are circular type like the parachutes which were used on the old Apollo missions that used to splash down in the ocean. If the ballistic parachute has been installed correctly and these are on a lot of factory built aircraft the aircraft the plane will descend with a slight nose down attitude of between 10 and 15°. This gives the aircraft somewhat of a forward motion which means if you have a rudder and it is still working you can guide the aircraft to a possibly better landing position. If the engine still running you can actually slow the descent and also guide the parachute by starting the engine and flying the aircraft with just the rudder, but this is something I would hesitate in doing because as you drag the canopy through the air you are putting additional loads which could cause the canopy to partially collapse and send you back to the ground again at a fast rate of speed.

 

There is a very chequered history of ballistic parachutes with some of the first ones being deployed by a large spring and then they went on to utilise compressed air and one model even had to shotgun shells to deploy the parachute. All modern ballistic parachutes are as a name describes, ballistic and they use a solid rocket motor very similar to what is used in a rocket propelled grenade to fire the parachute and eject it away from the aircraft so it can open in clean air. There is a lot of information and videos on YouTube showing ballistic parachute deployments.

 

 

 

[Uncle Chop Chop]

Welcome to Australias Best and Friendliest Aviation Message Board. I am interested to hear about the Parachutes in Light Aircraft.