Preston Beach W A Accident 16th April

[Rotorwork]

From ASN

 

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/386671

 

The Legend 600 suffered damage from an unknown cause possibly a bird strike which fractured the vertical stabiliser resulting in loss of control. The pilot deployed the plane’s ballistic patachute to bring the plane down safely. The occupants were not injured but the plane suffered extensive damage contacting a tree on the landing. 

 

 

[Freizeitpilot]

Would that be the first (and successful) deployment of a ballistic parachute from a recreational aircraft in Australia ?

[Reynard]

The aircraft rego expires in 10 days. At least there is a silver lining.

[BrendAn]

On 18/04/2024 at 7:02 PM, Freizeitpilot said:

Would that be the first (and successful) deployment of a ballistic parachute from a recreational aircraft in Australia ?

lots of raa aircraft with brs parachutes, surely someone must have used one over the years.

[Freizeitpilot]

I haven’t seen the stats for Australia, but RAAus aircraft with installed parachutes are still pretty rare….but slowly increasing. Of course there is a significant cost and weight penalty but 

from reading various threads on this forum you would think that BRS was the work of the devil.

 

Hence, I’m pretty sure this incident was the first deployment in Australia, at least for an 600kg LSA. 

[Blueadventures]

24 minutes ago, Freizeitpilot said:

I haven’t seen the stats for Australia, but RAAus aircraft with installed parachutes are still pretty rare….but slowly increasing. Of course there is a significant cost and weight penalty but 

from reading various threads on this forum you would think that BRS was the work of the devil.

 

Hence, I’m pretty sure this incident was the first deployment in Australia, at least for an 600kg LSA. 

Also an expensive item to have serviced, freight included.  Have a friend that has a chute due in November; he is going through the exercise of its service.  The agent is compiling an instruction to allow L2's to dis arm the rocket motor to make safe, so chute can be sent away for repack and rocket due later on. Sounding very involved for him.  I see some are left un-serviced and placarded not for use. As the aircraft with them get older more will be due for service.

[BrendAn]

33 minutes ago, Freizeitpilot said:

I haven’t seen the stats for Australia, but RAAus aircraft with installed parachutes are still pretty rare….but slowly increasing. Of course there is a significant cost and weight penalty but 

from reading various threads on this forum you would think that BRS was the work of the devil.

 

Hence, I’m pretty sure this incident was the first deployment in Australia, at least for an 600kg LSA. 

not rare at all.  they were available way back in auf days. lots of xairs have them. we might be on different pages. i am talking about rag and tube ultralights, the true recreational aircraft.

[Freizeitpilot]

Yes- you’re right. Ballistic parachutes for aircraft started at the ‘light’ end but were made famous by Cirrus.

i was thinking more about sport aircraft.

[FlyBoy1960]

There have been a few used in trikes, including one in a storm down in the Maitland regeon that I remember from almost 20 year's ago. Cant remember if it was HGFA or RA-Aus registered but he took off just ahead of a gust front which caught him out and made his flying uncontrollable. He deployed the chute and landed safely.

Edited April 23 by FlyBoy1960

[Freizeitpilot]

and now also for e-VTOLs.
 

 

https://newatlas.com/aircraft/aeroht-ballistic-evtol-parachute/

[Jabiru7252]

Flaunting my ignorance here - why would fracturing the vertical stabilizer cause a loss of control? Might make things tricky in a cross wind landing but loss of control in flight?

[facthunter]

Depends on the keel surface and how the air flows around it. It's a weathercocking effect and I reckon most planes would be directionally uncontrollable.  with adverse aileron effect.  Nev

[danny_galaga]

On 22/04/2024 at 9:12 PM, BrendAn said:

not rare at all.  they were available way back in auf days. lots of xairs have them. we might be on different pages. i am talking about rag and tube ultralights, the true recreational aircraft.

Only just today I noticed a Drifter with one.

[cscotthendry]

The feedback I've had so far is that is could be related to a SB issued by the manufacturer concerning the H stabilizer mounts. But I'm a bit puzzled how that relates to the V fin breaking off the way the picture shows.

I've included the pic from the newspaper article.

 

[Freizeitpilot]

So an inflight structural failure ?? If that turns out to be the case, that BRS certainly paid for itself.

[cscotthendry]

As it turns out it wasn't a structural failure. A loose tailplane mounting caused loss of longitudinal control and they pulled the chute.

The manufacturer's opinion (and mine after viewing the crash pics) is that the vertical fin was broken off by the parachute straps.

It appears that just before touchdown, the chute snagged a large tree and yanked the plane out of the air. It looked like as the aircraft slewed round, the parachute straps raked across the tail breaking it off. 
600kg of aircraft and pax on one end of the straps, a huge gum tree on the other end and the poor little tail in the middle. Something had to give!

 

And that IMO is one of the major drawbacks of recovery chutes. Once you deploy it, you totally lose control of where you're going to end up. They could have ended up in the middle of a dam or a lake, or on top of someone's house etc.

Edited June 2 by cscotthendry

[Freizeitpilot]

But they had apparently already lost control before they pulled the chute.

[turboplanner]

52 minutes ago, Freizeitpilot said:

But they had apparently already lost control before they pulled the chute.

Doesn't matter; if the pilot had more experience he may not have lost control, so he wouldn't have pulled the chute.

BRS has become most popular in upmarket aircraft used by professionals who don't have time to learn correctly or stay current; they want a  1 lever solution if they screw up.

In this case the moment arrived and the equipment didn't cover the task.

[Freizeitpilot]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion - and everyone appears to have an opinion about BRS.

 

My understanding is the pilot was a flight instructor with thousands of hours of experience - but I may have been mis-informed.

[turboplanner]

44 minutes ago, Freizeitpilot said:

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion - and everyone appears to have an opinion about BRS.

 

My understanding is the pilot was a flight instructor with thousands of hours of experience - but I may have been mis-informed.

A flight instructor with thousands of hours of experience can lose control.

Two of my CFIs and an instructor have died all through mistakes

The focus is on what the BRS did.

[Freizeitpilot]

The aircraft was apparently not controllable - that was the motivation for pulling the chute. I wasn’t there and am only relying on hearsay - but I’m not prepared to simply blame it on the pilot.

 

There are a hundred different outcomes in this scenario with or without a BRS. In this particular case, the two occupants walked away.

[Blueadventures]

The loose tail plane needs more info as there is an AD on it from manufacturer. Keen to hear why / how it became loose. Great that it was not a structural failure of the fin base laminate in any way.

[cscotthendry]

Yes, the pilot is a very experienced pilot and also a friend of mine.

He claimed that they lost longitudinal control and then pulled the chute.

My contention is that once you deploy the chute you could end up on a building, in powerlines or a lake.

In the pics that I have, the H.Stab was still attached to the aircraft even after a devastating impact with the ground.

In spite of that we have to take the word of the people aboard the aircraft that it was uncontrollable.

I'm satisfied that the pilot would not have pulled the chute if he thought the aircraft could have been safely landed. He loved that airplane and so did his wife.

[facthunter]

It's unusual to get worse when you have lot's of experience and you must have been fairly OK to get that experience.  Everyone can learn more though and the nature of the mission you take on may require more skill.. Students can and do for example freeze on the controls. You fly in stronger winds than lower hours people. A PPL is a rather bare minimum thing..   Nev

[Thruster88]

If the straps pulled the vertical stabilizer off there would be some marking on the paint. Is anyone actually investing this accident?  Will there be a report?