Plane Banks Uncontrollably - Parachute Saves Day

[surfnole]

Its great the parachute worked for this buy, but I love some of the quotes in this article which blame the plane for mysteriously going out of control

- [size=-1]Albert Kolk's small plane banked uncontrollably in darkness over the Monashee mountains, then began spiraling. [/size]

....


Kolk, a rancher who was piloting his private plane April 8 from Seattle to his ranch in British Columbia, remembered reaching for the parachute handle as his plane slipped into a dangerous flat spin over the mountains in British Columbia, "like how a dog chases its tail."

A seasoned pilot, Kolk said he had never experienced such a disaster in over a decade of private flying.

.....
People are crazy not to fly with them," said William Graham of San Diego, an instructor pilot whose plane landed beneath a parachute this spring near Stockton, Calif., after it unexpectedly flipped upside down at 16,000 feet.

And of course Cirrus is being sued for 67 million beacause a parachute failed to open.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=&e=6&u=/ap/20041222/ap_on_hi_te/airplane_parachutes

 

[avbug]

Be careful of wearing scars from battles in which one should never have fought. It seems tha tmost of the so-called emergencies for which the magic panic button has been pushed are always pilot-induced, or pilot preventable.

Someone is in turbulence such that the aircraft is not controllable. That someone elects give up control of a rigid wing in favor of a collapsable nonrigid parachute canopy. Brilliant.

I doubt that if any of these inviduals had actual experience with a parachute canopy, especially a round parachute, they'd be as quick to pull the little ring.

Ah well. Ignorance, as they say, is probably bliss.

 

[mar]

Priceless advice

Be careful of wearing scars from battles in which one should never have fought.

As with most good advice this is applicable not just in aviation but in life in general.

It reminded me of the interview I saw of the Canadian Airbus crew that mismanaged a fuel leak and consequently ran out of gas over the Atlantic.

Everyone knows the story: They glide dramatically (and SKILLFULLY) to a strip in the Azores and everyone lives.

But during the interview they asked the young copilot (no more than 30, I'd say) if he considered himself a hero.

"No," was his response but what spoke volumes were his shoulders and eyes. He knew exactly what had gone wrong.

Anyway. Fly smart.

 

[DJS]

The vast majority of deaths are pilot caused.

Yes, the dude was a dips hit.

Yes, he was probably flying in the dark over mountains and got disoriented, probably wasn't instrument rated, went into a spin or spiral and freaked.

Yes, it would really, really be nice if everyone was trained enough to be able to avoid or handle those situations.

But that ain't reality. In the real world, there are a lot of pilots who do stupid things, like fly into IMC (of various kinds) or when they aren't capable of handling the plane there. Or perhaps fly into t-storms and find severe turbulence. Or whatever.

Before parachutes, this guy would have died. He had no idea how to avoid and then get out of the spin/spiral/whatever he was in. It certainly would have been his fault, but it's also possible his family would have sued whoever, raising the price of flying for all of us, and his children/grandchildren would have been without their (grand)parent, and all sorts of other negative things.

But, with a parachute, he was able to totally and completely screw up and...live.

While it would certainly be better for every GA pilot to be instrument rated and completely current and well versed in decision making skills, especially wrt weather...however, as we've seen over the past century, that just isn't going to happen.

For a GA guy to even get his IR takes a relatively *huge* effort. To keep it current is also a challenge. I personally realize how important it is and worked hard to get it and work hard to stay current. I also continue to keep my other skills (weather, emergencies, etc.) as good as possible. But that's not the norm and I don't know how we can make it the norm without driving a huge percentage of GA pilots away from flying.

Parachutes may indeed be an "idiot switch", but they will continue to help save those idiots from themselves.

Overall, I think that helps our hobby/profession.

 

[mar]

I'm the first to admit:

Hey man, I'm lucky to be alive 'cause I've done some really stupid things in my day. But I'll tell you what, I'd never give an interview about it.

There are some things better left to late night confessionals over lots of whiskey with friends when one's crediblitiy is in question anyway.

But yeah, I agree with you. Real life: bad things happen. Learn from it and press on.

 

[9GClub]

Not sure how I feel about the parachute thang. Sure it's convenient, but I can't see how it won't lead to complacency-- and eventually to a new generation of mediocre pilots.

It's especially sickening to read about the lawsuits already beginning to appear (and there will be more, don't kid yourself) because guys screw up and instead of relying on the skills they don't have, they have to trust a last-ditch mechanical device.

That being said, would I be kissing the ground after landing with a parachute? Probably. Although seriously, I think I'd prefer an ejection seat. That would be more of an incentive for me to think twice and try to fly the thing before yanking the "Oh crap!" handle......

Kudos to Yeager and the rest of them who used to do it the old-fashioned way, flying stick and rudder, sometimes without ejection seats or even a safe egress procedure. And they were pushing the envelope. For better or worse, flying isn't what it used to be.

At any rate, we'll have to re-work the adage: "A good landing is one you can walk away from. A GREAT landing is one where they can use the plane again. A...... fruity...... landing is one after which they have to re-pack the parachute......?????

 

[I.P. Freley]

Not sure how I feel about the parachute thang. Sure it's convenient, but I can't see how it won't lead to complacency-- and eventually to a new generation of mediocre pilots.

Forget the darned parachute... Anyone read any recent issues of "Flying" magazine? Lookit all these LCD panels that are proliferating in new GA aircraft, and that for the price of a new car, can be installed in your 30yr-old 172.

Pilotage... What's that? Just look at the screen. Dead reckoning? What's that?

Anyone who was a CFI knows well the old "okay, dear PVT student whom I have cruelly put under the hood for a few minutes, now you're over unfamiliar territory. Tell me where you are" trick. You know, pull out the sectional, grab some cross-radials, etc. Well, now just punch a button. How can you expect any students with this kind of equipment to NOT cheat on their solo XC's?? And yes, I know that most training aircraft will not include this stuff, but even a simple KLN-90 GPS unit can make child's play out of GS and TSD calculations.

Too bad. Is it possible that someone who learned how to fly in the 1990's can already be bemoaning the "good old days"??

 

[Vik]

You can't stop the progress of technology. You just have to adapt to it.

I'm sure simluated electrical failure will be in the Private PTS as more aircraft get these fancy panels.

Forget the darned parachute... Anyone read any recent issues of "Flying" magazine? Lookit all these LCD panels that are proliferating in new GA aircraft, and that for the price of a new car, can be installed in your 30yr-old 172.

Pilotage... What's that? Just look at the screen. Dead reckoning? What's that?

Anyone who was a CFI knows well the old "okay, dear PVT student whom I have cruelly put under the hood for a few minutes, now you're over unfamiliar territory. Tell me where you are" trick. You know, pull out the sectional, grab some cross-radials, etc. Well, now just punch a button. How can you expect any students with this kind of equipment to NOT cheat on their solo XC's?? And yes, I know that most training aircraft will not include this stuff, but even a simple KLN-90 GPS unit can make child's play out of GS and TSD calculations.

Too bad. Is it possible that someone who learned how to fly in the 1990's can already be bemoaning the "good old days"??

 

[TDTURBO]

Forget the darned parachute... Anyone read any recent issues of "Flying" magazine? Lookit all these LCD panels that are proliferating in new GA aircraft, and that for the price of a new car, can be installed in your 30yr-old 172.

Pilotage... What's that? Just look at the screen. Dead reckoning? What's that?

Anyone who was a CFI knows well the old "okay, dear PVT student whom I have cruelly put under the hood for a few minutes, now you're over unfamiliar territory. Tell me where you are" trick. You know, pull out the sectional, grab some cross-radials, etc. Well, now just punch a button. How can you expect any students with this kind of equipment to NOT cheat on their solo XC's?? And yes, I know that most training aircraft will not include this stuff, but even a simple KLN-90 GPS unit can make child's play out of GS and TSD calculations.

Too bad. Is it possible that someone who learned how to fly in the 1990's can already be bemoaning the "good old days"??

I'm not sure what the big deal is with the new technology, it takes about 30 seconds to learn how to figure your position out using VOR triangulation. It probably takes longer to actually do it than it does to "learn how to do it".

Now shooting a NDB approach on a windy day is another story.

 

[minitour]

...Now shooting a NDB approach on a windy day is another story.

Hell, I'd rather an NDB to weather minimums picking up ice on a windy day running on fumes than a d*mn GPS approach