"James" wrote in message
...


Aluckyguess wrote:

"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...

Judah wrote:

Owen Rogers wrote in
:

Looks like another save for BRS and Cirrus.

Apparently a Cirrus was attempting to land ACK VFR last night when they
ran into weather (fog and low visibility after sunset on the island are
common in the summer). They pulled the Ballistic Recovery System
parachute about 5 miles northeast of ACK.

Wouldn't it have been easier to just turn around?

That's what I was thinking. There is either much more to this story or
this was one dumb pilot. I'm hoping it is the former.


He is alive so he's not to dumb. He has money so who cares about the
plane.
More money than brains? Most pilots have heard of diversion to another
airport in case of bad weather or other person. The Pilot Examiner would
have made sure that he had considered alternates for the cross country
part of the check ride. He might have an interesting time explaining to
his insurance company also. They might not want to write him another
policy again (if this story is as stated)!


I find it very hard to speculate about this particular episode until we know
the airplane's fuel state, the weather at reachable fields, the conditions
in which the aircraft was flying, or the training level of the pilot.

For example, if the pilot wasn't IFR trained, he might have been in a
situation where he wasn't confident of keeping the airplane right side up.
In that situation, popping the chute too early is much better than popping
it too late.

Another example is that the weather may have gone down, leaving him trapped
on top without sufficient fuel to reach an airport in better conditions.

Every time someone uses the chute on a Cirrus, we get people second guessing
the decision. There is only one person in the world qualified to make the
decision, and that's the guy or gal in the left seat when the decision is
made.

KB