more about that parachuting aircraft

This additional slant from the Aero-News email newsletter this
morning:

************************************************** ******************

"Minutes after departure, I started experiencing instrument
failures, one after another. No warning. No smoke. No clues. Just
gauges going out one after another."

As the first gauge failed, Jeff told Center he wanted to turn
back. Center immediately gave him vectors for the return, but
thereafter the perceived succession of failures made the
turn-around seem fairly iffy.

Ippoliti was stunned. Not only were gauges failing, but they
were failing in systems that didn't appear to be related. In a
matter of seconds, just hundreds of feet from the ground and untold
obstacles obscured by IMC, he really didn't know what to trust.
This couldn't be good.

With an unknown number of hazards looming, he informed ATC
that he was clearly in trouble. And after some initial hope of
heading back, the SR22 pilot realized that turning back to the
airport was something he wasn't sure he could do with his gauges
continuing to fail in "rapid succession."

"I told center I couldn't turn back... that I was going to pull
the chute." Jeff then told ANN that one of the few responses he
remembered from that moment on was center responding, "you're going
to pull what?"

From there, Ippoliti's activities were quick and assured. "I'd
thought about this... but I never expected to have to do it." Jeff
pulled the power back, killed the engine and reached up for the BRS
CAPS handle... and pulled.

Despite all his trepidation, Jeff noted that the pull went well,
"No problem with that, it pulled easily."

BANG!

The chute OPENED. Ippoliti then described feeling a
little 'G' as the plane slowed, swung around a bit, and then things
calmed down remarkably fast.

"From there it was almost a non-event. The ELT went off right
away and prevented me from understanding Center because it was so
loud, and the pilot door came off as the chute fired... but the
ride down lasted only seconds as I came down on some trees and
just... stopped."

Ippoliti was alive and had landed in a local park. The aircraft
was not only intact, but surprisingly suffered limited damage... "a
lot less than what might have been," he noted. He doesn't have much
to say about the landing impact, as the trees apparently absorbed
most of the energy, and turned history's third emergency CAPS
landing into a "relative non-event."


all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (put Cubdriver in subject line)

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