Another Cirrus Down

Dave wrote:
I am not sure I would willingly fly around with this much life
endangering explosive products in the baggage compartment of my
Warrior....

When fuel tanks are less than full, one may have an explosive air/fuel
vapor mixture in them. And post-crash fires are sufficiently common that
I'm not sure why a ballistic chute system is considered any more dangerous
than many dozens of pounds of highly flammable liquid. Why would one
consider an undeployed BRS more dangerous than a fuel system on a crashed
plane?

[...]
Must be getting old, I'm having trouble understanding some things..

Me too. :-)

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 03:56:14 -0000, Jim Logajan
wrote:

Dave wrote:
I am not sure I would willingly fly around with this much life
endangering explosive products in the baggage compartment of my
Warrior....

When fuel tanks are less than full, one may have an explosive air/fuel
vapor mixture in them. And post-crash fires are sufficiently common that

That's *may* have, but under normal circumstances I'd expect the
mixture to be above the UEL.

Post crash fires and particularly the spectacular ones are usually
from ruptured tanks.

I'm not sure why a ballistic chute system is considered any more dangerous
than many dozens of pounds of highly flammable liquid. Why would one
consider an undeployed BRS more dangerous than a fuel system on a crashed
plane?

The fuel can leak away and vaporize so if there is no immediate fire
there is unlikely to be one. OTOH a primed BRS is primed until
disabled.

To me, it wouldn't make a bit of difference between the two.
If the paths taken where the lanyards are in the fuselage and wings
were marked out they could have avoid areas.

As far as airbags, the system should be capable of being disarmed
easily. If not, it needs fixing.

OTOH It makes me no more nervous to fly planes with out a BRS than it
does with..

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

[...]
Must be getting old, I'm having trouble understanding some things..

Me too. :-)

Jim,

Why would one
consider an undeployed BRS more dangerous than a fuel system on a crashed
plane?


Because in the former case, it is much clearer who to sue in a frivolous law
suit.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)