Iced up Cirrus descends by BRS

"Scott Skylane" wrote in message
...
Ron Lee wrote:

And the reports seem to glorify the BRS yet nothing is mentioned of
why the pilot entered icing conditions and if that should have been
anticipated. Ron Lee

Another point to consider, weather conditions on the ground at that time
were quite good. Birmingham reported about 4300 Broken, temp +9C.
Montgomery had 3500 Scattered, +14C. Odds are, he could have just
descended into warmer, clearer air, shed the ice, and flew on, a bit wiser
and scareder(sp?). We'll never know, of course, and you can't argue with
"success", but I have to wonder about this "pull the chute if anything is
amiss, and let the chips fall where they may(so to speak)" mentality that
the BRS types advocate. Someday, someone's going to get hurt, when they
didn't have to.

Happy Flying!
Scott Skylane


That's true in any situation and our Armchair Quarterbacking will always
make sense after the fact. But if the thing truly did go out of control I
don't think I would "hope" that a warmer lower level would shed the ice and
allow me to regain control, assuming of course the wings stayed attached. I
think I'd rather read that the chute "saved" the lives of 3 GA pilots and
passengers instead of another GA plane crash in bad weather that caused the
plane to "stall". The chute, whatever your opinion as a pilot, is a good PR
story for GA.

------------------------------------
DW

The chute, whatever your opinion as a pilot, is a good PR story for GA.

I'd like to suggest an alternate interpretation: These ballistic
chutes are good PR for ballistic chutes. They're poor PR for the 99%
of planes that don't have them, and only reinforce the opinion in the
minds of the public that small planes are inherently unsafe UNLESS they
have chutes.

A non-aviator sees one of these stories and doesn't think "Wow, I guess
these planes are safer than I though!" They think "Wow, he sure was
lucky that plane happened to have a parachute."

Ben Hallert
PP-ASEL

"Ben Hallert" wrote in message
oups.com...
The chute, whatever your opinion as a pilot, is a good PR story for GA.

I'd like to suggest an alternate interpretation: These ballistic
chutes are good PR for ballistic chutes. They're poor PR for the 99%
of planes that don't have them, and only reinforce the opinion in the
minds of the public that small planes are inherently unsafe UNLESS they
have chutes.

A non-aviator sees one of these stories and doesn't think "Wow, I guess
these planes are safer than I though!" They think "Wow, he sure was
lucky that plane happened to have a parachute."

Ben Hallert
PP-ASEL


Convincing the public of anything that goes against years of media preaching
is damn near impossible.

------------------------------------------
DW

You think ice builds up slowly? Think again. In thirty to sixty
seconds your wings can become unusable. Flying into clouds in the
Winter. DDDuuuuuhhh

"darthpup" wrote in message
oups.com...
You think ice builds up slowly? Think again. In thirty to sixty
seconds your wings can become unusable. Flying into clouds in the
Winter. DDDuuuuuhhh


Never said it did.

----------------------------------------
DW

Darkwing wrote:

"Scott Skylane" wrote in message
...

Ron Lee wrote:


And the reports seem to glorify the BRS yet nothing is mentioned of
why the pilot entered icing conditions and if that should have been
anticipated. Ron Lee


Another point to consider, weather conditions on the ground at that time
were quite good. Birmingham reported about 4300 Broken, temp +9C.
Montgomery had 3500 Scattered, +14C. Odds are, he could have just
descended into warmer, clearer air, shed the ice, and flew on, a bit wiser
and scareder(sp?). We'll never know, of course, and you can't argue with
"success", but I have to wonder about this "pull the chute if anything is
amiss, and let the chips fall where they may(so to speak)" mentality that
the BRS types advocate. Someday, someone's going to get hurt, when they
didn't have to.

Happy Flying!
Scott Skylane



That's true in any situation and our Armchair Quarterbacking will always
make sense after the fact. But if the thing truly did go out of control I
don't think I would "hope" that a warmer lower level would shed the ice and
allow me to regain control, assuming of course the wings stayed attached. I
think I'd rather read that the chute "saved" the lives of 3 GA pilots and
passengers instead of another GA plane crash in bad weather that caused the
plane to "stall". The chute, whatever your opinion as a pilot, is a good PR
story for GA.

Baloney. They may be good PR for Cirrus, and I've long suspected this
was the only motivation behind including them, but they are lousy PR for
GA overall.


Matt

Matt,

Baloney. They may be good PR for Cirrus, and I've long suspected this
was the only motivation behind including them, but they are lousy PR for
GA overall.


Yep, 3 dead would have been much better PR for GA. And the plane would
probably have shedded the ice while spinning through 5000, too. Great!

What's wrong with you guys?

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Death is good PR?????

Darthpup,

Death is good PR?????


I was being ironic in response to the OP, who posted:

plane to "stall". The chute, whatever your opinion as a pilot, is a
good PR
story for GA.

Baloney. They may be good PR for Cirrus, and I've long suspected this
was the only motivation behind including them, but they are lousy PR
for GA overall.


--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Thomas Borchert wrote:

Baloney. They may be good PR for Cirrus, and I've long suspected this
was the only motivation behind including them, but they are lousy PR for
GA overall.

Yep, 3 dead would have been much better PR for GA. And the plane would
probably have shedded the ice while spinning through 5000, too. Great!

What's wrong with you guys?

Thomas Borchert (EDDH)


Nothing Thomas. Some of use sense an issue that cannot be resolved by
the BRS crutch. What led that pilot to take off into icing conditions
that the plane could not handle? Since only a very small percentage
of aircraft have BRS-like systems, if hundreds more pilots did what
that pilot did then planes would be impacting ground with deadly
consequences. Since I know of no issues with the Cirrus aircraft when
flown in non-icing conditions, we have to evaluate if the pilot made a
potentially deadly error in flying that day. Prevent that sort of
error and we won't have to ask whether planes descending under a
parachute (possibly on top of someone eventually) is good or bad PR.

Ron Lee