Cirrus Lands via Parachute in Nantucket

Thomas Borchert wrote:
A pilot who lacks basic required proficiency
should not be flying as PIC.


No offense, but you seem to have a lot of pride. The kind that cometh
before the fall.


That isn't pride, that is a simple truth. You should not commence any
operation for which you aren't proficient.

Matt

On Aug 19, 11:23 am, Thomas Borchert
wrote:
The Cirrus chute is meant to recover from situations that competent
piloting cannot reliably recover from (e.g. spins). It's not meant to
substitute for knowing how to fly.

And how exactly would your competent pilot above get into that spin?

That's a reasonable question. The answer is that "competent" doesn't
mean perfect. A competent pilot may make a mistake resulting in a
spin, or airframe icing, or the like. At that point, there may be no
safe way to recover without pulling the chute.

But a competent pilot doesn't pull the chute simply because he doesn't
know how to fly the plane in conditions he's supposed to be trained
for!

Viperdoc wrote:
It looks like on Flightaware that it was an IFR flight, based on the
altitude. Duration was less than 1.5 h, so if he had full fuel, the reserves
shouldn't have been an issue.

So, assuming the forecast was below minimums, and knowing the weather was
bad, why pull the chute as opposed to going to an alternate? It still seems
like there should have been other options than destroying your plane and
landing in the ocean.

Yes, that is why I stated that I'm suspecting there is more to this
story than meets the eye.

Matt

Ron Natalie wrote:
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?

Fog setting in is often an area phenomenon. It's not
like flying into a puffy cumulous on a summer day.

True, but it hardly ever covers an area as large as the range of a Cirrus.

Matt

On Aug 19, 12:55 pm, Thomas Borchert
wrote:
If a pilot pulls the chute because he judges an uncontrolled parachute
descent to be less risky than trying to keep the plane upright for a
few minutes in simple instrument cruise flight, then he has judged
himself to have less than the minimum required competence for a
private pilot.

That's BS, plain and simple. The instrument flying requirement is
required for the test, barely. There is no requirement at all to keep it
current.

I respectfully but emphatically disagree. "I only need to know this
for the test" is a shockingly dangerous attitude for a pilot to
exhibit with regard to an obviously important safety skill.

The PTS sets forth the practical abilities that a pilot is supposed to
have when acting as PIC.

Otherwise, all certified pilots would be instrument pilots.

Hardly! Simple instrument cruise flight is a small, easy subset of
what's covered by the instrument rating. IFR instruction moves past
that almost immediately.

"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)!

You dont get it, he is alive who cares about the insurance company or
anything else. For all we know he had a panic attack and panicked, my point
because of the chute he is alive not dead.




Matt

On Aug 19, 11:34 am, wrote:


If a pilot pulls the chute because he judges an uncontrolled parachute
descent to be less risky than trying to keep the plane upright for a
few minutes in simple instrument cruise flight, then he has judged
himself to have less than the minimum required competence for a
private pilot. (As I said earlier, it's not THAT judgment that I'm
disputing; he may well have made the right choice at that point.)

Anyway, I'm glad they're ok.


In my view that is not a valid statement. People who leave training
with a private pilots license have at best the most primitive and
perishable of instrument skills.

Three hours is insufficient to develop and ingrain even a rudimentary
"scan" and it certianly does not teach deriving a "picture" of what
the airplane is doing based on the instruments.

I dont know what the experience level of the pilot was, but my "BFR"
experience back home is that most private pilots without an instrument
rating are essentially non functional under IMC by the two year mark
of the BFR. IE they have no instrument skills whatsoever.

Robert

"Matt Whiting" 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.

Sorry, being alive is hardly a measure of dumb or lack thereof. I know a
lot of dumb people who are alive and well.

There are a lot of smart pilots who are dead. So who is the smart one the
one alive or the dead one. You decide.

Matt

On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 17:05:47 GMT, Matt Whiting wrote:

Thomas Borchert wrote:
If a pilot pulls the chute because he judges an uncontrolled parachute
descent to be less risky than trying to keep the plane upright for a
few minutes in simple instrument cruise flight, then he has judged
himself to have less than the minimum required competence for a
private pilot.

That's BS, plain and simple. The instrument flying requirement is
required for the test, barely. There is no requirement at all to keep it
current. Otherwise, all certified pilots would be instrument pilots.

That's BS, at least in the US. I can't speak for other parts of the
world. That is why we have biennial flight reviews, to see if currency
is being maintained. A private pilot should be capable of doing
anything required of their certificate. Flying straight and level on
instruments is a far cry from being instrument rated.

I've been taking BFRs since they were instituted, and don't believe I've been
put under the hood more than once or twice since my original Private flight
test. And *that* was ~35 years ago.

Every time Cirrus BRS deployments come up, I'm reminded of the anti-parachute
arguments during WWI.

Ron Wanttaja

On Aug 19, 1:28 pm, Luke Skywalker wrote:
Three hours is insufficient to develop and ingrain even a rudimentary
"scan" and it certianly does not teach deriving a "picture" of what
the airplane is doing based on the instruments.

But three hours of instrument instruction isn't the only requirement.
The requirement is to have as much instruction as it takes to acquire
the competence! It must be at least three hours, but can be much more
if necessary (just as most pilots need much more than the specified 40
hours of dual before getting a private-pilot certificate).

Once the skill is acquired and the pilot is certificated, it's the
pilot's responsibility--as with ALL basic required skills--to do
whatever is needed to remain proficient before acting as PIC.