Cirrus Lands via Parachute in Nantucket

Thomas Borchert wrote:
Judah,

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?


Ah, the Monday morning quarterback ;-)

The NTSB records are full of pilots who thought "I can save this by keeping
on flying..." The chute is meant to avoid exactly this kind of situation.

How the pilot got into it is a completely different question. BUt he got
out alive.

Getting out alive doesn't mean he got out smart.

Matt

Does anyone know the N number or if it was a VFR or IFR flight? What was the
TAF for the time interval? What about the VFR and IFR requirements for fuel
reserves?

The whole thing doesn't make sense- it seems like there might have been a
lot of other options prior to pulling the chute.

"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

On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 09:17:52 -0500, "Viperdoc"
wrote in
:

Does anyone know the N number

http://www.ack.net/Crash081707.html
The plane is registered to Jackson Thomas of 6 Prospect St.,
Nantucket, but Baker would not confirm whether he was the pilot.



http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinqu...umbertxt=869CD

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAA Registry
N-Number Inquiry Results

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

N869CD is Assigned

Aircraft Description

Serial Number 1421
Type Registration Individual
Manufacturer Name CIRRUS DESIGN CORP
Certificate Issue Date 10/12/2004
Model SR20 Status Valid
Type Aircraft Fixed Wing Single-Engine
Type Engine Reciprocating
Pending Number Change None Dealer No
Date Change Authorized None Mode S Code 52770174
MFR Year 2004 Fractional Owner NO

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Registered Owner

Name JACKSON THOMAS
Street 6 PROSPECT ST
City NANTUCKET State MASSACHUSETTS Zip Code 02554-2704
County NANTUCKET
Country UNITED STATES

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Airworthiness
Engine Manufacturer CONT MOTOR Classification Standard
Engine Model IO-360 SER Category Normal

A/W Date 02/18/2004

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?

If "competent" pilots weren't doing dumb things quite regularly, 90
percent or so of all GA accidents wouldn't happen. So, in theory, your
remark sounds nice, but either the current training rules allow a
majority of incompetent pilots to get through, or competent pilots are
way more fallible than you seem to think. Heck, even a Scott Crossfield
can die in a thunderstorm. If that guy wasn't competent, most of us
have to stop flying at all.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Kyle,

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.


Exactly.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

On Aug 19, 10:53 am, "Kyle Boatright" wrote:
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.

The relevant information is easy to look up.

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.

That's true, but only if the pilot was incompetent. Simple cruise
flight by instruments is a required ability for private pilots,
instrument rated or not. A pilot who lacks basic required proficiency
should not be flying as PIC. That's especially true for pilots who
head to ACK at night, and especially when the destination is reporting
IMC.

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.

Nope. Wx archives are easy to look up (e.g. uswx.com/us/stn). There
was plenty of clear weather within 15 miles.

Besides, even if the pilot had gotten stuck on top, and even if no
clear weather was forecast within fuel range, it would have been
grossly premature to deploy the chute, if the pilot had known how to
keep flying the plane. Instead, the pilot should have contacted ATC
and gotten vectored to a safe location with emergency vehicles
standing by. And even then, the pilot could have circled until low on
fuel in case conditions improved in the meantime.

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.


"Larry Dighera" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 09:17:52 -0500, "Viperdoc"
wrote in
:

Does anyone know the N number

http://www.ack.net/Crash081707.html
The plane is registered to Jackson Thomas of 6 Prospect St.,
Nantucket, but Baker would not confirm whether he was the pilot.



http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinqu...umbertxt=869CD

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FAA Registry
N-Number Inquiry Results

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

N869CD is Assigned

Aircraft Description

Serial Number 1421
Type Registration Individual
Manufacturer Name CIRRUS DESIGN CORP
Certificate Issue Date 10/12/2004
Model SR20 Status Valid
Type Aircraft Fixed Wing Single-Engine
Type Engine Reciprocating
Pending Number Change None Dealer No
Date Change Authorized None Mode S Code 52770174
MFR Year 2004 Fractional Owner NO

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Registered Owner

Name JACKSON THOMAS
Street 6 PROSPECT ST
City NANTUCKET State MASSACHUSETTS Zip Code 02554-2704
County NANTUCKET
Country UNITED STATES

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Airworthiness
Engine Manufacturer CONT MOTOR Classification Standard
Engine Model IO-360 SER Category Normal

A/W Date 02/18/2004

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in
:

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.

The decision about pulling the chute may have been the best decision at the
time under the conditions that arose.

But in this case, it would seem that the pilot may have made several bad
decisions leading up to that final one. It's not my goal to criticize the
pilot, only to analyze the decision process to help prevent myself (and
perhaps others) from making similar bad decisions... This particular
accident is particularly interesting to me because it's in a plane with
similar performance characteristics to the Bonanzas that I usually fly, and
its in an area that I fly to and am familiar with (although it's been over
a year since I flew up that way).

Using your minimum fuel example elucidates my point.

The pilot was flying to an airport on an island where the nearest alternate
is 26 miles away. For the Cirrus, which I believe cruises at about 180
knots (3 miles per minute) a 26 mile flight is just under 10 minutes,
presumably burning around 2 gallons of fuel. If the weather started
deteriorating at least 30 minutes earlier as reported by the OP, the pilot
could have checked the weather long before passing out of reach of numerous
alternate airports.

If it turns out that this pilot was landing at ACK with minimum fuel, it
seems to me that there were opportunities for this pilot to have avoided
putting himself in a situation where the best out was pulling his chute.

wrote in message
oups.com...
On Aug 19, 10:53 am, "Kyle Boatright" wrote:
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.

The relevant information is easy to look up.

Excellent! I'll wait for your follow up post containing said information.


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.

That's true, but only if the pilot was incompetent.

Many competent IFR and VFR pilots have died due to loss of control in IMC.
There are a thousand factors at work, and if the PIC in this situation
decided that the chute was his/her best option, so be it.