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By: - 18th August 2010 at 11:25 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
It was a Rans S9, there's a couple of pics of the incident up on airliners.net:
It's great that the pilot is reported to not only have survived, but walked away unharmed. :)
By: - 18th August 2010 at 11:42 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
One wonders why he didn't use a conventional chute.
Remaining strapped into an aircraft that becomes a fireball when it hits the deck seems a little perverse
Moggy
By: - 18th August 2010 at 13:03 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I though he did use his own ‘chute.....and he was pretty quick about it too!
The plane seemed to have its own parachute; is this normal for aerobatic aircraft of this type?
By: - 18th August 2010 at 13:34 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Watch again.
Most aerobatic pilots wear a chute. If it all goes to worms they jump out. This one apparently doesn't.
This Rans S9 has a ballistic chute fitted and it is that which saves the pilots life. He remains with the aircraft all the way down (Watching the ground coming to meet him and with nothing he can do bar tighten his straps) and then has to get out quick as the thing catches fire and is dragged around on the ground by the chute.
This isn't a dedicated aerobatic aircraft (as the clip amply demonstrates)
Moggy
By: - 18th August 2010 at 13:42 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I don't thing he'd have made it out without the plane's parachute. The plane would have continued spinning to the ground, with too many g-forces for escaping...
By: - 18th August 2010 at 13:54 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Watch again.
I stand corrected. Something (with red fabric attached) was flung out (apart from the wing :rolleyes:) as the aircraft began to roll and I’d assumed that this was the pilot (with his ‘chute deploying).
Was this part of the deployment system for the aircraft’s 'ballistic' parachute then?
By: - 18th August 2010 at 14:04 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I'd guess it was the cover that normally conceals the chute system - but that is just a guess.
Many pilots escape from a spinning single seater. It's in larger aircraft, bombers, that the crew often found difficulty walking the few metres to the escape hatch.
Moggy
By: - 18th August 2010 at 14:18 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
When Eddie Goggins collided with the Yak 55 at Malta (2007) he bailed out very low , maybe 400 feet and the canopy opened just above the water. It was the most marginal non-assisted escape I have seen, and the Extra 250 he was jumping from was in stable flight, though mortally damaged.
Surviving a jump from that Rans looks to be the longest of long shots.
By: - 18th August 2010 at 20:46 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Aerobatic pilot's great escape!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11008173?ls
"Tower, we have wing separation. Don't mind me tho' I will just hang around up here for a while!"
This is a pretty impressive safety feature, I wonder if there will now be a run on safety chutes for a/c?
By: - 19th August 2010 at 07:15 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The rate of decent once the canopy fully opened was very slow.
Impact didnt look violent at all.
Very survivable.
The post crash fire would/ could be from fuel flowing all over the place and onto hot engine parts. Or electrical arcing.
We dont see in that clip how long it took to catch fire as it cuts a few seconds after it hits the ground.
The big issue is the chute draggin the aircraft!
I would assume there is a way to cut the chute free, but the pilot im guessing had other things on his mind??
Still its an impressive safety feature.
By: - 19th August 2010 at 09:41 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Watch again.Most aerobatic pilots wear a chute. If it all goes to worms they jump out. This one apparently doesn't.
It might have something to do with his altitude perhaps? He wasn't all that high up and the time it would have taken to blow the canopy, unstrap himself and heave himself out in a high G spin that most likely would have followed after loosing a wing might have eaten up all the altitude he had left. That equals one dead pilot.
Deploying the aircraft chute appears to have been a much faster process and ultimately saved his live.
Ok, so it caught fire, but that doesn't always happen.
No brainer for me.
By: - 19th August 2010 at 10:44 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Call an aeroplane a 'Chaos' and look what happens!
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By: Propstrike - 18th August 2010 at 11:09
Not a Cirrus this time, something like an Acro /Laser/ Edge.
That does not look like a huge negative G push ( at point of wing failure ) though of course visual evidence can be misleading, and we are not shown the sequence up to the point of airframe failure.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11008173