Oh Chute

Cirrus SR20 Pulled Chute After Running Out of Fuel | Flying Magazine

 

The chute has saved a few lives, but has not prevented people from making the same mistakes that have always been prevalent.

 

I just don't understand how you don't check fuel. I open both tank caps and look inside and on top of that check the gauges as part of every preflight. And it's so easy on a low wing airplane.

That mistake made, it was night flight and my personal opinion is unless I can see and make a runway that there are too many trees, fences, power lines and other crap I can't see at night that I'd pop the chute.

 

The instructor and pilot should be cited... how does one run out of fuel in a local VFR flight... if the flight was an official FAA training flight, it would illegal to carry passengers, it woud seem that prudence in judgement would leave the passenger behind... the insurance carrier could have a field day finding a breach of warranty...

 

What does night have to do with running out of fuel, especiallly a local VFR flight... pilot and instructor had their heads where it don't shine

obviously the engine was failing and parachutes don't work too well when near ground level... the decision to deploy was probably based on altitude not distance to airport... I would guess they could not maintain minimum altitude required for the chute...

 

it's not about pulling the chute, it probably was the best call, I'm all about running out of fuel, time of day only compounded a bad situation...if they were making power and were not losing altitude they could have continued on...as I said parachutes don't do much good when near the ground...

 

There were 2 separate decisions in my mind

Bad decision. Fly without fuel

Once you are in the air at night and engine quits, then good decision to pull chute so you can live and face proper discipline for the bad decision.

 

What's the minimum altitude to use that red handle?

 

Min altitude is a difficult question as it depends on airspeed and aircraft attitude at the very least. If possible, the recommendation is 2000 AGL. That said, I think there have been successful deployments at 600 AGL or below

 

Thanks, that makes sense.

I was wondering, as we all might be, about just how long one could wait before making that decision.

I found another article containing more detail. It mentioned that they were 2 miles away on approach to the airport when they ran out of fuel. No mention of altitude but they might have been what, 1500 feet based on distance to runway? I'm not a pilot so I am probably off some.

Anyway, it sounds like a pretty easy decision based on the following factors, so they probably didn't wait very long to decide.

 

I'm a relatively new pilot but at 2 miles out on a final approach, I would be close to pattern altitude (or just below it).
Pattern altitude at most airports is 1000' agl.
So, 2 miles out on final, I would probably be close to 800' agl at that point.

If it was Night VFR and the runway had its lights working and I was 2 miles out on final with sufficient altitude, I think I would rather glide in for a landing than pull the emergency chute (especially at that low of an altitude).

 

In my experience many people who have learned at or fly out of larger fields, especially controlled fields, tend to fly wide and long patterns. I don't even see instructers teaching tight patterns, probably becuase they are a product of larger airports as well. There is a huge benefit to learning at a 2000x20ft strip of asphalt in the middle of a corn field, with power lines or trees on both ends.

 

The only time the fuel gauge needs to be accurate is when it's empty.

 

Which is also the reality of most GA aircraft fuel gauges.

 

Cool... on the next one, you could leave out the music track.

Can you do in-plane sound instead?

 

You should overdub it with the sound of a jet engine.

 

BBC News - Light aircraft crash-lands in Cheltenham garden

Amazing - particularly that last picture.

All the best,
Andrew.
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Interesting pics, but I'd like to know more before I concluded that it saved his life. It may be instead that it almost killed some people on the ground...

Or maybe not.

 

Well, presumably the crash would have been much worse had the parachute not deployed and brought the plane to a softer landing. If the plane was going to crash, I don't think there's much that can be done for the people on the ground. At least this way it was slower so there was more time for them to get out of the way had they seen him coming.

I could be wrong, but my first reaction is that it was better to have the parachute than not - unless it was inadvertently deployed and caused the crash, rather than deliberately activated to mitigate a crash that was unavoidable.

All the best,
Andrew.