Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) Archives - Page 2 of 2

Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) usage

Rick Beach has recently written two interesting posts about about Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) pulls and fatal accidents that are well worth reading by any pilot who flies a Cirrus aircraft that is equipped with this last-resort and lifesaving parachute device. In the first post, Rick included the following chart showing CAPS saves along with fatal accidents in both summer and winter:

Rick then made the following two important points: 1) There have been too many fatal accidents and 2) The pattern of CAPS pulls has increased over time. Rick had also made the hypothesis that there would be more fatal Cirrus accidents in the dark months of winter but statistics for the summer of 2010 showed that this trend has reversed since the fall of 2009. Hence, he suspects that this might be due to the economic slowdown easing – meaning that more people are now flying during warmer and sunnier months. He also noted that as of January 2011, no one in a Cirrus aircraft has died when a CAPS system was properly activated according to its design criteria.

For the second post, Rick talked to James Turpen who reflected on his parachute pull (which is also further detailed in another blog post: Tales of CAPS Pulls — The Decision). Rick wrote that James:

…recalls thinking about the 15-turn spin in the Meadview, AZ, crash that took the lives of a family of four. He determined that if in a bad situation, then he was never going to crash without attempting to use CAPS. His instructor gave him the opportunity to practice that determination.

After his CAPS pull, James says he now flies with more attention paid to when he would pull the CAPS handle again.
He encourages any Cirrus pilot to not hesitate to pull. It’s not a bad outcome.

James’s advice is definitely worth listening to if you fly a CAPS equipped Cirrus.

1930s airplane parachute test videos

Hat tip to the FlightSchoolList.com for finding and posting these two videos of airplane parachute tests from the 1930s. In other words, the concept has been around long before being popularized by Cirrus Design and BRS (Ballistic Recovery Systems). In those days, the airplane parachute was called the “planechute” and could still safely land a plane with minimal damage to both the airplane and to those flying inside. No word on why the device never really took off until recent years.

Boris Popov’s ballistic parachute system

Boris Popov, the founder and VP of BRS Aerospace and the inventor of the ballistic parachute system, has recently written an article for the Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association (COPA) about his Cirrus parachute system. In the article, he noted that his system has saved 255 lives and that his company, after 30 years in the ballistic parachute business, has sold nearly 35,000 systems worldwide.

Boris then provided some data about the capabilities and performance expectations of his BRS ballistic parachute:

Minimum deployment altitude. According to Boris, his company has documented accounts of saves occurring where a pilot activated a BRS ultralight system below 200 feet AGL and even one instance where the system was activated at 100′ AGL. He then added that pilots need to keep in mind that airspeed, parachute size and the descent angle will all impact opening times and the minimum altitude needed to achieve a full deployment.
Drag/brake chute on the ground. Boris noted that the initial extraction process of a parachute deployment will create significant drag and at the very least, it creates a nose-up attitude. This drag can easily change a deadly vertical impact into a glancing bounce within a half-a-second of activation.
Pull Early, Pull Often, and Keep Pulling. Boris stressed the need to pull early, pull often and to keep pulling – until activation occurs. In fact, Boris wrote that the word “yank” is a much better word to use rather than “pull” as it “implies a harder, quicker action better describing the necessary activating forces.”
Steering with power under canopy. Boris pointed out that after performing dozens of in-air deployments using various aircraft, his company has found that in many cases, the aircraft is somewhat "steerable" after deployment. In fact, his test pilots were able to steer Pitts and Cessna 150 aircraft in early tests. He also noted that with tractor prop driven airplane, using engine power can provide some steering ability.

At the end of the article, Boris also pointed out that its not true that there is an “empirically based magic altitude where a go/no go exists.” In fact, he pointed out that if you loose control of your aircraft on a bad landing, using the parachute can actually help to slow you down to a more survivable speed – if you make a quick “yank” decision in time.

When and where should you use the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS)?

John Fiscus, the Chief Pilot of The Flight Academy, has written a great article for the Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association (COPA) blog about when and where you should pull the red handle and use of the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) instead of just troubleshooting. John began his article by noting that there have been a number of accidents involving Cirrus Aircraft that occurred while the aircraft was low. Hence, the majority of pilots in such incidents had little time to react. However and in the cases where they did act fast enough to deploy their CAPS system, they did so with great success.

John then noted that unless a pilot has a very specific and well-trained set of tolerances for using CAPS, it’s a strong possibility that the pilot will not go for the chute until after its to late. In other words, pilots often:

Don’t have an established procedure (or don’t know it).
Don’t practice the established procedures very often.

So when and where should you use or consider using CAPS? John noted the following three situations:

In some takeoff zones where using CAPS isn’t a particularly good option, it should be used quickly and in lieu of troubleshooting – especially below 2,000 AGL.
In some situations when not necessarily close to the ground. John mentioned situations where there is loss of control in flight or a loss of an engine.
In any emergency situation, a pilot should first ask himself whether CAPS should be used. If the answer is no, then a pilot should proceed with the appropriate emergency checklist and then reconsider CAPS if all else fails.

John ended his article by noting that after 23 deployments, it is clear that CAPS will save lives if pilots are both trained and willing to use it.

CAPS-POH-deployment