Parachute landing in Cheltenham

[johnnyreggae]

76 yr old Londoner landed his Cirrus by parachute in a garden in Cheltenham today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershi...

Plane US registered but I guess this must be about the first UK chute deployment ?

[Simpo Two]

'Company director Boris Popov had the idea following a 400ft (120m) fall he survived in a collapsed hand glider.'

Surprised he fitted in.

[Zad]

Looks fixable too, although I suppose it depends what stresses the internal members went through.

http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/06/gallery-plane-crashe...

[15peter20]

That looks fixable to you?! Not so, it'll be a write off. One pilot lives to fly again though...

[subirg]

Yet another Cirrus in the bin. They seem to love falling out of the sky... Glad the pilot walked away though.

[Simpo Two]

Where's the cold frame and the little boy who comes running out with his dad's cigarettes?

[Geneve]

This was just posted on the Flyer Forum by RGV - (Cirrus Maintenance Co. at Gloucs)

by rgvavltd » Thu Jun 06, 2013 19:14

We can't say much except:

At the time of the incident all aircraft systems were working correctly, the pilot ran into Navigational difficulties and elected to use the CAPS system.

When I looked at the TAFs this morning, weather at the time was borderline IMC.

Edited by Geneve on Thursday 6th June 20:30

[Galveston]

Navigational difficulties? Langdale Rd's less than three miles from Staverton.

[Dr Jekyll]

Geneve said:

This was just posted on the Flyer Forum by RGV - (Cirrus Maintenance Co. at Gloucs)

by rgvavltd » Thu Jun 06, 2013 19:14

We can't say much except:

At the time of the incident all aircraft systems were working correctly, the pilot ran into Navigational difficulties and elected to use the CAPS system.

When I looked at the TAFs this morning, weather at the time was borderline IMC.

Edited by Geneve on Thursday 6th June 20:30

So the pilot got lost, and it was a bit hazy.

Pulling the CAPS and guaranteeing a crash seems a bit drastic.

[croyde]

Blimey

[High flier]

Geneve said:

This was just posted on the Flyer Forum by RGV - (Cirrus Maintenance Co. at Gloucs)

by rgvavltd » Thu Jun 06, 2013 19:14

We can't say much except:

At the time of the incident all aircraft systems were working correctly, the pilot ran into Navigational difficulties and elected to use the CAPS system.

When I looked at the TAFs this morning, weather at the time was borderline IMC.

Edited by Geneve on Thursday 6th June 20:30

The weather was fairly crappy this morning when he was around. If he'd arrived an hour later however it was cavok.

[RISK]

Dr Jekyll said:

So the pilot got lost, and it was a bit hazy.

Pulling the CAPS and guaranteeing a crash seems a bit drastic.

Obviously you had to be there, but I would have preferred to trust a landing in a field and an embarrassing trip home on the back of a low loader rather than trust a parachute system and have a slow vertical crash. There must be more to the story than navigational difficulty.

[eharding]

Geneve said:

At the time of the incident all aircraft systems were working correctly, the pilot ran into Navigational difficulties and elected to use the CAPS system.

If this is the case, I'm afraid it does reinforce the perceptions held by the wider General Aviation community about a certain subset of Cirrus drivers - and it does absolutely nothing for the reputation of General Aviation as a whole.

I would obviously hope there is a very valid reason this chap decided to pull the handle, render himself a passenger and land in someone's garden, rather than managing the situation and if necessary stick it in a nice empty field somewhere else.

[ninja-lewis]

RISK said:

Obviously you had to be there, but I would have preferred to trust a landing in a field and an embarrassing trip home on the back of a low loader rather than trust a parachute system and have a slow vertical crash. There must be more to the story than navigational difficulty.

eharding said:

I would obviously hope there is a very valid reason this chap decided to pull the handle, render himself a passenger and land in someone's garden, rather than managing the situation and if necessary stick it in a nice empty field somewhere else.

Various posts elsewhere have quoted third-hand claims suggesting that in several Cirrus incidents that resulted in forced landings, where CAPS (the Cirrus parachute system) could have been used but wasn't, there were a number of avoidable fatalities.

Whereas no fatalities were recorded in the many incidents where CAPS was used in similar circumstances.

[MartG]

A good landing

( i.e. one where the pilot walked away. An excellent landing is where the aircraft can be used again )

[magpie215]

Looking at the prop damage engine was running at time of landing.

Is it standard practice in the cirrus to leave the donkey running once CAPS deployed?

[eharding]

ninja-lewis said:

RISK said:

Obviously you had to be there, but I would have preferred to trust a landing in a field and an embarrassing trip home on the back of a low loader rather than trust a parachute system and have a slow vertical crash. There must be more to the story than navigational difficulty.

eharding said:

I would obviously hope there is a very valid reason this chap decided to pull the handle, render himself a passenger and land in someone's garden, rather than managing the situation and if necessary stick it in a nice empty field somewhere else.

Various posts elsewhere have quoted third-hand claims suggesting that in several Cirrus incidents that resulted in forced landings, where CAPS (the Cirrus parachute system) could have been used but wasn't, there were a number of avoidable fatalities.

Whereas no fatalities were recorded in the many incidents where CAPS was used in similar circumstances.

It all boils down to where you pull the handle, and who is more at risk when you do so.

[DamienB]

Given the average amount of time in inadvertent IMC to loss of control followed swiftly by crashy grindy expensive noises and death, if that's why he pulled the handle - why the hell not?

[Chuck328]

MartG said:

A good landing

( i.e. one where the pilot walked away. An excellent landing is where the aircraft can be used again )

A common cliché in this world and one I'm tired of. I could quite easily get sacked for "A good landing" (approach unstable - too fast, too high etc).

[fatboy69]

So in a nutshell - bloke flies to Staverton, can't find it (not sure how cos its a big wide open space!!!!), presumably doesn't have radar or GPS or a radio to ask for help & decides to pop the parachute over a populated area!

Whilst leaving the engine running? Shouldn't he a least have feathered the throttle?

Apparently the plane was in full working order so why do what he did?

Just imagine the carnage had the plane come down onto a school full of children.......

I'm no pilot however I fail to see how a fully operational plane can be sacrificed in this way. Don't quite understand how, even allowing for adverse weather, he failed to ask Staverton for assistance.

Suppose we should be thankful that o one was hurt.


On a lighter note - can you imagine explaining to your insurance company that your garden was destroyed by an errant light aircraft that was attached to a parachute?

Me neither!