Sport Pilot Talk

Also interesting on the Cirrus simulator, after chute deployment the effect on the aircraft was like a bungee jump... Bouncing and swinging until the aircraft stabilized.

ussyorktown wrote: (ussyorktown, the cynical lawyer, "yeah and using the BRS at the drop of a hat will guarantee we will sell a lot of replacements" (Don't think this in your brain when you're going down.

I believe BRS offers a FREE repack/replacement following a deployment, so the additional sales of systems doesn't really factor in.

It is the decision that's hard.

I was coming back from a short hop but had failed to start my descent on time. This resulted in a high/fast final. I could slip and s-turn and make it in, or go around. I went around but in the back of my mind I still wanted to salvage that approach.

Another time I was rolling down the runway for take off and a red light flashed. I had been having trouble with a fuel pressure sensor and thought that was it...but wasn't 100% sure. I aborted, but in the back of my a little voice said I could have gone.

For a while, I left the BRS pin in, my excuse was an accidental firing. Now I take it out at preflight, but am convinced I'll never need it. The plane stalls under 40 kts and surely I can find a place to land before I need the 'chute. See, I've CONVINCED myself NOT to use it.

So now my T.O brief includes the situations when I WILL use it. All to prep myself for making that decision.

"It is the decision that's hard."

I think Dave's exactly right. From continuing a flight when the fuel is marginal to trying to salvage a bad approach, we tend to avoid changing our original intentions despite logic and data that suggests otherwise.

"So now my T.O brief includes the situations when I WILL use it. All to prep myself for making that decision."

That's exactly what the instructor I recently did my IPC with emphasized over and over re: takeoffs. With every student flight - and in all his Navy flying before that - he adopts the mindset that the plane WILL fail at some point in the take-off phase, and he's just waiting to act on the first sign of failure. He emphasizes this because the T/O phase is the one where we have very skinny margins built in for getting the a/c back on the ground via controlled flight. That kind of mindset probably feels contrary to the kind of 'recreational flying' that many of us like to do, where it's about having fun and enjoying ourselves. But he's the professional and I'm the amateur, so it sure got me to think about 'thinking' during the critical phases of flight.

I just read this: http://www.planeandpilotmag.com/pilot-t ... ust_082012

"On the COPA website (Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association: www.cirruspilots.org), there's a great deal of talk about what you'd do in that situation—ways (pilots), will think their way around having to pull the chute and make a safe landing somewhere. And I say, 'Bull****!' You are not going to do that. You are not going to calculate wind vectors appropriately or behave at your best capability. You'd better plan on not being at your best. Presume that it's just going to be harder than you thought. And in a time like that, having some absolute iron-clad 'out' like a parachute...well, that's a pretty good thing to have."

Moving this thread to the Safety Corner forum.