Saturday, April 18, 2020

Cirrus SR20, N175CD: Incident occurred April 14, 2020 at Fayetteville Regional Airport (KFAY), Cumberland County, North Carolina


Federal Aviation Administration / Flight Standards District Office; Greensboro, North Carolina

Aircraft departed and lost power, landed on same runway and deployed parachute.

https://registry.faa.gov/N175CD

Date: 14-APR-20
Time: 14:35:00Z
Regis#: N175CD
Aircraft Make: CIRRUS
Aircraft Model: SR22
Event Type: INCIDENT
Highest Injury: NONE
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: MINOR
Activity: PERSONAL
Flight Phase: TAKEOFF (TOF)
Operation: 91
City: FAYETTEVILLE
State: NORTH CAROLINA

6 comments:

  1. "Aircraft departed and lost power, landed on same runway and deployed parachute."

    Very interesting. Did he use the chute to help stop on the remaining runway? If so, it may have been a brilliant move. I'd love to hear the full story.

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    1. Maybe the pilot just dove for the remaining runway, flared at high forward speed and launched the chute to achieve what would otherwise be an "impossible stop".

      Look again at that familiar video of the deployment over the ocean (See link below, deploys during :25 to :30). You can see that there is no pitch disturbance while the chute takes hold. And full strap tear-out through the skin (see video @:45) won't happen if the airplane is rolling out on landing instead of hanging under the canopy.

      Yes, a brilliant move that also eliminates attempting the impossible turn. Even those who criticize some Cirrus pilots as lacking skill would have to admire the ground speed arresting chute deploy if that is how this one played out. Details will be fascinating.

      https://youtu.be/gBCUQlF3MMU?t=25

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  2. surely not 'minor damage' once the chute is deployed!

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    Replies
    1. Not minor damage if chute is deployed for floating vertically down, since the tear out channels for the risers will be ripped open and you will get the ground impact and bounce. You won't need a new BRS if the plane is totaled.

      But if chute is deployed at landing for horizontal drag as hypothesized in the first two comments, much less would have to be put back into proper order. Repacking and rocket replacement is required every 10 years anyway and this Cirrus is a year 2000 model.

      We don't have any detail or photos yet to know if they got stopped in good shape with just a BRS renewal required. Not running beyond the end of the remaining runway at high speed would be a good finish when landing straight ahead after power loss on takeoff.

      Much happier result than all of the unfortunate stall/spin crashes!

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    2. Agreed––way too many of them happening all the time. You'd think by now we'd have figured out how to avoid it! I lost 2 friends in the last 2 years. Current FAA training seems to be going the opposite way for preventing them.

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    3. Sadly, stall/spin avoidance continues to be firmly held hostage by physics, coupled with land development. Dense neighborhoods and commercial buildings under the pattern ensure that unsuccessful attempts to turn back will continue instead of landing straight ahead somewhere beyond the fence.

      The next big physics-constrained aviation crash challenge the FAA has to figure out will be drone-inspired Urban Air Mobility EVTOL vehicles. Those won't have cabins suspended from a central rotor blade with auto rotation capability, so when active attitude control is lost, random tumbling will take over.

      Imagine tumbling toward the earth in your malfunctioning EVTOL "taxi" from just 140 feet AGL. The passengers would have three seconds of free fall from initial rollover out of controlled hover until ground impact at over 60 miles an hour.

      Although the autonomous control could be designed to launch a BRS rocket precisely when the vehicle momentarily passes through vertical, the parachute lines will wrap around the tumbling vehicle before the chute can unfurl and catch air, regardless of initial altitude.

      Lookout below, urban downtown!

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