Yes , most definitely.
I have always taught if you screw up , tell as many people about it so that someone might learn from the mistake. So here I am putting my pride in my pocket and telling all.
I had someone coming up to the airfield for a flight last Monday morning.
The weather was not good and very cloudy.
I called them to cancel as the weather conditions were not good enough for flying.
They had already left home and said they would come up to the airfield in any case.
From the ground above the airfield I assessed the conditions as good enough to do a circuit or two and to see how the surrounding area looked.
Soon after take off I realised I was in trouble with a cloud that had come in low. I decided to do a right hand turn out and land back on the airfield.
Problems!!! I ended up in heavier cloud. What were my options?
All I could do now was give full power and hopefully climb through the cloud and divert to a nearby airfield.
I entered our airfield on the GPS so as to have an arrow to follow to keep straight. I did not take my eyes off the instruments which were a digital VSI and altimeter as well as my GPS. I was climbing out at between 280 and 350 fpm with my control bar slightly back from neutral which is the position that I always fly in.
I climbed to approx. 1000ft agl and then saw that the instruments showed I was no longer climbing but was in rapid descent. I kept watching my VSI and it showed a drop of 400fpm then 600fpm and then 800fpm. I was at full RPM, my control bar was straight with slight back pressure and nothing was changing. I took my hands off the control bar to see if the wing was stable and the bar remained basically in the identical position. I had no sensation at all of the plane descending. Knowing that the highest point in the area was at approx 1050 ft I watched the altimeter descending with my hand on the cable for deploying the chute. I was still at full rpm. At approx 200 ft above what I thought was the highest point, I deployed the chute and came down safely to mother earth.
I am not sure as to when I broke through the cloud, as I had my eyes glued to the instrumentation readying for activating the chute.
On deploying the chute the explosive went off with a much louder bang than I anticipated. I was expecting a massive jolt when the parachute opened and was surprised as to how gentle the tug was when it opened.
I failed to switch off my motor and the steel cable of the chute got hooked on the gearbox.
This brought me down in a very much nose down attitude. I used my left hand to brace myself on the front profile tube with my right hand holding the control bar.I kept saying to myself keep conscious.
It seemed like ages before I hit the ground.
The front wheel hit and then the nose of the wing and then the trike came down sideways on the right rear wheel. With the shock of hitting the ground and all the cables and the wing coming down on me I think I just remained still for a few seconds! The plane was on its side with me trapped underneath it. I then released my seatbelt, took off my helmet (I don't know why I did not leave it on and get away from the plane!) I climbed out and was lucky enough to get out completely unhurt.
I had a slight surface bruise on my forehead which was probably caused by the helmet moving on impact.
I was lucky in that I landed in a field with trees all around me. I must have been approx 500ft agl on deploying the chute.
I am extremely angry with myself for screwing up the way I did and hope that others will learn from my very bad error of judgement in not realising that the weather conditions were changing rapidly!
On looking back, if it was not good enough to take up a passenger, why was it good enough for me to fly?
I have tried working out why I had no sensation of descending and have come up with the conclusion that when in a thermal you feel the knock as you go in and then your VSI shows the climb, but you do not actually feel it. With the downdraught I assume that it must have been the same.
I have seen written, that a Ballistic chute is not neccesary and is basically a waste of time and is "redundant exuipment".
I also used to think that, but when Alan Honeyborne lost his life I decided to equip my trike with a chute. Thank goodness I made that decision.
Spending a few weeks in hospital severely injured, or even losing my life, would cost more than the chute!!
The Recovery system that I used was the GRS.
People will say that a chute is only neccesary for structual failure or mid air collision as one should not be caught in bad weather.
Errors of judgement do happen and my pride is very hurt and I am angry that this happened to me.
The damage to the trike was minimal with the front fork,the right rear stub axle, the radiator, wing keel and a few curved battens needing replacement.
I have always said that accidents are 99% pilot error but generally pilot stupidity.
I will let you decide on this last remark!
To GRS recovery systems I thank you :D :D :D [/b]
