Ballistic Chute deployment STATS !!

[Abe]

Cost accountancy was my most enjoyable subject at varsity.
Something like: "What would you like the answer to be?"
After the untimely and unneccessary demise of one of my flight instructors, I immediately got a BRS, but 12 years on when a single service reached the original purchase price, I looked at GRS. Visited the factory in Czech, got the agency and started importing in quantity, selling at cost plus expenses as a service to my fellow pilots. Dave Grosvenor became the agent for KZN - 084-4226359. He recently sent back a damaged unit. Reimporting this with a batch of new units, I verified the current repack cost at R4200 there and back. (Galaxy policy is to repack at cost, which is good marketing in my book.)
My thinking would cost the purchase price of the parachute to the aircraft, like air-bags to a car. Then your insurance costs is R700/yr for maintenance. For incase something goes wrong up there, is a second chance worth R60 per month? Ya betcha!
Abe (012-3804000)

[RV4ker (RIP)]

Thanks for the info Dave....(helped me understand some of the more tech issues)

When you fit a ballistic chute to an aircraft, the chute container gets mounted in one position (depends on structure and CofG) and the lines from the chute get attached somewhere else.

So with a trike, what happens to the wing depends on where you attach the parachute lines (hang straps). After consultation with Solo Wings, we attach the strap to the pylon where the engine mount attaches and the trike hangs from there. This means the wing will be pushed to one side when under canopy. Others attach the sling in the same place, but then run the sling up the pylon, through the hole at the top, then cable tie the sling all the way to the trailing edge, back under the wing, down the pylon to the chute. In this situation the trike hangs from the top of the pylon, but if the wing has broken off, it can interfere with the parachute and lines because they go though the centre of the wing and it will be free to move around. With the first method a wing that has broken off is free to leave the trike and not get in the way. The chute canister is mounted in various positions depending on the trike, but usually fired out sideways.

IN a 3-axis aircraft, the parachute has 3 or 4 attachment slings. Two usually get attached to the main wing spar, left and right sides. Either a third strap attached to a centre point behind the cockpit or a 3rd and 4th strap attach to the trailing edge spars. The container is usually a rectangular soft pack that gets fitted in front of or behind the cockpit, inside the airframe. A hole is cut out for the chute to exit through. If necessary, this hole gets reinforced so that it does not affect the structural integrity of the airframe. A cover plate is then attached over the hole, often with valcro tape. If this is done befroe painting, it can end up being invisible. On an Ali aircraft, the straps from the chute to the spars usually run on the outside of the skin, covered by a lightweight "top hat" shaped ali channel that will get torn off on deployment. On composite aircraft, the straps are glassed into the structure in the moulds so are completely invisible, and they tear out after deployment.

In our EuroStar and SportStar (both ali aircraft) the chute is installed just forward of the instrument panel and aft of the firewall. It fires vertically, knocking off a cover plate between the canopy and the firewall. On other aircraft it's mounted in the baggage area and fires though the canopy. A breakout panel is provided for in the section of the canopy above the chute. Remember the chute does not have to be fired vertically out the top of the aircraft. It can be fired out the side or even out of the bottom. The benefit of firing it up is obviously you can deploy it at a lower height, but this assumes you are in stable flight. If in a spin or tubling after a structural failure or mid-air, the firing direction will be random anyway depending on the aircraft attitude.

With the Bushbaby, the advantage of the "bomb" fitment is you can put the chute on the CofG. If you put it in the baggage compartment, you limit the baggage weight and space. In the under belly attachment, a single strap runs from the chute, backwards to in line with the trailing egde of the wing, then up the side of the fuselage and in under the turtle deck. There it connects to 4 staps which each attach to a wing spar (actually to the fuselage where the 4 spars attach). The fuselage os covered before fitting the stap, and the strap then gets glued to the fabric and covered with a fabric tape, the same as is used to reinforce the fabric where it lies against the structure. Once painted, you won't even know the strap is there. The chute gets fired out horizontally and backwards, and the plane will end up hanging in a normal flight position from the 4 attach points on the upper corners of the cockpit "cage".

[grosvenor]

It's obviously difficult to find video or pics of actual deployment situations. People who do stupid things in their microlights and have their friends record it, are not usually the types that fit ballistic chutes. The video usually ends up showing the pilot meeting his maker!

Here's one that's different though. It was actually shown on TV some time ago. I would love to lay my hands on all the fottage as it also showed video from a cockpit mounted camera. It happened in the USA.

http://www.dreamwings.co.za/GRS/videos/ ... oyment.wmv 550kb

Dave

[krusty]

http://www.dreamwings.co.za/GRS/videos/ ... oyment.wmv 550kb

[Tailspin]

OK OK OK OK I am definately changing my mind on that Balistic chute story. That vid clip just got my ass to pucker up in a big way.

[grosvenor]

Can you imagine what that looked like from the cockpit The aircraft was a Phantom microlight. The airshow act involved shutting down the engine then doing some aerobatics. His entry speed to the loop was 125mph, well in excess of Vne. This was the second time he had tried this, but this time he pulled the wings off!

Here's a couple more videos I found:

Extreme testing conditions !
"The airplane was climbing at a 50Æ’ pitch attitude and then brutally forced into a spin by the company test pilot. Because the airplane had a tendency to exit the spin quite easily, for the purpose of the test, the CG was pushed behind its aft limit in order to test the airplane in the most extreme configuration. The airplane was established into a flat spin quite rapidly and was spinning at a rate of about 180Æ’ per second. After fifteen rotations, passing 5000 feet MSL (3500 AGL) the pilot pulled the handle of the BRS system, the airplane stopped its rotation in less that one and a half turn. According to the pilot, the opening was quite smooth and reassuring. The rate of descent of the plane was then stabilized at approximately 20 feet/second. The pilot was still able to act on the throttle and the controls of the plane to guide it during its descent."
http://www.aircraftkit.com/main/multime ... es/brs.wmv (2.2Mb)

And some BRS testimonials from Cirus pilots:
http://209.32.151.73/BRS/182web/test_Video.html

Dave

[Aviation Engines]

BRS canister units have a 12 year life on the rocket and a 9 year inspection/service cycle on the chute and canister. These limits have been determined for the most extreme conditions, expecially humidity. On the highveld you could easily stretch the chute.canister service to 12 years as well.

I don't know of anyone who has had to use their chute that has long passed the service dates.

Go to
www.BRSparachutes.com for more information, stats, videos, etc.

[grosvenor]

I would not recommend anyone go past the recommended service time of a rescue parachute, irrespective of who it is manufactured by. If you have invested in one of these units, you have done so to give yourself a second chance at surviving a potentailly lethal situation. This is not the time to start saving a few bucks.

When your aircraft looks like this...

and you pull the parachute handle and nothing happens, you will only have a few seconds to kick your own butt and ponder over the money you saved.
Don't do it