Accident pale d'hélice off, parachute, pilote ok
Publié : 25 févr. 2015, 22:47
Canada, virus Sw, 1 pale off, moteur vibre comme l'enfer, sortie de parachute, atterrissage ok, pilote indemne, cause inconnue pour l'instant le TSB (équivalent BEA) enquête
Avec accord de l'accidenté je copy/paste ses messages du forum yahoo pipistrel usa
--------------------
Hello pilots,
Really happy i'm able to be posting this today. Yesterday I had to use my BRS parachute to land in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
I was over the city but luckily was able to fly to the old city centre airport being de commissioned and deployed the parachute, unfortunately the runway was already torn up by the city so parachute was my only option. But I walked away without a single scratch, and almost 24 hours later I do not feel any soreness from the impact, just a lack of sleep.
I've attached a few photos of the airplane. There was no signs of any imminent failure, then in an instant the cabin was violently shaking. It felt like the engine wanted to rip off the airplane. I was flying the 912 iS sport with a wood comp SR3000 constant speed propeller.
The accident is going to be investigated as to what caused this, but it was apparent after landing that I was missing half of my propeller. The dynon blackbox data should help investigators determine if it was engine failure linked to the propeller or solely propeller or something else.
The airplane will be a total write off, which i'm not worried about at all, just glad I walked away from it.
Just wanted to share my experience and I will post as time goes on about what the findings are from investigator
-----------------
Hey Jorge, I fully understand you want to hear my experience, i'm definitely an advocate of sharing such information after such an event as this with the outcome I had. I hope this can help others in the event that they have to deploy their parachute. I never thought twice while being in this situation of how this will wreck the aircraft or how costly it might be. The only thing I thought about was how to get on the ground the safest in this situation in an urban surrounding.
Everyone must understand that in this circumstance there is a lot of quick decisions to be made, high level of stress and adrenaline so my accounts of how things played out may not be entirely accurate, i.e. force needed to pull the parachute lever but will do my best to recall what I felt/heard/saw.
1.- What was your deck angle on descend with the parachute? I have always wondered since you have only two attachments.
When the parachute first deployed the aircraft was in an oscillation from the forward momentum, this subsided within about 10 seconds (i think) and settled to about a 10-15º nose down attitude
2.- You say the main gear hit first, do you attribute most of the damage to the initial impact? It appears so.
This aircraft was a tail dragger, when I initially hit I do remember the landing gear touching first then nose diving into the ground, the engine compartment most likely absorbed most of the impact.
3.- Did you get any bruises on your body around the seatbelt areas? Chest? Anywhere else?
It's now about 30 hours since the occurrence and I do not have any bruises.
4.- Did you hit your head against any of the close by structures in that space? Whiplash?
Emergency services checked my head and spine about 15 minutes after the landing and they could not find any head trauma. I don't recall hitting my head on anything but I do remember bracing for impact, I have paragliding training so there is a certain way you can brace your body for impact, I put my knees together and protected my face with my arms and elbows. I do not have a single scratch on me from the landing.
5.- Were you tightly secured or did you have time to tighten up before deploying?
I was on a photo flight so I had my chest straps loosened up before I deployed the parachute. I was at about 800-1000' AGL when I deployed the chute. I had ample time to tighten up my chest straps before impact, I always have my lap strap securely tightened.
6.- Was the arrival (“landing”) harsher than anticipated or not? Did you feel it in your lower back or was the deck angle steep enough to transfer the jolt to your harness around the chest?
I honestly had no idea what to expect, I didn't have time to check my decent rate so I didn't really know how fast I was descending. The only thing I thought of doing was bracing for it and covering my head/face. It was actually less of an impact then what I expected. The only thing that is slightly sore today is my lower back and left arm, I do remember getting thrown forward a little bit when the nose dived after hitting main gear.
7.- Given the positive outcome of your incident, would you have done anything differently, not so much regarding your decision to deploy or not, but in terms of being more prepared for such an event?
One thing I wish I would have thought of doing was opening my door before impact. I know that we are trained to do this but it slipped my mind. I was easily able to get out of the door after thankfully. The door was severely damaged after it flipped on it's back. I don't recall that any of the windshields broke on the initial landing, it was only when the parachute flipped the plane that all of the windshields broke apart.
8.- Was your parachute safety pin removed before flight or did you have to do it once you made the decision? If it was in, were you fully aware of this fact and removed it before pulling or found yourself confused for a moment?
I have always taken the safety pin out of the handle before flight, I make it a habit of doing so and it's in my checklist. I never really thought that I would experience such a severe situation instantaneously without any warning signs so I think it's a good thing I had the pin removed. I only had a short amount of time to make the decision to pull the parachute, I was worried that my engine was going to rip off of the aircraft so I had to act as fast as I could.
9.- How heavily did you have to yank the lever to cause the rocket to detonate? Did it surprise you for being too light or too heavy? Could a child or a woman do it without problems?
Honestly I don't remember at all how much force was needed. I do remember grabbing the lever and punching forward as far as I could reach. This is a technique similarly used to deploy a paraglider reserve chute in which I have had training in so I used similar methods. All I thought about was getting that lever as far forward as possible and as hard as possible with a quick smooth action. I don't know if a child could do it, for one it would be quite a reach when they are strapped in. It's definitely a good idea to tell passengers that there will be resistance and to give it all they've got.
10.-How high were you and what’s your perception on how much height you lost between pulling the lever and deployment?
I was about 800-1000' by the time I was over the old airport and deployed the parachute. I did not look at my altitude to see what I was at, there is a bit of g-force from the parachute when it slows the airplane down and that distracted me from everything else. I wasn't really anticipating that. I remember thinking how quiet it was when I was descending on the chute with no engine running. I do remember hearing the bang of the rockets deploying so I knew that it had worked right away. I was wearing david clark noise cancelling headphones so it must be a fairly loud explosion.
Modo Maglite : J'ai ajouté de la couleur, pour différencier les questions et les réponses, et augmenter la lisibilité.
Avec accord de l'accidenté je copy/paste ses messages du forum yahoo pipistrel usa
--------------------
Hello pilots,
Really happy i'm able to be posting this today. Yesterday I had to use my BRS parachute to land in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
I was over the city but luckily was able to fly to the old city centre airport being de commissioned and deployed the parachute, unfortunately the runway was already torn up by the city so parachute was my only option. But I walked away without a single scratch, and almost 24 hours later I do not feel any soreness from the impact, just a lack of sleep.
I've attached a few photos of the airplane. There was no signs of any imminent failure, then in an instant the cabin was violently shaking. It felt like the engine wanted to rip off the airplane. I was flying the 912 iS sport with a wood comp SR3000 constant speed propeller.
The accident is going to be investigated as to what caused this, but it was apparent after landing that I was missing half of my propeller. The dynon blackbox data should help investigators determine if it was engine failure linked to the propeller or solely propeller or something else.
The airplane will be a total write off, which i'm not worried about at all, just glad I walked away from it.
Just wanted to share my experience and I will post as time goes on about what the findings are from investigator
-----------------
Hey Jorge, I fully understand you want to hear my experience, i'm definitely an advocate of sharing such information after such an event as this with the outcome I had. I hope this can help others in the event that they have to deploy their parachute. I never thought twice while being in this situation of how this will wreck the aircraft or how costly it might be. The only thing I thought about was how to get on the ground the safest in this situation in an urban surrounding.
Everyone must understand that in this circumstance there is a lot of quick decisions to be made, high level of stress and adrenaline so my accounts of how things played out may not be entirely accurate, i.e. force needed to pull the parachute lever but will do my best to recall what I felt/heard/saw.
1.- What was your deck angle on descend with the parachute? I have always wondered since you have only two attachments.
When the parachute first deployed the aircraft was in an oscillation from the forward momentum, this subsided within about 10 seconds (i think) and settled to about a 10-15º nose down attitude
2.- You say the main gear hit first, do you attribute most of the damage to the initial impact? It appears so.
This aircraft was a tail dragger, when I initially hit I do remember the landing gear touching first then nose diving into the ground, the engine compartment most likely absorbed most of the impact.
3.- Did you get any bruises on your body around the seatbelt areas? Chest? Anywhere else?
It's now about 30 hours since the occurrence and I do not have any bruises.
4.- Did you hit your head against any of the close by structures in that space? Whiplash?
Emergency services checked my head and spine about 15 minutes after the landing and they could not find any head trauma. I don't recall hitting my head on anything but I do remember bracing for impact, I have paragliding training so there is a certain way you can brace your body for impact, I put my knees together and protected my face with my arms and elbows. I do not have a single scratch on me from the landing.
5.- Were you tightly secured or did you have time to tighten up before deploying?
I was on a photo flight so I had my chest straps loosened up before I deployed the parachute. I was at about 800-1000' AGL when I deployed the chute. I had ample time to tighten up my chest straps before impact, I always have my lap strap securely tightened.
6.- Was the arrival (“landing”) harsher than anticipated or not? Did you feel it in your lower back or was the deck angle steep enough to transfer the jolt to your harness around the chest?
I honestly had no idea what to expect, I didn't have time to check my decent rate so I didn't really know how fast I was descending. The only thing I thought of doing was bracing for it and covering my head/face. It was actually less of an impact then what I expected. The only thing that is slightly sore today is my lower back and left arm, I do remember getting thrown forward a little bit when the nose dived after hitting main gear.
7.- Given the positive outcome of your incident, would you have done anything differently, not so much regarding your decision to deploy or not, but in terms of being more prepared for such an event?
One thing I wish I would have thought of doing was opening my door before impact. I know that we are trained to do this but it slipped my mind. I was easily able to get out of the door after thankfully. The door was severely damaged after it flipped on it's back. I don't recall that any of the windshields broke on the initial landing, it was only when the parachute flipped the plane that all of the windshields broke apart.
8.- Was your parachute safety pin removed before flight or did you have to do it once you made the decision? If it was in, were you fully aware of this fact and removed it before pulling or found yourself confused for a moment?
I have always taken the safety pin out of the handle before flight, I make it a habit of doing so and it's in my checklist. I never really thought that I would experience such a severe situation instantaneously without any warning signs so I think it's a good thing I had the pin removed. I only had a short amount of time to make the decision to pull the parachute, I was worried that my engine was going to rip off of the aircraft so I had to act as fast as I could.
9.- How heavily did you have to yank the lever to cause the rocket to detonate? Did it surprise you for being too light or too heavy? Could a child or a woman do it without problems?
Honestly I don't remember at all how much force was needed. I do remember grabbing the lever and punching forward as far as I could reach. This is a technique similarly used to deploy a paraglider reserve chute in which I have had training in so I used similar methods. All I thought about was getting that lever as far forward as possible and as hard as possible with a quick smooth action. I don't know if a child could do it, for one it would be quite a reach when they are strapped in. It's definitely a good idea to tell passengers that there will be resistance and to give it all they've got.
10.-How high were you and what’s your perception on how much height you lost between pulling the lever and deployment?
I was about 800-1000' by the time I was over the old airport and deployed the parachute. I did not look at my altitude to see what I was at, there is a bit of g-force from the parachute when it slows the airplane down and that distracted me from everything else. I wasn't really anticipating that. I remember thinking how quiet it was when I was descending on the chute with no engine running. I do remember hearing the bang of the rockets deploying so I knew that it had worked right away. I was wearing david clark noise cancelling headphones so it must be a fairly loud explosion.
Modo Maglite : J'ai ajouté de la couleur, pour différencier les questions et les réponses, et augmenter la lisibilité.
