Watch small plane parachute to safety near Denver after midair crash with second plane

For me, either would suffice but 24/7 alone does all the work needed.

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I’ve always suspected that the “Worth every fucking penny” thoughts that pilots must have on the way down with one of these are intensely gratifying in a way that most people will never experience in their entire lives.

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Aloha Airlines Flight 243
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There’s also this safety feature coming along – Garmin’s Autoland. Push the button and the airplane does everything to get home – finds an airport, lands, etc., even handles the communications.

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I’m sure they will release that as soon as the trademark litigation is settled with a used car dealership in New Jersey… :wink:

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Most of the time they’re reasonably safe, although if you’ve got a bad pilot or two then anything can happen. I think the bigger issue is that when you’ve got planes coming in too soon after the one ahead has landed then you’re at risk for wake turbulence, like in the incident that took out the top executives for In-N-Out in 1993. Cutting the landings-per-runway in half at busy airports by having parallel runways is probably less risky overall.

When I was training for my pilot’s license some years back I did a few landings at Chino airport, which is home to the “Planes of Fame” museum that has a lot of historic aircraft that they keep in flying condition. During one of my landings I took a look to my right and got to geek out at the sole remaining Northrop N-9M flying wing coming in to land right next to me. Definitely one of my most memorable flying experiences.

Tragically that plane and its pilot were lost in an accident two years ago.

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One of the most fantastic airplanes I have ever seen is Starship One, Burt Rutan’s dual pusher prop that was supposed to compete with jets. Sadly not as fast but just as expensive, it became a rare collectible curiosity for aviation geeks. The one I saw was when we were in Wyoming to see the 2017 solar eclipse; it landed at the airfield we were staking out to watch the eclipse. DH was thrilled to bits.

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That’s not true at all. The ejection of the chute happens through a small hole in the back, and the straps rip out of shallow non-structural covers on the outside.

Of the 80 or 90 Cirrus airplanes that have used the parachute, something like five (last I checked, a couple years ago) were in good enough shape after parachuting down to have been economically repaired and put back into the air.

Early Cirrus manuals said that pulling the chute would total the airplane. Now they say that it will “probably” total the airplane.

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I’m a huge fan of whole-airplane parachutes and I’m always telling people (especially people who I’m trying to convince to go up with me in a Cirrus) how this technology makes single-engine airplanes much safer.

That having been said, there was a TON of luck in this incident. It was very, very, very close from being a total catastrophe. If that Cirrus had been flying like two feet lower, both it and the other airplane would have been too damaged to remain controllable. So, yeah, I’m with the “lottery ticket” folks!

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Also pretty amazing that the Cirrus pilot was flying his first solo. Handled it pretty well I’d say.

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Reminds me of a Magnum PI episode.

One would think there would be a chute release feature.

If he had more time he could have rigged those lines to sail the last 235 miles to Maui.

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It is not just coming along, it is standard equipment on the Cirrus Vision Jet, the jet big brother of the Cirrus aircraft in this video, together with the whole-aircraft parachute

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