"How Do They Do It?" Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS)

This is a clip that aired on Discovery Science channel's "How Do They Do It?"

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Cirrus
• CAPS
• BRS
• Parachute
• General
• Aviation
• GA
• SR20
• SR22
• SF50
• the-jet
• vision
• jet
• single
• engine
• safety

[Sunrunner6993]

It cost me $20,000 to install one on my 2004 Cessna 182-T but I'm happy to see that red handle everytime I leave the ground!!

[PlasticRocket]

The Cirrus is the first plane I have owned that my wife will let me take BOTH kids at once... because of the Chute! Proud owner of C-GOPX, 2002 Sr-20.

[edlkAviator]

@MynameisElliot

it depends on the circumstances under which you have to do a forced landing and the fields quality. in some cases it is impossible to land your aircraft for example when you've lost control because a rudder is blocked. in this case the parachute would safe your life. a forced landing on a normal field is a high risk which could cause high damages not only to the airplane but also to its crew. if you try to land on a wet field you could easily rip off the landing gear or roll ove

[LordsOfLanding]

@floridaskater07 See comment below

[LordsOfLanding]

@jwboll. A cirrus will recover from an erect spin just fine and in fact are very difficult airplanes to enter a spin in.

[MynameisElliott]

Is a parachute that much safer than a forced landing in a field? I ask because I'm learning how to do PFLs at the moment for my private license, but I'm learning to do them in a 1970's C-152!

[sixstringfretter]

Yep. According to these guys, they claim that they have save over a hundred planes with close to 300 people. I wish I could see what the reasons for all those failures were. Bet you alot of it is stupid shit that the owners just screwed up.

[kondakor1998]

@sixstringfretter i completely agree with you people will give a bit of slack because of the chute during preflights and people will miss stuff you would ordinaroly find like a loose screw.

[sixstringfretter]

The only thing that worries me is that with this installed, the emphisis of keeping failures from happening to begin with may become lax. "Well, we don't need to improve that, if it fails, there's a parachute to save the day" mentallity may start to take hold. It's a nice feature, but eliminating engine failures and pilot error should be the number one priority.

[hakaufma]

I think it should be mandatory on all planes! Hurry and perfect the technology so the large commercial planes can have these as well! It would give me a great deal of peace of mind when flying! I'd rather hear about this happening instead of having more peanuts offered on my flights!

[jwboll]

@minored360 they have been selling them for hang gliders, ultralights, homebuilts for a years. Cirrus is the first certified aircraft to install them in their planes to compensate for the unrecoverable spin problem.

[drbackjack]

Just think of the size parachute needed for a small commercial aircraft, goodness gracious.