Rocket Deployed Emergency Recovery Parachutes

[Mark Grima]

Hi all,

Last week I was in a short presentation with the ATSB during which these systems were discussed.

I had never heard of them and was rather surprised that they exist. A booklet we were given, dated June 2010 suggests they are only in a small number of Cirrus aircraft but can be retrofitted to many Cessna's.

I was wondering if anyone was aware to how prevalent they were and if anyone had seen them work in testing...presuming no one has been in an aircraft and had to deploy one for real!

Cheers

M

[David Knudsen]

I think they've been used a fair few times, there is a video here of one in action after a mid-air collision with a tow cable , they make mention that they've saved over 199 lives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG4nIeyaoek

[Grahame Hutchison]

I am sure there was a deployment over country NSW in the past 12 months, where everyone escaped ok.

[Jakef]

Had one in the plane I trained in for a while before the money ran out. Never had to use it but nevertheless it was reassuring to know there is a backup if everything that can go wrong does.