N644SR SR22 Engine Out And No Chute

Cirrus SR22 N644SR engine Failure in Climb and No Chute! What would you do?

FlyWire is about exploring flight and the freedom this incredible experience brings us on a personal level. Flying has always captured the imagination and excitement of living life to its fullest. Hi, I'm Scott Perdue. In a former life I flew the F-4 and F-15E, more recently I retired from a major airline. I've written for several aviation magazines over the years, was a consultant for RAND, the USAF, Navy, NASA as well as few others, wrote a military thriller- 'Pale Moon Rising' (still on Kindle). But mostly I like flying, or teaching flying. Some of the most fun I had was with Tom Gresham on a TV show called 'Wings to Adventure". We flew lots of different airplanes all over the country. Now with FlyWire I want to showcase the fun in flying, share the joy and freedom of flight and explore the world with you. Make sure you subscribe if you want to go along for the ride!

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[MartianSolarbuddy]

My dad had a flying business in San Francisco in the 1930s. One day he bought three WW1 parachutes at an auction. He kept one but gave the other two to some of his flying buddies. One of them, “Smoky” Poulson, flew airshows and dad noticed that he was taking more than his share of chances. “Hey, did you get that old chute repacked?” he asked. When Smoky took the parachute into the riggers shop and opened it up he discovered that he’d been trusting his life to 8 pounds of the San Francisco Chronicle. The other two chutes were just fine.

[sreed]

The issue is people sometimes mistakenly measure the cost of the crash with their own lives. Popping the chute is almost guaranteed to save lives, but it doesn't save the aircraft. Any chute deployed landing is going to total the aircraft, pride and stubborness can be a killer.

[williamconrad]

He actually did 3 engine outs in one. He had plan A, the runway. Then plan B, the parachute and plan C land on road. He stayed focused after B failed, which is the real accomplishment here.

[blancolirio]

Excellent background briefing Scott! I’m going to link this to the Truckee Cirrus crash video. Juan

[MrHercules]

Best advice ever: A chute shouldn't prevent you from doing that pilot shit.

[tgmccoy]

"God is my copilot.-Murphy is the fight engineer."

[mpschaefer]

Couldn't agree more. Fly that thang.

[erictaylor]

I know a guy who had to make an emergency landing on a road. The road was his best option, but it wasn't that great. On rollout after landing he collided with a passenger car.
No one was hurt, but the driver of the car was rather upset, having his car wrecked. My friend explained he had insurance, and his damages would be covered. But in addition to that he had a great story.
When someone asked, how did your car get wrecked, he gets to say, "I was in a plane crash, man."

[PanzerDave]

Excellent comments. There is a small but growing realization that "safety" equipment often leads to less safety for exactly the reasons you mentioned. I recall that accident rates went up when anti-lock brakes were introduced. We are also seeing similar issues with the cars that have self driving features. People too often expect that equipment will never fail, and as a result are not prepared when it does. I saw this in the Army, and see it with sailing, flying, and many other activities. Thanks again for your superb analysis.

[drpolselli]

Thanks for posting the bulletin w/serial numbers! Great advice to ponder. As a Cirrus pilot, I love the chute as a safety tool but I was just flying the grand canyon 2 weeks ago and my copilot, a seasoned mountain/high terrain pilot, commented many times regarding the sparce population and planning an off field landing so that you can receive assistance.

[Joe_Not_A_Fed]

When the engine quits...your airplane doesn't stop being an airplane...it just becomes a shitty glider. Use whatever it has left to give, to get you to the best possible landing spot, regardless if your wings get you there or a parachute. As Scott wisely points out...that best spot isn't always an airport.

[jasonausman]

I was the plane that took off directly after 644SR from TUS that day and heard this entire interaction live on the radio. I didn't realize his chute never deployed, his last transmission that I heard before I got handed off to the next controller was that he was deploying his chute. Tucson departure suggested Marana for him to land, but he said he was not going to make it, and they offered him the closer glider airport instead.

[mannypuerta]

Good thoughts.👍🏻

When the automation (or the chute) fails, the fallback option is always being a pilot, which is the ultimate redundancy factor. Probably smart to include the basics in training scenarios.

[VictoryAviation]

Extremely well thought out commentary and delivered seamlessly. Subscribed

[justapaxuphere]

I recall seeing that bad vibration set in on Niko's wings youtube channel when he was out over the Gulf of Mexico. Sun visor was shaking violently. He turned that trip around and aborted it. Then he got caught at the edge of Class B airspace by ORD, and lost radio and glass panel as the vibration ate through the alternator cable cover and shorted electronics.
What a familiar story.

[Flight-Instructor]

Excellent analysis, well spoken and wonderful summary!
Rod Machado

[GrumpyOldMan]

Good advice Scott. I believe a lot of pilots get tunnel vision when an emergency happens and do not keep their options open.

[stuartessex]

I'm not going to critique the pilot, as he walked away and that's what counts. However, as you say consider all options before deploying the chute. It must be very tempting but think it could be safer to use as a last result not as the first choice.

[PACrewchief]

Agreed about the ForeFlight glider ring and maneuvering to land without power being misleading. Simulating an engine out in the pattern in my 182 I had to abort and add power.

[PixGoStudios]

Two of my friends rode 'chute pull #7 ever in an SR22. If they'd been in any other aircraft in identical circumstances, they'd be dead. Sadly, another person I knew *should* have pulled the 'chute, but didn't. You can guess the results.