BRS ballistic parachute saves lives of pilots of Dragonfly tug.


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BRS ballistic parachute saves lives of pilots of Dragonfly tug.


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BRS ballistic parachute

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BRS ballistic parachute save #133

The event unfolded as I was towing Larry Jorgensen and a student tandem. The student was pilot in command for the entire tow and it was a wild ride so when they released at 1000ft. I was more relieved the tow was over than concerned why a release, 1500ft short of altitude.

I slowly throttled back and continued a climb, throttling back more, induced forward stick pressure but no travel was detected, shake it wiggle it, won’t move, can’t be! I looked in the mirror and saw the problem; one side of the stabilizer was hanging down at a 90 degree angle.
The tang attached to the cable holding the stabilizer failed at the hole.

A quick check of the condition of the other 2 axis assured me I had plenty of time to make a good decision, the plane flew fine. The next part you Davis, should know well from your experience with the Top Secret. The scene becomes surrealistic like your watching yourself deal with the situation, no reason to panic everything is fine, but every now and then you wonder how will this turn out, will I once again be lucky?

Given the turbulence we experienced launching I felt trying to land was too risky so up wind I went. At an altitude and position that hopefully would put me at the airport I pulled the red handle. I had throttled back to idle but before I shut the engine off, (no electric starter, I didn’t want to lose the ability to keep flying) I contemplated the canister, wondering if I was in harms way after all it is an explosive.

I decided the engineers came up with this devise and its location to save me not harm me so I let her rip. Oops forgot to kill the engine. No problem, it’s quiet now that the chute STOPPED it, I thought for sure I had wrapped the chute up in the prop. But then, the intensity of the moment along with the sudden silence gave me the feeling I was under the canopy, the tug was trimmed (stuck) at just above stall, I really wanted to be and thought I was floating.

Suddenly I experienced G forces building and the tug was penduluming backwards. I thought for sure I had only a partial canopy due to the prop strike. But actually the chute was finally inflating. Because the tug had been flying slowly and not falling out of the sky, the large chute had a hard time opening. I looked up to see it fully inflated only to watch in wavering and partially collapsing causing me to accelerate until the chute filled in again then another portion would flap and inflate so the tug would head one way then another.

We (the tug and I) finally came down on top of a 30ft high gravel pile less than 50yds. from trees on one side and a deep pond on the other. I don’t recall hitting hard enough to bend the gear but that was the case. Sadly I was on the edge of the gravel pile and the chute pulled the tug off the gravel over on its back at the bottom of the sloping pile, destroying the vertical components and one side of the horizontal tail section.

I unbuckled slid out and removed the leaking gas can. Excitement over, gotta go find my worried friends. We now know that the tangs that are subjected to the forces of towing need to be replaced every 300hrs. The tug should be back in operation soon and we will be enjoying and sharing the excitement of air towing again!
Result: Pilot survived!

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