Cirrus BRS malfunction - Addison, TX May 16, 2013

[FastEddieB]

I know this was referenced in another thread, but I thought it was important enough to deserve its own thread.

 

This, from the horse's mouth (cross posted with the author's permission):

 

 

I was traveling by car yesterday trying to get to my family up in the Midwest. I am just now starting to catch up on the posts from yesterday. We want to thank you all for your posts, calls and emails of encouragement. You are truly an incredible group of people. I hope this email answers the questions that have been asked up to this posting.

 

I have XM in the plane it depicted what the flight aware picture shows a large cell off our right wing . It does not show that we were in hard IMC since take off at ADS. We flew into dark clouds and precipitation when we experienced the "P static" and the electrical failures.

 

I routinely pick up precipitation in clouds that is not depicted on my XW or when I call center with a Pirep they do not show it on their radar either. We were on the back side of a major storm cell. We were in solid IMC shortly after take off. Right before the failure we flew into a dark cloud and rain.

 

We got the Fluxgate excitation lost message, our Attitude Indicator ( Artificial Horizon) looked like a Picasso and failed, our auto pilot stopped working with no alarm sounding and our radio's were crackling and filled with static.The plane starting bouncing around I saw my situation deteriorating, I was fighting spacial disorientation and I made a decision to pull our chute. I called Center and declared an emergency. I throttled back and nosed up and pulled the handle at 125 or so KTS.

 

I taught a CDM last year and we discussed pulling at 120 to 125 to insure that you were under the 133 speed limit. Carol told me yesterday that the chute has deployed at 187 KTS. We also discussed the logic of killing your engine prior to knowing your chute has deployed successfully . I am thankful I did not kill the engine and have to deal with an engine restart.

 

When that did not work, I was dumfounded and in shock. I started praying and crying out to God for guidance. The guy that got me into flying, drilled into me to the acronym " FLTFP" I turned away from the weather using my compass and turn coordinator .I was scared that I might become disoriented fly into the giant cell off our right wing.

 

We flew for a while on a westerly heading. I had asked for Pireps earlier and did not know the tops. I knew Addison had 1200 foot overcast ceilings when I left. I was nauseous and sweating profusely and my heart was pumping in my chest. According to Fflight aware I flew for a while maintaining altitude and heading ( it seemed like seconds not minutes). I have had fantastic emergency training and I am proficient with IFR and practice for emergencies often. I used my altimeter and VSI and turn coordinator for reference

 

I was in fear of my life. Contrary to some of your popular belief I am not superman nor a super pilot . I was fighting vertigo and was having a hard time keeping it together. I felt if I went up I might stall and crash. I decided to nose it over and head for the 1200 feet of daylight below. I knew I would not stall going down and I would be out of the clouds sooner by making a rapid descent. No I did not have to change my undies as many of you have inquired.

 

The last time this happened , a few years was in IFR and in rain I was taking off with terrain on my left and tops at 5000 feet above. On that occasion I was taking off with 400 foot ceiling in rain so going back with FUBAR instruments was not an option. I chose to climb on top. I used my altimeter, VSI , Turn coordinator and compass .When on top my electrical items started working again I flew to my destination that was VFR . I put my plane in a Cirrus Service Center in and told them of the problems. My HSI was sent to Sandel and repaired. I learned yesterday that my recurring problem was caused by "P Static". I am going to have all my static dissapators (SP) checked . I had the plane in an avionics shop a few weeks ago for the Flux gate excitation message that had gone off in VFR. The shop informed me that there was a pin not pushed in. We now believe that it is static issue and we are seeking counsel from many of you on the best shop to fix the Pstatic issue that I now know is a problem on G1 Cirrus.

 

I called center on a crackling radio and said I was nosing it over and heading down. According to flight aware I did not exceed 166 KTS and it took 2 minutes with over 2800 feet per minute descent rate. It appears on flight aware that we held our heading OK. We came out at 800 AGL. We heard a faint crackled call from center. We asked for vectors to the nearest airport. We got a relay from a SW pilot with instructions to change to different frequency.

 

We fly that route twice a week. Scud running to Addison seemed smarter at the time than landing at Denton a little bit closer. We noticed our electrical system working after we left the clouds. We did not trust our electrical system so we chose to stay under the 800 foot ceiling base and fly back to Addison. The plane was flying ok but did not feel right. DFW approach asked us if we could intercept the ILS for 15 at some way point? This would have meant climbing up into the clouds. We politely declined reminding him of our situation and said we would stay under the clouds and fly a visual for 15.

 

When we were 4 out from Addison we asked tower if they could see anything sticking out of the top of our plane. They said they did dot see anything. The controller suggested I make a low pass and she would look at my plane for me. I politely ( OK maybe sarcasm, I don't recall but, would love to hear the recording if one of you knows how to get it) declined her offer and elected to land. Flying into Addison from the North has buildings right up to the airport. I now started thinking what if the rocket is like a dud firecracker that has a delayed reaction? I flew in high past the buildings and according to a person on the ground, greased the landing. Tower reported that I was dragging something behind the plane.

 

Tower asked if we needed any emergency services that had rolled out. We declined and taxied back to our Cirrus Service Center that had done our repack in 2012.

 

We look forward to finding out why our chute failed to deploy. Cirrus and the FAA spent all day yesterday working on it. We promised the FAA that we would not comment on their findings publicly until they gave us the green light. The FAA has been very helpful and taken all of my calls. NTSB did not invite me to the meeting yesterday. I have no problem with that. I am not an engineer nor am I a rocket scientist. I have heard that I could have shown up and pushed the issue. I was already in the car driving to see my family. The FAA promised not let anyone near my plane until they were there and they video taped the entire process. They promised to let me see the tapes and info etc. We took tons of pictures and video before the FAA got there so everything is well documented.

 

Dale and Pat at Cirrus have been fantastic through this entire process. They are handling this in an honorable manner . I look forward to flying in a Cirrus again soon.

 

I got back with my family last night. After we all shed a few tears they asked if I would ever fly a Cirrus again? I said why wouldn't I? My 19 year old son said because the chute failed . I asked him If he was in a car crash in our Mercedes (and not injured ) and by some fluke his airbag did not deploy would he stop driving? He said no. I then asked him from a safety standpoint after his air bags in theory did not deploy would you rather drive a car designed with safety features from the 1950's and 60's or a car certified in 2001 with air bags even though there is a slight chance the air bags might not work?

 

My Cirrus certified in 2001 is still a much safer airplane than any of the competitors that were certified in the 1950's and 1960's. We all need to practice emergency procedures and stay current. I am a Boy Scout Master and the Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepared" . The wonderful training I got from Carol Jenson, the Critical Decision Making (CDM) seminar I took at Migration and me preparing for and teaching the CDM last fall as well as flying a Cirrus all prepared me for last Thursdays positive outcome.

 

I can say without reservation that I will continue to choose to fly a Cirrus (after the issues are resolved). Man made things fail like HSI's, Auto Pilots, Radio's, Parachutes, air bags etc.

 

Last Sunday I flew a soldier who was blown up in a road side bomb in Iraq from KS to Texas for a follow up operation for his burns. His wife (a first time flyer) teased me for praying out loud before the flight. She said it is sort of unnerving to hear the pilot praying before a flight. He had flown with me before and he told his wife "he always does that ". We loaned him a car for a month while he was recuperating in San Antonio. He called yesterday to tell me about a minor issue with the car. He thanked me for praying for him and his wife. He said Jessica commented that she felt a peace flying with me after the prayer. He asked me if I was back in Kansas. I told him I was driving there now in our Dallas car. He asked why I was driving and not flying and we told him about the incident and he started crying and thanking God.

 

As usual I prayed out loud by myself prior to take off on Thursday's flight. Before I go to the power on my console I thank God, the ultimate higher power for his promise of having angels encamped around us.

 

My faith is not in man or in things made by man. When I experienced all of the "things of this earth" (growing strangely dim) that failed me on Thursday, I turned to God and he saved me, he has never failed me. I am truly thankful to him be alive.

 

Tim Valentine

 

 

[Ed Cesnalis]

We also discussed the logic of killing your engine prior to knowing your chute has deployed successfully . I am thankful I did not kill the engine and have to deal with an engine restart.

 

My POH says to shut off the engine first. Is that good or bad advice?

[FastEddieB]

 

 

My POH says to shut off the engine first. Is that good or bad advice?

 

BEFORE activating the BRS?

 

I'm loathe to recommend action contrary to the POH, but by the time you need the chute, seconds may matter.

 

Unless there's some aerodynamic of practical reason peculiar to the CT, I'd say get the chute activated, THEN worry about cleaning things up.

[Roger Lee]

It really depends on the situation. If it is a true immediate emergency like close to the ground pull then worry about every thing else. If you have the luxury of a little time and altitude and it isn't that immediate emergency then kill the engine.

 

Bottom line when in doubt don't worry about the engine and pull. Then the second thing would be to kill the engine.

 

You should rehearse some of these different scenarios in your head and think about their immediacy and rehearse in your head what to do.

 

Of course one of the scenarios is the engine quits and the decisioni is made for you.

[sandpiper]

I know what the manual says but my plan is pull first then kill the engine. This assumes the plane is still flying normally, etc. ideally I will be at idle. Once the chute is deployed then I will kill the engine. Why take away the engine option until you know?

[josjonkers]

Interesting story, but one will have to ask the question: IFR in/or near a thunderstorm relying on just WX radar to guide you in a single engine aircraft is asking for trouble imo.

[S3flyer]

Interesting story, but one will have to ask the question: IFR in/or near a thunderstorm relying on just WX radar to guide you in a single engine aircraft is asking for trouble imo.

I noticed this as well. This has nothing to do with his chute not deploying but I have to question why he was even in the air. I live in the Dallas area and those storms were nasty -- spawned 15 documented tornados, killed at least 6 people, destroyed countless cars and leveled dozens of homes. XM and ADS-B weather are great but can be 30 minutes delayed. Sounds like he had a case of get-there-itis.

[Jim Meade]

XM and ADS-B weather are great but can be 30 minutes delayed.

 

30 minutes is a long time. Do you have a time-line on this? I know it's been discussed a million times and there is something on the web if I look hard enough for it. I'm pretty sure the FAA has some info out. 30 minutes falls outside of what I recall.

[S3flyer]

Jim,

 

I was five minutes off. There was an NTSB Bulletin on the topic http://www.ntsb.gov/...erts/SA_017.pdf.

 

Basically, parts of the image itself may be 15-20 minutes old then add the 5 minute refresh period and you get up to 25 minutes out-of-date.

[Jim Meade]

I appreciate that the information is dated. My experience flying with it is that one watches the trends and out the window and has a reasonable idea of how old it is. I doubt if much of it is 25 minutes old while I grant that some could be.

My point is that it is a tool which should be used with proper respect for it's limitations. Perhaps it's as much a function of the person doing the interpretation and analysis in the cockpit as it is of the information. One needs to know that storm cells can close with great rapidity, for example, and not assume that a hole will always be there just because it existed 10 minutes ago.

[josjonkers]

Jim,

 

I was five minutes off. There was an NTSB Bulletin on the topic http://www.ntsb.gov/...erts/SA_017.pdf.

 

Basically, parts of the image itself may be 15-20 minutes old then add the 5 minute refresh period and you get up to 25 minutes out-of-date.

 

Exactly!

 

Once this becomes your only source of info on thunderstorms, you really should not be there VFR or IFR in any circumstance.

 

Major airplanes ask for deviations to fly in clear air around this. What makes anyone think a Cirrus will fare better to fly through it?

 

Just saying....

[S3flyer]

To put the timing in perspective, it took 16 minutes (as per CNN) for the devastating tornado in Moore, OK yesterday to go from zero cloud rotation to a two-mile wide, on the ground tornado.

[Jim Meade]

Exactly!

 

Once this becomes your only source of info on thunderstorms, you really should not be there VFR or IFR in any circumstance.

 

Major airplanes ask for deviations to fly in clear air around this. What makes anyone think a Cirrus will fare better to fly through it?

 

Just saying....

 

One of the things that gripes me about pilots in general and online forums in particular is that no one wants to actually talk science, so to speak. Everyone want to out do the other in scare stories, warnings, "you shouldn't do that" and so forth.

 

I've flown pretty close to thunderstorms in Citations, King Airs, C210 and more. Knowing about thunderstorms plays a huge factor in knowing when you are likely to be safe. Knowing the equipment one is using is also important. For many years, I've taken the Storm Spotters severe weather classes each spring. They do a very good job of dissecting thunderstorms, telling how to determine what happens in what part of the storm. Soaring experience helps one develop an eye for how lift is developing and moving.

 

It's kind of like bull fighting. If you stand in front of the bull, you are in danger. If you are off to the side so close you can touch him, you are likely to be totally safe.

 

Don't mind me. I'm not suggesting anyone fly in or near thunderstorms. I know what I do and why I do it. Why did I even answer?

[Ed Cesnalis]

With the Cirrus's capability, speed and mass safety considerations relative to things like hard IFR, high speeds, higher kinetic energy there is a pretty big difference between a CT and a Cirrus.

 

The Cirrus examples are not perfect demonstrations of our safety issues.

[chanik]

It's kind of like bull fighting. If you stand in front of the bull, you are in danger. If you are off to the side so close you can touch him, you are likely to be totally safe.

 

Totally? http://slumz.boxden.com/f16/bull-fighting-gone-wrong-video-inside-1376234/

He did say he ended up inside a dark cloud. I think his aerial matador skills might be suspect

[S3flyer]

He did say he ended up inside a dark cloud. I think his aerial matador skills might be suspect

I don't believe I've heard anyone say that passive NEXRAD (FIS-B or XM) is not a great tool. It's just not the right tool to closely circumnavigate storm cells.

 

Knowing the equipment one is using is also important.

 

This is the key.

[FastEddieB]

Tim Valentine, the pilot in this BRS malfunction, asked me to pass this along:

 

"Would you please post on the CT flier and let them know that according

to flight aware we were 35 miles behind a fast moving cell and the cell that

moving away from us rapidly. We were talking with ATC . We did not fly into

a Thunderstorm."

[josjonkers]

Tim Valentine, the pilot in this BRS malfunction, asked me to pass this along:

 

"Would you please post on the CT flier and let them know that according

to flight aware we were 35 miles behind a fast moving cell and the cell that

moving away from us rapidly. We were talking with ATC . We did not fly into

a Thunderstorm."

 

Obviously he DID fly into a thunderstorm according to his own post. Maybe what he is trying to make clear is that he did not knowingly fly into a thunderstorm and I sure would expect so.

[chanik]

I was not trying to offend the pilot in question by making light of the matador analogy. And even ATC is not some all-seeing-eye so they may well have misled him. My point is just that, if you are going to fly IFR near fast changing convective cells, just like dancing with fast changing bulls, you have to allow for the fact that sometimes those horns will surprise you.

[FastEddieB]

Obviously he DID fly into a thunderstorm according to his own post.

 

Most I take from his post is that he flew into a "dark clouds and rain" or a "dark cloud and precipitation".

 

I think its a reach to turn that into a known thunderstorm.

 

I'll take him at his word - you're certainly free to do otherwise.

[Scrapman1959]

35 miles from a t storm is certainly a safe distance. One day I was flying VFR of course, behind a line of t storms with XM weather in my CT with flight following and had just concurred with ATC that I was clearly south of the weather and it was okay to correct from my deviation and go direct again to my destination of Memphis. Just a few minutes later out of the hazy smooth VFR I'm staring at a black cloud with lightning flashes lighting up it's interior and before I know it all heaven is raining down on me in buckets. This is all with a higher overcast and a clear path on XM screen. I holler to ATC asking which direction to get out of this very heavy precipitation. They tell me they have nothing showing on their radar. Fortunately I pop into the clear in just minutes. I found out later that the angle of radar can miss small cells with lower tops and show virtually nothing where there is heavy precipitation. it was a learning experience and may very well have been the same scenario Tim Valentine experienced in his cirrus only with his attitude indicator gone haywire.

[opticsguy]

There's been a lot of criticizm of XM NEXRAD, but over 6 years I've found it to be very accurate and up-to date. Back in April I used it to split between rain showers (elevated, no thunder) that Green Bay approach vectored me in to. That being said, noticing storm motion and assuming the picture is 20 minutes old isn't a bad way to go.

[Jim Meade]

Too bad we can't get real-time skew-t diagrams in the air.

[opticsguy]

twisterdata.com can output skew-T graphs for model grid data. A life saver.

[Jim Meade]

I looked at the site and didn't see where the skew-t graphs were. Can you help me out? I am very interested in this.