Flying over water

[Mresetarits]

If your flying along a water way for a scenic flight about 100’ over the water and the shore is unlandable…. If you have a engine failure would you be better off pulling the chute or stalling it into the water?

[Anticept]

You pull up and dump airspeed into altitude then pull. You could get a couple hundred feet before you stall unless you're already going super slow.

If you're telling me you don't have the speed or the altitude, you're gonna have to water land it, that's far too low and unpredictable, it will probably end up smashing in before it can slow down the vertical descent.

[Mresetarits]

Thanks that’s a good idea. I also wonder if you would be better stalling it into the water or letting the chute bring you down and risk the chute landing ontop of you while your trying to swim out. 

[Anticept]

The chute will be blown by the wind away from the aircraft.

If there is no wind at all, then yes there is the risk of it coming down on top. Bring a knife I suppose.

[Bill3558]

I don’t think the chute would fully deploy at 100 feet. I pulled mine at 400 and I was in a tree at the moment of full deployment. It’s a pretty violent event.

N121YT

[kinoons]

I think the likelihood of chute deployment depends on forward speed as much as altitude. Being low and slow being the worst combination. 
 

seeing as how we don’t get that much speed out of our aircraft (relatively speaking) then yes you’re going to need some space beneath you for the chute to fully deploy. 

 

but in either case since ditching is generally very survivable, either option should be good for keeping you alive. Didn’t AvWeb do a video on ditching in the past?

[Warmi]

1 hour ago, Bill3558 said:

I don’t think the chute would fully deploy at 100 feet. I pulled mine at 400 and I was in a tree at the moment of full deployment. It’s a pretty violent event.

N121YT

Depends on your speed - BRS chutes are ballistic and partially depend on airspeed and partially on momentum from initial detonation.

GRS chutes are not ballistic but rocket powered - in other words the rocket itself (rather than the initial explosion ) will drive the chute open and then disconnect free - this allows for deployment at about 250 feet.

In any case, a chute is just another useful  tool in the toolbox ..

[Omerrett]

On 9/3/2022 at 5:09 PM, Warmi said:

Depends on your speed - BRS chutes are ballistic and partially depend on airspeed and partially on momentum from initial detonation.

GRS chutes are not ballistic but rocket powered - in other words the rocket itself (rather than the initial explosion ) will drive the chute open and then disconnect free - this allows for deployment at about 250 feet.

In any case, a chute is just another useful  tool in the toolbox ..

im not familiar with GRS but BRS uses a rocket as well.