"Better to go home with a good story than ride your ego into a crater"--wisdom applicable to many situations!

I worked at a Cirrus repair center, the biggest problem with the CAPS can be summed up in a direct quote from a Cirrus pilot that came into the shop “The weather was really crappy but I had the chute so I took off anyway “ I had to walk away.

Well think of it this way, in 100% of accidents, 100% of aircraft that has a chute, has at least one extra option to prevent a catastrophic crash that aircraft without a chute, simply do not have. I love options.

In Germany CAPS systems are mandatory for most ultralights and have "saved" more often than not, and their use is part of pilot license training.

20 years of data in 13 minutes! Great presentation. Thanks Paul.

Back in the good ol' days, I once decided to make a plane in Kerbal Space Program. Only problem was, I'd yet to unlock landing gear. So.. I decided to make the plane "take off" vertically with several small single use rockets that would then detach. To land, parachutes would deploy to safely bring the plane down. This was probably the safest and most reliable plane I ever built.

One of the best researched, most clearly presented treatments of the CAPS system I've seen anywhere. Thanks, Paul!

ANY landing you can walk away from is a GOOD landing, including a parachute "landing".

I wish there were more of these videos. They are informative, and this guy is really funny!

Great video and as a Cirrus pilot I attest that the CAPS is always in the back of my mind, or rather 1 foot from my head, if something happens, it’s good to know I have a fighting chance.

I was in high school, I looked up and saw a plane no more than 500 feet in the air. The engine obviously blew out over us, and to my surprise a parachute came out of the plane, and he swung down to the ground. Relatively slow. It was the video with “west ave” at the streetlight.

Obvious answer: Yes, if you know what you're doing. And that'll pretty much cover every other safety related question in aviation.

My nephew had to deploy the parachute a few months back. He had only very minor injuries.

Better to be judged by twelve than be carried by six.

I don't want to be a dot on your annoying graphs. haha

Love your work Paul! Great, informative video!

Your best video ever, to my eyes and ears I always enjoy learning from you looking forward to the next one

I'm not a pilot and know nothing about airplanes. But I am (among other things) a TV news producer. This video is unusually well written, shot and edited. The graphics -- usually a trouble spot -- were well put together and helped the narration. The on-air talent is superb. He knows what he's doing. Congratulations on a well done video.

Yet another great, informative, well structured, interesting, and entertaining presentation by Paul. Thank You.

Thanks Paul for the insight into securing aviation and for the well done research and resulting statistics. You make sure KZfaq's intellectual and educational level remains interesting. Good on ya!

Paul, you consistently go a great job making otherwise dry material interesting and even fun to watch! Thank you for being awesome!

You guys are on to something here! I love the production, information, and presentation style. Very cool and well done, Thank you for this data!!

Extremely informative while keeping the data simple and accessible. Thank you!

Sobering but excellent presentation. Thank you. Paul

I told a flight instructor friend of mine who was also a skydiver like me, that he should put a BRS on his instruction plane. He claimed that the only time he would ever need that is if he had a mid air collision. Well guess what. He had a mid air just a few hours later and died as a result. The other aircraft also went in and both occupants were killed. Being that the collision was wingtip to wing tip, I'm almost certain that a parachute recovery system would have changed the results of this accident.

My dad Rocky Jones (retired USAF fighter pilot and test pilot for Hughes Aircraft Co) was the test pilot and president of "SuperChute" in Newport News, VA back in the late 1980's. They had a Cessna 172 with a canister underneath the belly with a spring loaded drag chute attached to a large zero-porosity parachute. During the first flight test with the FAA and a TV news crew filming he flew to 5000 ft. and then cut the power to simulate an engine failure and pulled the chute. Nothing happened, so he aborted the test. At 3500 ft. however the spring decided to deploy the system after all. It worked, problem was he was spinning wildly because engine was running. He had to manually detach the chute from cockpit with detach system in order to recover from the spin, then he had to dive to regain airspeed to recover. Thankfully he was a great pilot and safely landed. They checked the plane for damage and reloaded it another day, and this time he safely brought it to the ground WITH the parachute, and then had to re-evaluate for any damage and fly the plane again and safely land in order for the test to be a success. Even though it was, the FAA gave them all kinds of grief during the testing about "explosive" bolts, etc. Unfortunately before any more testing could be accomplished my dad was killed in a Formula-1 air race in New Braunsfels, TX in 1990 when an illegally participating (previously reprimanded for earlier races) active NASA shuttle pilot clipped my dad's wing and spun him into a cornfield! He was only 69 and would have celebrated his 100th birthday last week 091420 if he were still alive.

Informative, on the point and with a good amount of humor. My favorite combination. Thank you for the videos!

Thanks Paul. Always a insightful pleasure to watch your free GA tuition on youtube.

What a great video. I'm sharing this with my doubting Thomas friends. I love Cirrus.

To answer a general question several have posed about Cirrus and spins. The Cirrus aircraft spin normally and recover normally. I interviewed a couple of Cirrus developmental test pilots in the early days of the company and they confirmed this. Since the parachute was planned from day one as a safety device, Cirrus proposed and the FAA accepted it as an equivalent level of safety in lieu of full spin testing. Full spin workups comprise a matrix of 500 or more data sets. Very involved and very expensive. The CAPS allowed Cirrus to bypass that. But if you know how to recover from a spin--idle the power, ailerons neutral, rudder opposite the spin and forward stick--it will recover just like it's supposed to.

This is a super-high quality video. It is heavy on reason and data, with just the right touches of humor. Please keep up the great work! I think you may be saving lives.

Fantastic Video! Great analysis broken down to simple terms for all of us old aviators to understand!! Thanks!!

Great analogy with the transition to ejection seats

Good informative video, with decent metrics. One of the reasons many military pilots died - as apposed to ejecting - was the concern their crippled plane might crash into a school or something; hence they rode it out to make sure it crashed in a safe location. So, if you bail out of your plane, you are still liable for whatever it crashes into. The additional advantage of BRS is that both you and the plane are "rescued" and whatever your plane lands on should suffer little to no damage.

Probably the most professional And informative you tube Announcer !!! So well done ! Thanks

Thanks for the excellent report and presentation, including the terrific analysis and writing.

Really great analysis. Thanks

Great videos, great writing, great presentation!

Paul, that was an outstanding presentation of visual data on a topic that always intrigued me. Thank you and keep up the great work!

Great video Paul. Your analysis has provided a new perspective on Cirrus and the CAPS that make a lot of sense. I am finally (turning 55 this year) a serious student pilot with high hopes of eventually owning my own plane. I have been looking at Cirrus since the late 90's and your video crystallized the reason why I have always like the idea behind CAPS. Thank you!

A hang-glider buddy of mine has been flying a similar system since his early days in the sport 20+ years ago. Apparently just months after he installed the system the 'chute actually saved his bacon when a nasty thermal inverted his glider. It wasn't pretty, but he walked away.

I had no idea there were planes like this, fascinating. Thanks for bringing it to my attention

Always enjoy your reports. Thanks!

Love this guy's style . Great vid Paul. From a fan in Qld Australia

Imagine how much more you would learn about GA and how much you would laugh, if you could fly with Paul on a weekend cross country/camping trip. Would be one of the best x-country trips ever, for any GA Pilot!👍🇺🇸

Paul....Thanks again for the highly enlightening video and the humor is great too !!

Very interesting and well-produced video - thanks!

Paul is the best at reading from a script while giving a paced, natural presentation.

Love your drrrrry sense of humour; and obviously the great content. Respect!

At the age of 57 (I'm 58 now) I decided to get my pilots licence because I wanted a plane. I bought a SR22 because of the parachute. It did NOT give me a sense of invincibility and it didn't make me more careless in my responsibility of being a pilot.

Really enjoy the videos, keep them coming!

Once again another brilliant vid! Paul your humour is so british, its hilarious but backed up with great content. All your output is forwarded to pilot pals, well actually just pilots as i dont have any pals. Keep up the great work and keep your wings up and wheels down

The last i read these systems had saved 147 pilots lives. So you folks who want to snort at them.. good luck to you

The way you slip in dry comic references makes me smile.

Paul-Great review of the data and very interesting. Love your tongue in cheek humor :-)

Great video, absolutely fascinating, well narrated, very informative!

seriously i hate those snobby pilots who mock people with a parachute (they sound jealous to me) you know back in the day people also said why do you need an airbag or abs or seatbelts but they have saved countless lives and are now a mandatory feature in cars well in a decade or two this probably will be the same for ballistic parachutes in planes and once people accept it and it becomes the norm we will not have this discussion anymore .

I love his Joe Friday down-to-earth approach to this subject!! And was funny too!

Another great and informative video Paul. You are my favorite aviation reporter

Great information with real explanations of data. Makes a big difference, and yes the humor helps. Maybe the best part. Thanks.

Any stats on CAPS like systems in other GA / Experimental aircraft?

Brilliant. Ultra lite pilots have been using parachutes on there aeroplanes for many years now with NO problems at all.

Excellent work Paul. Thank you.

Always just the right amount of sarcasm to get the point across, keep it entertaining, and start my morning off in the right direction. Have a great day Paul.

7:44 SCUBA has a similar problem. People don’t like to drop their weight belt. Things go wrong, _let me fix this whilst hypoxia sets in._ 🤦🏼‍♂️ Now you’re unconscious and stuck to sea floor.

The California fatality Friday, I asked a friend what he was doing on Saturday. He said a friend just bought an airplane and offered to fly him to Tahoe. Monday, I asked how was his weekend went. He said his friend crashed and was dead. The plane was found with the chute deployed. Another mutual friend who now flies 737s (not Max) said the weather was horrible with icing and no way he would not have flown. He added the pilot was known to push his luck. I think some the early Cirrus crashes were due to feeling invincible with a "do over" handle on the aircraft.

Great video Paul, I always wondered about these plane parachutes.

Paul and AvWeb team, Great work! Content, analysis, presentation on your videos are excellent. You are filling an important niche in safety analysis for GA. One that is not well covered by AOPA, Flying or other publications. Your analysis is reminiscent of Richard Collins material...I mean that in a good way. Thank you. Keep up the great productions

Paul Bertorelli is my celebrity. I am curious if he writes his own script. His subtle and smart humorous observations are shockingly refreshing. For example, in this video his mention of Russian dashcam videos was epic.

Not to minimize the success of the BSR parachutes for Cirrus, but the history should also mention the following as well. My understanding at the time, at least one of the reasons the parachute was "mandatory" for Cirrus was they needed it since they could not meet the FAA stall spin recovery requirements, that the Lancair Columbia 350/400 and later Cessna branded Corvallis or TTx could (no parachute). These 2 ,(Columbia and Cirrus) we're in a head to head competition for the same market segment. The FAA approved the parachute in lieu of the recovery issues being resolved. Again this is what I read in aviation news publications at that time.

hi Paul - this is the first time I "stumbled" over a video from you, and must say (or write) that I really enjoyed watching it and learning from it :-) - very informative, and spiced with good irony and humor :-D well done, master ;-)

Thanks Paul, for yet another candid look at the facts!

Interesting enough the Diamond Aircraft impacts the ground at a much slower rate than the Cirrus. If you bungee the stick in your lap and pull the power it stalls, noses down picks up speed, flies then slows again and stalls. Repeat until impact with ground at about 500 to 700 fpm, half that of CAPS on Cirrus. Note also that Diamond leads the pack in safety! All said at the end of the day, Diamond gets my cash, by the way, the view from a Diamond is incredible and it’s a lot of fun to fly!

"Has it saved lives?" is a very different question from, "Is it safer?" "Has it saved lives?" addresses the performance on a case by case bases. That is, are there any cases where the system has saved people in a situation where they would have died without the system? "Is it safer?" is asking about overall safety. In other words, does it increase your chance of surviving any given flight. It's a bit clearing if we reverse on of the questions and apply it to seat belts in cars. "Can wearing a seat belt in a car kill you?" and "Do seat belts in cars make you safer?" There are times when wearing a seat belt might cause you to die in a crash you would otherwise have survived, but in the vast majority of cases the seat belt is much more likely to save your life than end it. So we see that the answer to the both questions is "yes", but the first question can be misleading. If I just told you, "Using this might kill you." you may not want to use it, even if using increases your chance of surviving. I love stories where a smoker's life is saved by their habit. Either there cigarette lighter stops a bullet when they get shot, or they step out for a smoke break at the right time. But just because it saved in in one rare case doesn't mean it didn't kill you years later when you develop smoking a related disease that ends up killing you.

Lovely piece of journalism. Refreshing coming in this day and age from a country that is full of quick thinking and fearful decision making journalism. Nice jab (that’s how you guys produce job)

Great video Paul. Well done

"Are Planes With Parachutes Really Safer?" Ask this question when you're falling out of the sky.

12:30 I'm wondering if Risk Compensation is coming into play here.

Thanks Paul, very informative!

Excellent presentation. A clear answer to a modern question.

Lol it puked the parachute out the back haha. That was funny.

Paul has been an unique resource in GA for decades because there's no room for bullsh-t in aviation and he's 100% bullsh_t-free. Witty too.

this guy is a wealth of information and explains that info clearly! just subscribed!!!

You and Rod Machado are absolute legends to me! Thank-you sir)

another view is that it could be a life saving option for your family or friends flying with you, heaven forbid something happens to you as PIC

These things are really gonna come into their own when e-VTOLs are gonna start seeing use for short distance mass transportation.

Thanks for a great summary. Great info.

The second video I watched. I positively subscribed. Informative and factual. 5 Stars!

Great video! Is it possible pilots will take greater risks knowing they have caps?

I think the biggest concern with CAPS and any BRS system is just the false sense of security some pilots might get. It's ok to think to yourself "It's ok, if anything happens, I've got a parachute." It's not OK to think "It's ok for me to push my/the aircraft's/fuel limits, I've got a parachute." Some attribute high accident rates to this - I have no idea if it's true, but it's logical.

This is an outstanding channel. Thank you. Very interesting!

Props for not mentioning you’re an avid skydiver even once. I’ve known you for I don’t know how many years and I just stumbled on to you here a couple days ago. Great stuff!

It saved my life as my pipistrel virus sw threw half a blade over a very large city. I jumped out without a scratch.

Should have mentioned the periodic service/replacement and the cost. Those along with the 80lb payload hit are big negative factors.

good stuff man. Thanks for sharing the analysis!

Great job Paul!

Got a good 'LOL' with the "pilots flying their ego into a crater" reference!

Pull early, pull often! Call me crazy but I’m not flying at night in a single engine piston without a BRS. Paul you neglect to mention that the BRS is a great option for the Cessna 172-182.

As usual Paul delivers an aviation story or review with considerable data better than anyone on the planet ... best in the business

Whenever I see an article or video from Mr Bertorelli , I know I will learn something new and will inevitably smirk with his acerbic wit