The response to a couple of postings back in June on the rec.aviation.soaring newsgroup seeking information on Cirruses outside the US and yielded a tremendous response!

One of the earliest responses was from Patrice Vandendaele PVandendaele@compuserve.com of Belgium, one of the owners of Cirrus No. 114!

Here’s Patrice next to the fin of OO-ZLE!

Cirrus No. 32 was also reported, as VH-GXE, owned by Stephan Lewandowsky (lewan@psy.uwa.edu.au), Chris Kenney (cdkenny@iinet.net.au) and two others. They fly out of the Narrogin Gliding Club in Western Australia. Welcome aboard!

Another remarkable response came from Bob Kent of the UK. Bob’s a balloonist who as a hobby seeks to document the identifier and owner(s) of every aircraft in the world! He produced a real treasure trove of Cirrus registrations gleaned from all over.  Sadly, I have to report that Bob just told me that he’s been diagnosed with advanced cancer. I don’t know the prognosis, but he can be reached at bpg@mistral.co.uk.

You’ll find more data – and more pictures – on the website. We’ve revised the format considerably, and continue to try to reduce the file size and streamline some of the pages so that they won’t be so slow to load. Bear with us!

Tom Foote of Canada (Cirrus No. 18) has a nearly complete set of Schempp-Hirth Tech notes in English, missing only 265-4, 265-11, and 265-12. He’s promised to make copies for me later in the year, so with a little luck the addition of Tech Notes to the website will make a nice "new millennium" present for all of us!

Tom also expressed a willingness to work directly with anyone who has an urgent need. I hesitate to put his telephone number in a public place, so if you have such an urgent need, send me e-mail (Jim@Kellett.com) and I will put all legitimate callers in touch with Tom

Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 16:03:00 -0700
From: Gary Nelson <gnelso@ctp.com>

I'm afraid I have to report that no. 70 was involved in a landing accident on 6/19. Fortunately, while the plane sustained damage, the pilot (me) walked away without a scratch. The details are as follows:

On June 19, 1999 I preflighted Open Cirrus N8145. In anticipation of using this flight to practice landing with the drogue chute deployed, I also reviewed the drogue chute operation procedures. Departed Hartford Municipal (HXF) aprox. 14:00 CDT via aero tow with release at 2,000 ft AGL. Flew locally (within 25 mile radius of HXF) for 2 hours.

Entered right hand pattern for runway 18 at 1,200 ft AGL with intention to fly higher than normal landing pattern to allow for practice use of drogue  chute on final. Winds were aprox. 12 kts from the east. On downwind executed landing checklist and review of drogue chute operation procedures.

Turned final for runway 18 at about 400 ft AGL and ¼ mile from the runway threshold with airspeed of 60 mph. With spoilers retracted I deployed the sailplane's drogue chute. A short time after deploying the chute, and recognizing that with the increased rate of descent I would not be able to make the runway, I attempted to release the chute. I quickly realized that the chute had not released and attempted twice more to release the chute. After the third attempt I made the decision that I would have to land short of the runway with the chute still deployed. Touchdown occurred about 50ft north of an east/west road in a field with corn plants about six inches high. Airspeed at touchdown was about 45 mph. During rollout the plane rolled up a three foot high road embankment and across the road coming to rest in a grass field, aprox. 300 ft short of the runway threshold.

The g-forces of the rollout over the road embankment brought my knees up against the instrument panel, stressing the forward canopy enough to shatter it. About the same time, the canopy over my head broke free and split on impact with the rear of the plane or ground. Inspection of the plane revealed the following damage: a stress fracture encircling about 2/3 of the tail boom about 4 ft behind the cockpit, a 4 inch fracture of the gel coat and underlying glass fiber on the starboard side of the cockpit area, complete separation of the sling seat from the take up roller, fracture and separation of the seat pan. Pushing the drogue chute release lever while on the ground resulted in a clean release of the chute.

I was very fortunate that I walked away from this accident without a scratch or injury of any type. My guess is that the ripping of the sling seat, the  separation of the seat pan and to a lessor extent the landing gear suspension absorbed much of the energy from the impact and saved me from apossible back injury.

I can only speculate on the cause of the drogue chute not releasing, as the chute did release without any problems on the ground. One possible explanation is the stiff crosswind of about 12 kts almost straight across the runway caused the drogue chute to swing too far to the side in flight. The result being too much side pressure on the release point. To be fair, another explanation would have to be I pulled, when I should have pushed the release lever or I didn't push the release lever far enough. I doubt either of these scenarios happened though. In the case of the former, I reviewed the drogue chute operation procedures during my preflight, and in the later case, as each attempt to release the chute failed, I remember pushing harder on the release lever. I would be interested in hearing other possible explanations, or from anyone who has experienced a case where the drogue chute did not release..

Jeff Peavey, 4908 Snake River Road, Asotin, Washington 99402 purchased No. 39 from Kay Berry back in June of this year! Jeff can be reached at jeff@digisys.net, so if you’re keeping track of who owns what, change your list accordingly.

This is one of the two 18.8 meter Cirruses, previously owned by a syndicated that included a paraplegic (hence its hand controls). It's been purchased by Godfrey King, who can be reached at gfking@eurobell.co.uk.

Please join me in welcoming all these new guys to the select ranks of Cirrus pilots!!

It’s not exactly specific to the Cirrus, but for what it’s worth I’ve finally added a transponder to the panel of No. 67 (N8169). We fly just a few miles outside the Class B airspace, and 4 NM from a VOR used in approaches there, and I was getting very nervous watching the parade of heavy metal descending through "my" airspace. I discussed it with the four airline pilots who are members of our Club to fully understand how it works with the airlines’ TCAS systems - - it was those conversations that "sold" me on the idea.

I used a Terra with Mode C that I purchased from Tim Mara (Wings and Wheels), and added a second 7.5 AH gel cel to power the unit. I mounted the 4" antenna on the glare shield under the forward canopy, between the air vent and the compass – with a small aluminum ground plane under the glareshield, works fine. The installation was not trivial, and the thing requires a check by an avionics shop every two years.

Right at press time, I learned that Steve Cameron is installing one in his Cirrus. Has anyone else already done it? Any experiences with installation and/or use?

No. 67 has had several repairs, including some major ones, over the years, but always with a pen-and-ink W&B. So I got a major surprise when I actually WEIGHED it this summer – and discovered that I’d been flying it about 50 lbs over gross for nearly a decade! Something else to think about in the maintenance of older birds!

From Burt Compton comes this commentary on how to use the Cirrus' drag chute:

I've flown Open Cirrus # 33 since new in 1969 to present.  I have used the tailchute countless times to make very short landings, especially over trees and power lines.

AFTER I have cleared the last obstacle and on very short final, I leave the airbrakes open fully, reach down and deploy the tailchute (lever aft), then grab the airbrake handle and shove it forward to closed but not locked position and wait to feel a "good" (deployed) chute.   If the tailchute deploys I hold airbrakes closed and keep the nose down.  If the tail chute fails to deploy, I release it and make a normal landing with airbrakes.

I think the best purpose of the tailchute is to limit your landing "float" and roll-out; NOT necessarily as a method of modifying your descent profile.  Once deployed it simply creates powerful, unforgiving drag.  It is hard to describe the slowing sensation - I guess it is like being attached to a bungee cord!

You must memorize the cockpit lever motion, as it is hard to see while flying, and that's not where you should be looking on short final anyway.  Besides, if you move the lever forward first, then aft, you will simply cause the tailchute to fall away still packed in its container!

In summary:

Do not deploy the tailchute until over the threshold on final, past the last obstacle. Use it to shorten "float", NOT to modify your approach profile.

Leave the airbrakes open while deploying the chute. You have to let go of the airbrakes anyway in order to move the chute lever with your left hand. After you activate the chute lever, it takes a couple of seconds for the chute to deploy fully, so shove the airbrakes forward (closed) but still behind their locked position.  If the chute does not deploy, open the airbrakes and land.

Think of the tailchute lever as working like the airbrake lever - back for more drag (deploy), forward for more performance (release).

Make sure you know which lever / knob you are moving.  In the Open Cirrus, the trim knob is near the tailchute lever.

For example:  as a CFIG, I've had students use a variety of levers attempting to open the airbrakes on final, including the canopy handle, trim lever, flap handle, while their eyes were focused on the runway.    Know your cockpit, especially in a new or borrowed glider.   Practice using the levers on the ground.   Do a "blindfold" test  (you don't really need a blindfold - just focus straight ahead at the imaginary runway).