Balistic Recovery System

[joe1826]

So I haven't taken the leap yet into buying one of these, mostly because I am overly concerned with safety.  I did look up all incidents on NTSB and was happy to see there were far fewer than Rotorway.  Even so, I don't think I would be comfortable with just autorotation and was researching BRS similar to what exist for fixed wing.  I stumbled on GRS  https://www.galaxysky.cz/gyro-amp-helicopters-s65-en 

It looks like they rigged up a mosquito with one of these and have mosquito specific instructions.  I was wondering if anyone has experience with anything like this or have heard of this company before.   If it works, it would go a long way toward easing my anxiety!

EDIT: adding a video of how it is supposed to work. I don't know if this is good marketing or if there is some legitimacy to this design. I'm hoping those of you who have more experience can shed some insight!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ckd8WxfcRE

[RotorTim]

I would think weight and cost would both be prohibitive. I see the only benefit being the complete and catastrophic failure of the main rotor system. There are plenty here that can speak to the auto-rotation capabilities of this little helo.

[marcher07]

Joe
Sent you a PM

[swashplate]

I know this is only a video of a radio control helicopter but it shows another possibility of what could happen with the deployment of a Balistic Recovery chute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e_9BHbMsSY

[jb92563]

I have a BRS ballistic chute for my ultralight, it takes a pretty big chute for a 300lb combination so one for a Mosquito would have to be even larger.

Something like that would probably cost in the $7K to $15K range and its best chance for a successful save would be in the scenario where the rotor blade separates from the airframe. I'll sell you my BRS if you'd feel better with a false sense of security.

At 540 rpm its likely that twisting the chute harness for more than 10 seconds will likely render the chute ineffective. Swivels just don't work well on chutes while in deployment mode. Plus, what do you think your altitude would have to be for a successful 10 second deployment?    1600 ft AGL  (http://www.gravitycalc.com/)  I doubt many Mosquito pilots fly that high for long.

You will have better luck than this chute solution by doing careful maintenance, inspections, pre-flights and getting proficient at auto rotations.

Watching those video's just confirmed that its no where near capable of reliably making a save of a rotor craft.

Honestly if you look at the causes of the few Mosquito crashes and how diligent they are at analyzing and correcting any issues, you should get a good warm fuzzy feeling.
I think most if not all of the crashes were pilot error, like running out of fuel, having in flight medical issues and engine stoppage.
Successful Auto-rotation could have saved all but the medical issue.

My facts about the crashes are sketchy based on my memory of reading through all the crash causes so don't quote me, but I had to satisfy myself that the Mosquito did not have any life threatening issues.
I understand you want to improve your personal safety but the Ballistic Chute will only serve in a specific situation and if you choose the chute when you should be doing an auto-rotation, I think you would end up severely injuring yourself and destroying the Mosquito when you could have made an uneventful Auto landing instead.

I wonder what your chances of surviving your daily life are, compared to flying a Mosquito where you are removed from the hazardous ground dwellers briefly.