LSA Octocopter?

SoonerAviator said:
My comment was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. When you pull the CAPS in the Cirrus, it cuts fuel/power to the engine, right? This mostly negates much of the worry about the prop cutting through parachute cord. Entanglement is another issue. What would keep them from doing the same thing with this octocopter? Pull the chute, all power to rotors stops, and that pretty much removes most of the risk of having the rotors slicing-n-dicing parachute cord. In addition to that, I'd also think that they'd have a short length of abrasion-resistant cabling that would withstand any impact from a freewheeling rotor. I'm not saying this project ever gets off the ground (pun intended), but I sure think that even the most inept engineers could figure out a way to make it work with a fairly high success rate.
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Perhaps you are underestimating the ability of an inept engineer to screw up a project?
 
SoonerAviator said:
What would keep them from doing the same thing with this octocopter?
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The propeller on a cirrus is not keeping you from free falling, nor is it your sole source of attitude control. In this death trap, you are Falling straight down and hopefully not spinning wildly if the rotors are off.
 
Salty said:
The propeller on a cirrus is not keeping you from free falling, nor is it your sole source of attitude control. In this death trap, you are Falling straight down and hopefully not spinning wildly if the rotors are off.
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I have no idea what you are implying. A Cirrus under a parachute and an Octocopter under a parachute are both subject to whatever rotational forces are present. Neither will be "falling straight down" any more than the other, because the rate/direction of descent would be controlled by winds and the envelope design. Unless you are implying the total power failure on the Octocopter prior to parachute release resulting in an uncontrolled tumble, which isn't really the situation we are discussing.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I have no idea what you are implying. A Cirrus under a parachute and an Octocopter under a parachute are both subject to whatever rotational forces are present. Neither will be "falling straight down" any more than the other, because the rate/direction of descent would be controlled by winds and the envelope design. Unless you are implying the total power failure on the Octocopter prior to parachute release resulting in an uncontrolled tumble, which isn't really the situation we are discussing.
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Stop the propeller on an airplane and it still flies. Stop the "propeller" on a helicopter, and it is no longer flying.
 
Salty said:
Stop the propeller on an airplane and it still flies. Stop the "propeller" on a helicopter, and it is no longer flying.
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Ugh, dude c'mon, you're not getting it. This is a Cirrus we were talking about, which stops the prop and stops "flying" once you pull the chute handle. After that, you're not flying anymore, you are having your descent controlled by a parachute . . . same goes for the octocopter in the original question. Once you pull the chute on the octocopter, you aren't "flying" anymore, the parachute deploys and you come down that way.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Ugh, dude c'mon, you're not getting it. This is a Cirrus we were talking about, which stops the prop and stops "flying" once you pull the chute handle. After that, you're not flying anymore, you are having your descent controlled by a parachute . . . same goes for the octocopter in the original question. Once you pull the chute on the octocopter, you aren't "flying" anymore, the parachute deploys and you come down that way.
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I'm not sure that's accurate. At least one Cirrus was flown home after the red handle was pulled and the chute failed to come out of the canister.
 
Lindberg said:
I'm not sure that's accurate. At least one Cirrus was flown home after the red handle was pulled and the chute failed to come out of the canister.
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Lol, much to the dismay of the engineers who designed the CAPS. The point is that the deployment of a ballistic parachute isn't much different on an octocopter than it is on a helicopter or any other aircraft. Means can be taken to make sure it deploys safely. Whether or not an aircraft is capable of gliding in the event of a power failure or CAPS failure is entirely irrelevant to the discussion.


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