Did you know every Cirrus comes with a safety parachute? 🪂
What is CAPS and why do we love it?
CAPS is the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System. It’s an onboard ballistics recovery system that gives the pilot, or any of the passengers, an option for a worst-case scenario. As we like to explain it to future Cirrus pilots, “Think of the Cirrus as an aircraft designed around a parachute – not an aircraft that simply has a parachute stuffed in it.” In a parachute deployment, the canopy fully extends to gently guide the entire aircraft and its occupants safely to the ground.
We’ve recently heard an old misconception about CAPS that we thought was laid to rest years ago. It goes something like “the Cirrus is so dangerous that it requires a parachute to be safe to fly.” From a logical standpoint, this is obviously a flawed statement. Do we really think the FAA would only certify an aircraft that is so “inherently dangerous that it requires a parachute”? Can we really imagine that while going through the certifications process, either Cirrus or the FAA said, “Well, the design isn’t quite right; let’s just stuff a parachute in it and call it a day”? To quote Kevin McCallister, “I don’t think so.”
The CAPS system was an innovative and modern approach in what was a very antiquated industry. Cirrus ultimately created a modern and unprecedented safety system – the likes of which GA had yet to see at that point. And this is why we love CAPS. We know that should the highly unlikely catastrophe occur, we’re flying with the safest single-engine piston aircraft available!
Cheers to a comfortable and safe journey together.