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Re:Jetson One – Personal Electric Aerial Vehicle by edrxty on Monday October 25, 2021 @01:48AM (#28984801)
The official number is 400ft but I've heard anecdotes that there have been successful deployments lower. That said, I see this being operated in the "dead mans curve", ie well below any effective height, for a significant portion of it's flight
Re:Jetson One – Personal Electric Aerial Vehicle by lxmorj on Monday October 25, 2021 @03:17AM (#28985213)
Surely there are flight patterns that can minimize this risk: ie diagnostic hover at 10ft for X seconds to rule out start up failures, followed by an ascend to 500ft, flight path maintains that height, similar pause prior to descent on landing...
Re:Jetson One – Personal Electric Aerial Vehicle by t0mas88 on Monday October 25, 2021 @03:42AM (#28985341)
This is usually done in helicopters, but it's not straight up and hover but instead a departure over the runway with forward speed. You can use that speed/energy in an emergency like losing an engine.
Re:Jetson One – Personal Electric Aerial Vehicle by pininja on Monday October 25, 2021 @01:53AM (#28984821)
There are also enough false deployments that caused harm with these parachutes (edit: instances where pilots didn’t deploy when they should have) that the jury is out on how much of an improvement these are to safety, overall. Operator skill and training is a big factor and this product isn’t targeted at highly trained pilots.
Re:Jetson One – Personal Electric Aerial Vehicle by edrxty on Monday October 25, 2021 @01:56AM (#28984837)
I haven't heard of any deaths as a result but I'm sure there are a few. Usually it's just a hull loss.

That said, this looks like another Icon A5 situation...

Re:Jetson One – Personal Electric Aerial Vehicle by pininja on Monday October 25, 2021 @02:51AM (#28985083)
I don’t have great sources, so take my claim with a grain of salt. But overall this analysis of Cirrus incidents over 25 years [0] was interesting to read.

In response to fatalities and pilots choosing not to use the parachute when that could have saved lives, Cirrus improved training and saw significant safety record improvements.

> By then, Cirrus had already upgraded its training twice, eventually pulling it entirely in-house. All new-aircraft buyers take it.

They also have training for the used market, and saw owners that didn’t do it often had worse safety records.

Since a Cirrus has a wing, the parachute is primarily a super last resort.. the passenger safety training I took even said it’s mainly to be used if the pilot passes out and a passenger engages it.

The jetson doesn’t have a wing, so I’m happy they have this parachute. I hope they can offer great training too.

[0] https://www.aviationconsumer.com/safety/cirrus-at-25-a-safer...

Re:Jetson One – Personal Electric Aerial Vehicle by nradov on Monday October 25, 2021 @04:53PM (#28992981)
The new Garmin Autonomi system is designed so that a passenger can push one button to land the airplane if the pilot passes out.

https://discover.garmin.com/en-US/autonomi/