Originally Posted by
Cubdriver
They are meant to be deployed at low speeds like 100 knots or so. When I worked on test aircraft we had them on all the aircraft, and they had speed limitations around 120 knots. Get in an unrecoverable spin, pull the handle, it would pull the tail back up for you. Some use explosive charges and some just use springs to deploy. The spring and cable systems especially were not all that reliable, I heard very recently the crew on one of our aicraft had an accidental deployment without doing anything to ask for it. They jettisoned the chute and all was well, not sure if the chute was damaged or not.
I was just talking to a guy yesterday that flys the Kfir and he was talking about an accidental deployment on landing rollout. They approach at 190 and cross the numbers at 175 and in this case right at touchdown the chute deployed. He said it just ripped to shreds and he jettisoned it. Having never flown an airplane with a chute before I asked him about malfunctions and how common they were. He said they happen once in awhile but they aren't that big of a problem.
USMCFLYR