View Single Post
Old 5th September 2008, 21:31   #5 (permalink)
englishal

 
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Home
Age: 40
Posts: 3,901
They are required to be worn in the USA, and I know places that rent Super D's so I suppose there must be some.....

Actually there is a very good point to wearing one.....From memory, but essentially......One member of the British Aerobatic team was practicing in the 70's without a parachute on (Not in a Super D), and part of the wing spar broke under 5G and the wing started to fold up. He realised very quickly that it only started folding up under positive G so he rolled inverted and the wing snapped back into position.....He had something like 11 mins before the engine stopped to think what the heck to do...He said that if he was wearing a parachute he'd have climbed to a safe altitude and bailed out....he wasn't. After a bit of experimenting he found that indeed if he rolled right way up the wing started to fold.....In the story he recounts that by this time he was shaking with fear as he was facing imminent death. In the end he made an upside down approach, rolling right way up just above the ground and the wing folded and the aircraft settled on the ground. He walked away, and they estimated that the wing tip cleared the ground by a few inches as he rolled upright....

So yea, wearing a parachute makes great sense
englishal is offline   Reply