Originally Posted by
212man
I’m astonished to read that you don’t wear a parachute as a matter of course. I know two people personally that have used them in gliders (wing not correctly installed and a midair collision) plus read many accident reports where they were used
I used to work with the first glider pilot in Australia to use a parachute. He'd flown bombers in WW II and aerial photography in (then) Dutch East New Guinea, and never had to use one, He was only wearing his because the rules of the competition required it. After that, he always wore one. He may have been the first one you mentioned.
As he was descending, he tried to remember all the things he'd been taught more than 20 years before. Just before he landed, he remembered to spit his false teeth out.