Thing, Not wanting to appear to challenge you perosonally, but rather the system on the whole [in the UK, I suppose]
it's mandatory to wear a 'chute in UK in a glider. I suppose I'm just used to wearing one and it feels a little weird not to do so.
Mandatory to wear a parachute, but not a helemt? Is not a helmet appropriate safety gear for a person who expects to need to use a parachute?
I suppose that I do agree that there is an increased risk of mid air collisions during thermalling. I've only done a bit of it, but I do see the logic. I would imagine if you're thinking there's a risk that you're gonna bump two gliders together, you'd want to be wearing a helmet when it happened.
I wear a helmet whenever I fly helicopters (though a parachute seems obviously rediculous - helicopters never seem to be flown far enough from earth, that you would ever have time to use it, let alone it being chopped up on your way out!). My personal reason is that helicopters crash in directions other than forward too often. Planes generally crash mostly forward, and I'm a keen wearer of shoulder harnesses. I have not thought the need to wear a helmet for fixed wing flying yet, but if I thought I might be getting out in flight, I'd be thinking about that carefully. (I did not think that far through it when flying jumpers - flying a C 185 was just too "normal" to me). That was a long time ago, I wonder what the norm is now....
What about life jackets? Do you actually wear them when flying over water, including float flying? I do, and have the necessaries clipped to me, so they go out with me automatically.
What about low flammability clothing? Are pilots generally conscience of the risk of fire, and the need to not have burning clothing sticking to them (glider pilots excepted)? I do, cotton or wool only (or Nomex, of course).
Sometimes we just wear the gear, 'cause someone says to (or we have it, and it looks cool). Do we really think it through?
Oh, and although I do generally agree with:
Spinning through several thousand feet can take quite a while, and there's ample time to get out.
During my recent spin testing of a Cessna Caravan, I attained descent rates as high as 9200 feet per minute! (but not for long).