So obviously I am in favour of a get out of jail card. We are REQUIRED to wear parachutes if (1) flying in cloud ... yes, in the UK, we are allowed to fly IMC in gliders. or (2) if flying in competition ....we fly a LOT closer to other gliders than power pilots do. The occasional glider/power midair usually, on investigation by the AAIB, turns out to have been the power pilot who wasn't looking out. And it is usually fatal to the power pilot, who doesn't have the option of using his chute - unless he is, of course, flying in a ...... At my age I have a struggle just climbing out of the glider on the ground, so a rocket would come in handy. But me worry? about doing a field landing? gliders have more time to decide and to plan, and we know the performance of our aircraft. ... Goes down, usually, unless you find lift.
But there is a huge difference in wearing and using a chute and the Caps!
i am sure you would not bail out of a glider if the ASI packed up? But that is exactly what happened with one chute pull!
Incredible maybe but yes it has happened as well as many other needless pulls.
This is really what the debate is about not whether the chute is a good safety benefit but when and where it should be pulled?
the debate is about just the fact of having a chute luring pilots into conditions and situations that they are ill equipt to deal with.
Normally a pilot wearing a chute bails out if the aircraft becomes unflyable as in gliding or aerobatics or where the pilot cannot recover a situation.
Not so the Caps pull where it is being used for anything and everything and Mary all your landings are FLs while some promote the idea of a Caps pull for a FL whether there is a suitable landing site below or not.
This is the worrying trend that the chute is making up for a lack of basic piloting skills rather than as an addition to a proficient and well trained and current pilots options should things go dramatically wrong
Pace