Ooops. Did mean to put an IIRC next to that 'yak' bit.. my powers of memory aren't that great! But the point still holds. Yours *and* mine :E

From BoeingBoy No cigar I'm afraid. If we don't put the wings on right, they tend to fall off as soon as we get airborne, and thus far too low to use a parachute!

The main reason has already been stated - a much higher risk of mid-air collisions, at least for gliders taking part in competitions (where a gaggle of 50 in the same thermal would not be unknown).

Outside competitions this risk is much lower, and when I started flying gliders 11 years ago the majority didn't wear parachutes. A few years later the norm switched rapidly, and now almost all do wear parachutes. It helps that most glider cockpits are designed for a parachute-wearing pilot, and thus difficult to make comfortable if you're not wearing one. On top of that, as almost every glider now has a parachute (they tend to go with the aircraft, not the pilot), it seems a bit foolish not to wear it - one would feel so silly trying to put in an express order on the way down, and a high-density foam seat cushion is not really an adequate substitute.

Ouch! I thought I was trying to say that a ppl pilot would probably not gain anything by wearing a parachute. You might have a slight chance of getting out of a Cessna but I doubt a PA 28. I have had training and have flown Chipmunk/Provost/ Hunter. Reading Gasil say, for the last five years, I think that perhaps one glider pilot parachuted out. Yak 52-- NIL. One third mechanical problems/landed safely,one third low level aeros, crashed and killed (often with rear seat pax), one third jammed controls, nobody got out.One of my associates was an Empire Test Pilot, and we have often discussed aero scenarios, ie inverted spinning. I don't take rear pax when I am playing.Oh, and I knew Neil Williams.

Agreed that a parachute is of little benefit to the occupants of the average GA touring aircraft. Aerobatic types designed with egress in mind are a different matter. You wouldn't condone keeping the seat pins in place in the JP or Hunter would you?. Still not clear why you would wear a parachute for intentional spinning, but not when an inadvertant spin is likely. Discussion of spin recovery is no substitute for practice - when was the last time you span the Yak inverted? (and as it happens, an associate of mine used to take his Cap 222 down to Boscombe for use by the school, but ceased to do so when it was damaged in the process....but I don't know if the handling pilot subsequently graduated). :hmm:

The manual for many single seat gliders state that a parachute is part of the certification basis.

The CG arm for the pilot commonly assumes a parachute.

Gliders commonly specify minimum weights for the pilot and if you happen to be that light and are not wearing a parachute, the CG is too far back -- and if you do not pay careful attention to the CG the first time, you will find out very quickly when you lift off on tow:uhoh:

quoting mixture on the reliability and use of a chute at low altitudes...


Skydiving rigs are very different to emergency rigs. My skydiving main chute is packed for comfort in terminal velocity coditions. A reserve or a chute designed for emergencies only is packed for reliability and also sprint loaded to be effective in less than 500 ft. They have been know to often work in even less. The chances of a reserve or emergent chute failure or absolutly tiny. Like your literally more likely to get run over by bus.

Hope this helps some of u to make the leap :)

Don't tempt fate. Given my recent run of luck, I can see myself arriving in the middle of a field, monumentally winded, with some very nasty bruises from the parachute webbing, having departed some unexpectedly defunct airframe shortly beforehand, only to be flattened by a bus with brake failure ploughing through the field from a nearby road.

told you; don't let Jock do the service!

I can remember not too long ago a privatley owned Provost had a seat malfunction, PAX fell out in an aerobatic manourve and deployed chute saving his life. Seem to remember the Pilot and Pax were brothers.

When I did Yak52 training in Russia in '93 first day was spent how to exit aircraft with chute.