Adam D wrote:
Also, as
a skydiver with 1000+ jumps, glider, and recreational aerobatic pilot
I highly recommend that you go through a basic jump course and at
least a few levels of AFF or static line training at least to the
point where you feel comfortable with getting out of an aircraft and
opening the parachute on your own. There's no point in having a
parachute if you are too scared or don't have the proper training to
use it. At the moment of truth, if you ever need to use it, you want
to have all the cards stacked in your favor.

This recommendation seems reasonable, but I wonder if there is any
research, even just an informal survey, that provides evidence for it.
After all, the suggestion is about 4000 USA glider pilots should make
several parachute jumps to improve the outcomes of the bail-out from a
that happens every two three years.

My fuzzy recollection of the last 30 years is that any pilot that gets
out of the glider has a pretty good outcome, meaning no or small
injuries. In other words, we'd be risking injury or worse from 8000 to
12,000 practice jumps to make 3 or 4 bail-outs come out a little bit better.

Perhaps my recollection is wrong.

Are there pilots with no parachute training that bailed out of a glider,
then made some practice jumps afterwards so they'd be better prepared if
it happened again?

Are there pilots that did have parachuting training before they bailed
out of a glider in an emergency, and were damn glad they had the training?

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
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