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Old June 11th 04, 03:55 PM
Bill Daniels
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"." wrote in message
om...
I went for a ride in a glider many years ago and was immediately taken

with
the whole experience. I have always wanted to fly and now have the time

to
do it as I am finished with my skydiving career. Before I sell my rigs I
wanted to ask a question. Do any of you wear pilot rigs? Before I trade
some gear for a pilot rig....what is the reality of actually getting out

of
a glider if you have a structural failure or something catastrophic? I am

a
realist and can accept the fact there are inherent risks up there believe
me, but I don't want to buy a rig if it's a mute point. Do any of you

wear
rigs? Thanks for the advice.



Most glider pilots wear a simple emergency 'chute which is soaring's
equivalent of the skydiver's reserve. The glider itself is the "main
'chute" since we plan to bring it back. And we do bring them back without
incident 99.9999% of the time.

I once read that only 50% of the bailout attempts from gliders are
successful. This is mainly due to problems with egress from the deep
cockpits. DG has a neat product called NOAH which is a gas inflated bladder
under the seat cushion that lifts the pilot above the cockpit sides so he
can easily roll over the side of the cockpit.

Actual bailouts are very rare and so the statistics are suspect due to the
small sample. However, the main reason seems to be mid-air collisions not
structural failures.

Bill Daniels