On Friday, August 10, 2018 at 8:22:54 PM UTC-4, John Huthmaker wrote:
I'm just starting out with soaring. Simple question for you guys. How many of you fly with an emergency parachute? It looks like they cost around $2000 online. Pretty steep price; although the cost is insignificant if it saves your life. Is this something I should be looking to purchase?

I own my own glider and parachute and usually fly with the chute. I am also a licensed jumpmaster (or was) with a few hundred jumps, so I'm pretty comfortable jumping out of planes. I feel WAY safer wearing the chute (in gliders and planes), and I've had no comfort issues with it. I may not survive the accident (canopy jams, too low to bail out, etc.) but at least I'll have something to keep my mind occupied while I'm going down and won't feel totally helpless to save myself.

Be aware that I've had two riggers now tell me that they will not repack any rig that is more than 20 years old. There is a new legal(?) standard going around on that. A rigger showed me the printout of it, but I forgot what legal body is endorsing it. It's not official yet, but riggers are worried about being sued because of it.

A new square canopy and container is going to cost me $3-5k apparently. Ugh! Gotta pay to play.