A couple SSA 2020 convention presentations online...

Ground training is one thing, but why not do an actual jump. I went to a parachute school and during the class introductions everyone was asked why they were there. “On a dare, my girlfriend bought this package for my birthday, want to challenge myself“ ... were the usual answers. I said I wear a parachute and I want to know how to use it! I think actually jumping is a confidence booster that will help if and when the time comes. I also think most glider pilots will enjoy it because once the canopy opens, you’re gliding!

Thanks for posting those, Dave! I didn't get to any of the talks.

Knowing how it feels under canopy before using an emergency chute is a very good idea.
But finding somewhere that still uses old round parachutes like most use will be a challenge.
Jim

On Friday, February 28, 2020 at 4:40:48 AM UTC-8, Stephen Szikora wrote:
Ground training is one thing, but why not do an actual jump. I went to a parachute school and during the class introductions everyone was asked why they were there. “On a dare, my girlfriend bought this package for my birthday, want to challenge myself“ ... were the usual answers. I said I wear a parachute and I want to know how to use it! I think actually jumping is a confidence booster that will help if and when the time comes.. I also think most glider pilots will enjoy it because once the canopy opens, you’re gliding!

Because it is like practicing bleeding. Thirty- forty years ago a friend and I went through ground jump training followed by a jump. Having just had several surgeries on my left foot, I opted not to jump. My friend jumped and ended up with a broken ankle. I lost track of him after about 5 years but he was still walking with a limp.

Stephen Szikora wrote on 2/28/2020 4:40 AM:
Ground training is one thing, but why not do an actual jump. I went to a parachute school and during the class introductions everyone was asked why they were there. “On a dare, my girlfriend bought this package for my birthday, want to challenge myself“ ... were the usual answers. I said I wear a parachute and I want to know how to use it! I think actually jumping is a confidence booster that will help if and when the time comes. I also think most glider pilots will enjoy it because once the canopy opens, you’re gliding!

My impression is the training one jump gives you is almost irrelevant: it's done
under ideal circumstances, and in those circumstances, the glider pilot without
the one-jump experience doesn't have any problems. The problems come in situations
the one-jump experience doesn't cover, like Dave's experience: sudden emergency,
difficult egress, collision with the aircraft, high descent rate due to density
altitude, winds, mountains instead of flat ground, and being older when you have
to jump, maybe a lot older.

For those reasons, I long ago decided against doing a "practice" jump. But, I
suspect going through the ground training portion would be useful, and possibly
repeating it in 5-10 years. That appears to be Dave's recommendation.

Here's an only half-humorous solution to bailing out successfully: get a glider
that has it's own parachute, so you don't have to bail out. I'm taking my own
advice: my touring motorglider has a ballistic parachute, and the GP15 glider I've
ordered also has a ballistic parachute.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1

As someone who spent their youth engaged in the parachute arts I don't think a practice jump is going to help. Tandem ground school and jump experience is useless, accelerated freefall is better but 99% of it is irrelevant. They are training people to be skydivers, not bailout survivors. Find someone that once jumped lots and now flies sailplanes and have them teach you.. Or a rigger, they have an idea of what our community needs to know. Which at its simplest is:
Look for the handle, reach for the handle, pull the handle. And as Dave said in the video consider a static line, if you do use a static line have the same mindset - Look, Reach, Pull. Have a goal of being faster than the static line. You won't be, but you'll survive if you forgot to clip it on.

On 2/28/2020 9:37 AM, wrote:

As someone who spent their youth engaged in the parachute arts I don't
think a practice jump is going to help.

Chiming in here in the BTDT sense of things, I didn't think (or find) the
absence of anything but "the usual adolescent reading about aviation stuff
like WW-II 'adventures'", eventually followed by soaring-specific 'similar
crud'...and associated pondering...to be a handicap in any perceived sense of
things when - in a galaxy long ago and far, far, away, I put whatever
mentally-acquired preparatory skills I'd gained to firsthand use. It did seem
more than a tad unfortunate for the glider, though.

To the point, "What Gregg sez," pretty much covers the critical basics, IMO,
i.e.:
snip... Which at its simplest is: Look for the handle, reach for
the handle, pull the handle.
Everything else is gravy and 'fluff.' The only thing I'd'a maybe changed in
hindsight woulda been swapping the glider's landing spot(on the airport) and
mine (in the adjacent county dump); woulda saved everyone time! (You can't
make this stuff up!)

Bob W.

P.S. My only 'injuries' were beautiful multi-hued harness bruises from the
'chute's opening. Kids, tight is good!

I’m seeing a lot of nonsense rationalization here. Any jump is better experience than no jump at all. If nothing else, you will learn to fly the canopy including judgung the flare on landing. Besides, anything you do in life is first practiced in “ideal� conditions (other than a first kiss!)

After buying a square parachute, I went with the intention of taking the
ground training (I'd had the Air Force training in the early 70s) and
making one jump.Â* I was scared absolutely ****less, but enjoyed the
actual jump so much that I did 6 more, all solo with instructor aided
deployment.Â* It was expensive, but worth it!

On 2/28/2020 5:40 AM, Stephen Szikora wrote:
Ground training is one thing, but why not do an actual jump. I went to a parachute school and during the class introductions everyone was asked why they were there. “On a dare, my girlfriend bought this package for my birthday, want to challenge myself“ ... were the usual answers. I said I wear a parachute and I want to know how to use it! I think actually jumping is a confidence booster that will help if and when the time comes. I also think most glider pilots will enjoy it because once the canopy opens, you’re gliding!

--
Dan, 5J

On Friday, February 28, 2020 at 12:26:31 PM UTC-5, Stephen Szikora wrote:
I’m seeing a lot of nonsense rationalization here. Any jump is better experience than no jump at all. If nothing else, you will learn to fly the canopy including judgung the flare on landing. Besides, anything you do in life is first practiced in “ideal� conditions (other than a first kiss!)

Nope, a lot of just-plain-nonsense period.

1) With an emergency chute there is no 'flare on landing'.
Most of these chutes pulling both toggles decreases the effective chute
diameter and increases your sink rate (as explained to me by the chute designer).
DO NOT TRY TO FLARE AN EMERGENCY CHUTE.

2) A practice jump will not be with an emergency round chute.
You will get some practice landing but it will be very different...

3) Ground school will include specifics of how to land,
practice landing jumping of a small platform, etc.
Not to mention the mechanics of chute deployment (ie push, not pull).

Please, go get the ground school.
If you want to take a jump, great, but most important is the ground school.

Hope that helps someone out there,
Best Regards, Dave

On Wednesday, February 26, 2020 at 6:54:21 PM UTC-5, Dave Nadler wrote:
First thanks to the volunteers who helped with recording,
and thanks to Spence for his work on the first presentation.
Sorry I didn't manage a better job with the audio.
Anyway, the talks a

1) Bail-Out Aftermath — Lessons Learned.

2) OSTIV: Motor-glider Unreliability: Examples, Systemic Problems, and Potential Systemic Improvements

Videos, abstracts, and slides are linked on my web site:
http://www.nadler.com/public/NadlerSoaringIndex.html

Enjoy,
Best Regards, Dave "YO"

In response to a number of emails asking "who sells static lines":
Installation is not do-it-yourself, as the static line is attached
above the pins in the back pack.
Ask your rigger to obtain and install one!

Hope that helps,
Best Regards, Dave