Beginner, Parachutes?

A parachute is part of the required equipment for my glider, according
to it's type certificate. I have a Kestrel 19 in Canada.

I wonder how many gliders have this requirement?

Story time.......
I was CD'ing a contest at Air Sailing and caught a 1-26 driver
climbing in without a chute. Where's your chute, I asked? Don't use
them, was his reply. You do in this contest, its
regulations..............he was retired military and I knew he
wouldn't argue with that. You can guess where this is going, come
evening, everybody's back cept the 1-26 driver. Nothing on the radio
and nobody'd heard anything in the air, so we launched a search
vehicle, AKA, tow plane. Found him about an hour later, he'd done a
one-turn spin, turning final to a dirt road about 20 miles west of
home plate. That 1-26 hit near vertical and he broke both legs and
messed up his feet something awful!
Alone in the desert, loosing blood and going into shock, he was
between a rock and a hard place. Then he remembered the chute I made
him wear. Popped that puppy and wrapped both legs and himself with the
canopy. The chute probably saved his life and not by its intended
purpose.
One could write a book about the use of a parachute other than for a
nylon descent.
JJ

At 18:40 20 November 2008, Frank Whiteley wrote: (snip)
Why? Because it's a comfortable chair type chute and my first choice
was several months backordered http://tinyurl.com/55t3fz and I didn't
wish to wait.
Frank Whiteley

In the UK it is very unusual for anyone to fly a glider without wearing a
parachute and that includes people on trial lessons. I hesitate to
speculate on whether many would be able to operate the chute.

I have an EB80 which was designed and manufactured by Irvin Airchute (Now
Airborne Systems) and it is designed to open within 700ft. It is certainly
the most comfortable and well made parachute that I have worn.

In message , Don Johnstone
writes
At 18:40 20 November 2008, Frank Whiteley wrote: (snip)
Why? Because it's a comfortable chair type chute and my first choice
was several months backordered http://tinyurl.com/55t3fz and I didn't
wish to wait.
Frank Whiteley

In the UK it is very unusual for anyone to fly a glider without wearing a
parachute and that includes people on trial lessons. I hesitate to
speculate on whether many would be able to operate the chute.

At my club they get a short parachute talk beforehand, and there is at
least one person whose life was saved on his first flight by the
parachute, when the K21 got hit by lightening. Think that was near
Dunstable but don't hold me to it.


I have an EB80 which was designed and manufactured by Irvin Airchute (Now
Airborne Systems) and it is designed to open within 700ft. It is certainly
the most comfortable and well made parachute that I have worn.



--
Surfer!
Email to: ramwater at uk2 dot net

At 07:52 25 November 2008, Surfer! wrote:


At my club they get a short parachute talk beforehand, and there is at
least one person whose life was saved on his first flight by the
parachute, when the K21 got hit by lightening. Think that was near
Dunstable but don't hold me to it.


You are correct and in the report the investigators suggest that the
wearing of a parachute on composite structure gliders is a good idea as
they have little or no protection against strikes. The AAIB report makes
interesting reading and can be found here.
http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources...pdf_500699.pdf

On Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:40:31 -0800 (PST), Frank Whiteley
wrote:

A German study once concluded that
survival in an incident requiring parachute use below 600m agl was
very low. That said, some emergency chutes are very effective at low
altitudes with good horizontal speed.

Nevertheless, I know four people who bailed out successfully - one at
6.000 ft, two at 600 ft (midair collision), one at 400 ft
(non-connected elavtor during winch launch).



Bye
Andreas

On Nov 26, 6:54*am, Andreas Maurer wrote:
On Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:40:31 -0800 (PST), Frank Whiteley

wrote:
A German study once concluded that
survival in an incident requiring parachute use below 600m agl was
very low. *That said, some emergency chutes are very effective at low
altitudes with good horizontal speed.

Nevertheless, I know four people who bailed out successfully - one at
6.000 ft, two at 600 ft (midair collision), one at 400 ft
(non-connected elavtor during winch launch).

Bye
Andreas

I know one who died because he didn't get his chute repacked regularly
thus missing an AD on the D-ring attachment. When he needed the
chute, it didn't work.

Frank

On Nov 26, 6:54*am, Andreas Maurer wrote:
one at 400 ft (non-connected elavator during winch launch).

Wow, that's impressive! Was the glider in an uncontrolled climb when
the bale out was initiated or had the cable broken?

Andy

In message
, Andy
writes
On Nov 26, 6:54*am, Andreas Maurer wrote:
one at 400 ft (non-connected elavator during winch launch).

Wow, that's impressive! Was the glider in an uncontrolled climb when
the bale out was initiated or had the cable broken?

I heard a story about a guy with an ASW19 who realised the elevator
wasn't connected when winch launching, and what I think I heard was that
he waited until it reached the top of the climb and jumped,
successfully. The other part of the story was that he had rigged the
glider and correctly connected the tailplane and someone else took it
off for some reason and refitted it without connecting it, and that the
miscreant went on to be an AAIB investigator..

Dunno how much of this (if any) is true though!

--
Surfer!
Email to: ramwater at uk2 dot net

On Nov 26, 1:41*pm, Surfer! wrote:
In message
, Andy
writes

On Nov 26, 6:54*am, Andreas Maurer wrote:
one at 400 ft (non-connected elavator during winch launch).

Wow, that's impressive! *Was the glider in an uncontrolled climb when
the bale out was initiated or had the cable broken?

I heard a story about a guy with an ASW19 who realised the elevator
wasn't connected when winch launching, and what I think I heard was that
he waited until it reached the top of the climb and jumped,
successfully. *The other part of the story was that he had rigged the
glider and correctly connected the tailplane and someone else took it
off for some reason and refitted it without connecting it, and that the
miscreant went on to be an AAIB investigator..

Dunno how much of this (if any) is true though!

--
Surfer!
Email to: ramwater at uk2 dot net

An RAF member did this in an ASW-20 and landed safey off airport in a
field using trim and flaps.

Frank Whiteley