At 07:48 10 February 2004, Mark James Boyd wrote:
BAToulson wrote:

and then I'd show them the statistics for
lightning strikes and prove that wearing a chute increased
the
chance of being hit by lightening, and this was a much
greater risk than what we estimated was the risk of

being the first fatal accident in the 2-33 in over
30 years,
much less one that might require a chute...

A short while after the then CFI of the London Gliding
Club mandated all training flights will use chutes,
one of our K21's was hit by a lightning strike which
travelled horizontally some 3-4 miles. The glider was
totaly destroyed, with the tail only attached by it's
control cables. Both pilot and student bailed out and
landed safely (bar a few breaks). Had this been prior
to Jed's time as CFI, we would have had two more dead
pilots.

I think that was the first of a kind in the UK, certainly
the risk of being hit in a mid-air is much greater,
and we have those pretty much every season!

Just because statistics show that something is unlikely,
it does not mean that the next flight you make wont
be the next entry into those same statistics!

Your chute is your only chance.