Derrick Steed wrote:


I've never seen a requirement from the BGA - but then maybe I'm not reading
the right things. It's not a suggestion I'm making, I was concerned that I
maintained my pack properly in the event I needed to use it.

I was asking if you faced a penalty for flying with your
parachute 4 months and 1 day after your last repack. In the
U.S., if I was to do that, I could (at least in theory) lose
my license to fly. I take it that you face no such
sanction.
Todd Pattist - "WH" Ventus C
(Remove DONTSPAMME from address to email reply.)

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You are correct, there is no penalty.

Although most clubs now where parachutes as a matter of course (following some
thinly veiled threats from a certain national coach as was) there is no law
as such. Since I came back to gliding in 1989 after a long break it's always
been my understanding that pilots of single seaters contemplating cross
countries or aerobatics were recommended to where a parachute by the BGA -
the practice has only recently (a few years) been adopted for dual trainers.

In some ways the picture is worse: there are no standards mandated by the CAA
or anyone else relating to emergency parachutes for gliders. When I bought my
first parachute (Thomas Sports Equipment pop-top) little advice was available
other than "by a GQ or Irvin a cheap parachute is not worth the money", so I
did my own research (where I learned there is no CAA standard, or British
Standard [materials yes, complete thing, no]. There was once a CAA approved
parachute - I inherited one when I bought a Dart 17, it was made by Irvin in
1968 and had been approved by the CAA (I bought the Dart in 1990) for the
World championships some time in the 60's.

Rgds,

Derrick.