Ramy wrote:

I don;t wear a parachute when flying myself: I prefer "not hitting
things" to "trying to survive after hitting things"...

Ian

Interesting. I take it that you never fly above 500m and that you have
a shield around your glider protecting it from other "things" hitting
it, especially from behind. Or maybe you believe that "see and avoid"
really works. We just had a guy last year at Minden which was above
500m and was hit by a thing and survived only thanks to his
parachute.

Hitting things, or getting hit, are not the only hazards, unfortunately:
the glider controls can malfunction; structures fail from undetected
damage or manufacturing errors; lightning strikes; getting sucked into
cloud; microbursts; unrecoverable spins from errors in CG location; and
likely others I don't recall. 30 years and 5000+ hours in gliders has
taught me that I'm fallible, mother nature is tricky, equipment fails,
and other pilots can be boneheads; therefore, I might need a parachute
or crashworthy glider, so I have both.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org