Gregg Ballou wrote:
Does anyone remember incidents where the pilot was seriously injured?
Don't know of any. But I wouldn't be surprised. Given the average
age of glider pilots they need all the help they can get not having to
heal.
Does anyone know of an incident(s) where a ram air parachute, used by a
pilot with no jump training, would have significantly improved the
outcome?
Not enough events to draw from. Pilot rigs with squares are new(square
reserves have been around 20 years) and it's likely the early adopters
are mostly former jumpers.
Does anyone know of an incident(s) where a ram air parachute, used by an

experienced ram air parachutist, would have significantly improved the
outcome?
If you count skydivers using square reserves then lots.
With (I'm
guessing)1-2 glider bailouts worldwide per year we don't have the number
of incidents to draw from.

I'm talking about glider pilots using round emergency parachutes in an
emergency: do we know of any incident(s) where using "detuned" ram air
parachute instead of the round one might have significantly affected the
outcome, positively or negatively?

My position is that if someone is in the market for a new parachute and
the price difference isn't a deal breaker then a square is the sensible
choice.

My position is there is no evidence the untrained glider pilot will be
better off, and some chance the pilot might actually be worse off. So
far, the evidence I'm aware of (USA only - not familiar with overseas),
is that the round emergency does a good job, even with pilots that
haven't jumped before and have no real training.

I have no qualms about experienced jumpers using ram air parachutes in a
glider.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
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