Was that Open Cirrus comp number 272? Before this accident
flown at the SGU? Later rebuilt and flown at Talgarth? Does
anyone know?


At 09:00 25 October 2012, Kevin Neave wrote:
I believe there was a case at Nympsfield where an Open Cirrus
had elevator
circuit failure and the pilot "almost" got out without taking 'chute.
After
sitting back down & doing up 'chute straps a successful bailout
was
achieved.

KN

At 06:45 25 October 2012, Chris Rollings wrote:
There has been no such case in the UK in the last 40 plus
years, I am
certain. I have not heard of any before that, nor have I ever
heard of
one
from any other part of the World. I think if there ever had
been such an
event it would have been widely reported and we would all
know about it.

It's possible that the stories originate from bomber crews in
WW II, many
of whom had parachutes stowed in the aircraft, not worn in
flight, who
jumped, without 'chute, from a burning aircraft, rather than
stay in and
burn.

At 01:24 25 October 2012, Bob Whelan wrote:
On 10/24/2012 3:28 PM, Piet Barber wrote:


However, I was horrified to see some of the experienced
instructors
get
out
of the gliders by unbelting the aircraft harnesses, then
unfastening
the
parachute, and getting out, leaving the parachute in the
glider. (I
won't
say the name of the club to protect the guilty). I scolded
them, "You
shouldn't do that, you'll get in the habit, and someday,
when the need
arises, you'll have to bail out in an emergency. You'll follow
that
habit
and jump out of the aircraft without the parachute."

But then I thought about it: Surely nobody would ever
*actually* do
that
in
an emergency! Right?

Earlier today, while reading this blog at soaring cafe,
http://soaringcafe.com/2012/05/the-b...-decision-are-
you-ready/4/
and
watching the video he
http://www.eaavideo.org/video.aspx?v=1404862537001

...the master parachute rigger in that video claimed that
there were
documented cases of pilots bailing out without parachutes;
after
having
fallen back to their habitual procedure of unfastening the
aircraft
harness, then unfastening the parachute harness, then
bailing out sans
parachute.

Does anybody actually know about this ever happening?

(I've also e-mailed the guy who did that excellent
presentation,
asking
him
to back up the claim).

A few years ago I had the opportunity - and was happy for it
- to attend
an

Allen Silver presentation (same topic as on the EAA video).
All I knew
of
him
going in was that he was a Master Rigger.

Color me Seriously Impressed at the end of the presentation.

He was: understated; matter of factly wryly hummorous;
seriously
qualified
at
many levels to make such a presentation; entirely believable
based on my

background as a "show me" engineer with a (long, long ago)
history of
one

bailout from a single-seat sailplane (because it seemed like
the thing
to
do
at the time).

Let us know what he says in reply to your query, because I,
too,
wondered
of
the background to the claim (but lacked the gumption to
ask!). That
said,
I'd
been following his advice for decades before I heard it,
because "it
seemed

like a good idea." Still does. Habits being powerful things, my
nickel
is
on
his claim having real basis in fact...

In any event, who among us would want to be the first to
prove him
right,
if
he's playing a bit fast and loose with the facts on this
particular
claim.
:-)

Bob W.