At 09:28 25 October 2015, Julian Rees wrote:
At 07:30 25 October 2015, Chris Rollings wrote:

I believe that the "don't unbuckle the 'chute and leave it in th
aircraft
when you get out" advice, is based on one incident with a Spitfire in
WWI
in which the pilot was believed to have done just that when abandoning
th
aircraft. It seems a very small sample on which to base considerable
inconvenience for tens of thousands of pilots over a period of 75 years.

whether the parachute was unclipped in the cockpit or the pilot go i
with
his chute not secure, I suspect the latter is the more likely.


I also think this advice dates back to the days when parachutes had a
"tur
and press" quick release dropped all the straps. A modern chute normall
needs you to undo 3 buckles, none of which are similar to the cockpi
straps, so the risk is less.

However I still leave the chute on and struggle out of the cockpit! I
als
snug up the leg straps once seated in the cockpit (before the seat
straps)
which does check they are done up on getting in.

I am old enough to remember the "turn and bang" single parachute release. I
remember being told that the original idea of having to turn and then
depress the turned lock was deliberate to make the sequence different from
the straightforward turn of the seat harness. Modern parachutes with 3
separate clips are completely different to the seat harness, however I can
well see that muscle memory might take over in a stressful situation if my
habit was to unbuckle the parachute before getting out every time.
With the EB80 that I currently wear it is very difficult, because I fit
very snugly into the cockpit, to unclip the leg straps while seated in the
cockpit. The two levers need to be pulled outwards to release the clips and
there is no room to do this in most gliders that I fly. Some contortion is
needed to successfully release the leg straps, something I feel I am very
unlikely to do if faced with abandonment. Because I have always climbed out
of the glider, still wearing the parachute, I have to make a concious
effort not to do so. My default if you like is to leave wearing the
parachute and I am happy with this.
I do remember on one occasion getting into the glider leaving the leg
straps undone, luckily sitting on the unsecured straps was extremely
uncomfortable so I discovered my error before flight.