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Old May 7th 04, 06:13 PM
John DeRosa Sky Soaring Chicago IL
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Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and comments.

Todd Pattist's comment #2 (below) seems to echo a common thread in
this posting. To paraphrase…

"Pilots who use automatic parachutes (with static lines) may be in the
habit of exiting their ships at the end of each safe flight by
unbuckling their seat belts *AND* unbuckling their parachute, leaving
the parachute behind in the glider for the next flight.
Unfortunately, this long held and reinforced habit might lead (in an
emergency situation) to unbuckling the parachute before bailing out."

Not good. I believe that the lesson learned is that each and every
time you exit your ship you should *ONLY* unbuckling your seat belts,
leaving the removal of the parachute for after you are standing
alongside your glider. First, this will build up some reinforced
training in how to exit your ship with your parachute on (not so easy)
and, more importantly, might save your life.

As a pilot who is new to "high" performance sailplanes (three flights
total) I have only recently started wearing a parachute. I did have
the habit of unbuckling everything before exiting but this is one
habit I can ill afford to learn.

Back to the thought of my only now (after several hundred flights)
begun wearing a parachute, what are your thoughts on the general (US
only?) practice of not wearing parachutes for the majority of (club)
glider flying. I have been told that in England, 100% of the pilots
wear parachutes for all flights. I understand the disadvantage of
requiring parachutes (increased costs mainly) but the disadvantage(s)
are more fearful. What does a place like Minden/Estrella do for their
commercial operation in high(er) performance ships where weather
conditions can be incident inducing (at least more than here in the
Midwest where I fly)?

An interesting comment was made about not liking automatic parachutes
for the situation of a high altitude bailout and the potential of
oxygen deprivation while hanging below an open envelope. I always
weigh the risks and benefits when making decisions like this. This
seems a little like the argument not to wear seatbelts in automobiles
for fear of not being able to get out quickly in case of water or
fire. Obviously the important thing is to survive the crash so that
you CAN get out quickly. I propose that the risk of being at altitude
long enough to suffer detrimental hypoxia is low, not just here in the
Midwest but in the vast majority of soaring locations. Certainly the
number of incidences that require bailing out is directly proportional
to your altitude. There are simply more hours flow over the course of
the year (averaged across the US) at lower altitudes. Flying in the
Midwest? Automatic is good. Flying in the Andes? Automatic might be
bad. Your mileage (altitude) may vary.

So this leads me to how to retrofit a non-automatic parachute for
automatic operation. I will start another posting/thread for that,
"Automatic Parachutes & Retrofitting".

Thanks Again, John DeRosa

(John DeRosa Sky Soaring Chicago IL) wrote in message . com...
I was looking at my new-to-me glider on Saturday and noticed a 1" hole
just over the pilot's left shoulder with a red stripe painted above
it. See
http://www.dg-flugzeugbau.de/grosse-piloten-e.html for a
picture of the hole.

We stood around and pondered what the hole was for. No one had much
of an idea. The manual was no help. I wrote to DG and they said it
was for the static line of an automatic parachute, which DG said are
very popular in Germany.

My question is, why aren't automatic parachutes popular in other
countries? I can understand the advantages. What are the
disadvantages (besides getting out of your glider when back on the
ground after a long flight and forgetting to unbuckle!)?

Also, how long is the static line?

Thanks, John DeRosa


Todd Pattist wrote:


Other disadvantages a

1) the pilot who climbs out without releasing the static or
removing the chute and deploys his chute on the ground;

2) the pilot who bails out under emergency stress conditions
and disconnects the chute before getting out of the
aircraft, just like every other time he has gotten out of
the aircraft.