Stay in, or get out?

Probably not a good idea, for a couple of reasons:

1. You may need both arms to get out, or may only have one working (or
free) arm available to get out. And you HAVE to get out before using
the chute (with one possible exception).

2. If you are holding the rip-cord during egress, you probably
increase the chance of an early chute deployment, and possible
entaglement with the glider.

A better plan is to practice finding your rip-cord while wearing your
chute - using your eyes to guide your hands to where it should be.
This should be tried both standing up, crouching, spread-eagled; any
position you think you might assume after exiting the glider. Also,
note that the rip-cord handle (D-ring) may be jarred loose from it's
housing during the bailout, and you might have to locate it by finding
where the rip-cord exits the chute housing and following the rip-cord
wire to the D-ring. Think about it, look carefully at your parachute,
and practice actually deploying it when you drop it off to get it
repacked - you may be surprised how hard (or easy) it is to pull. I
like to setup a scenario with my rigger, then talk myself through the
timeline of a mid-air and bailout (CANOPY, STRAPS, EXIT, FIND D-RING,
PULL, CHECK CANOPY etc), until I pull the rip-cord and the chute
"deploys". My chute always surprises me with an "easy" pull, compared
to some military training jumps I did long ago that required two hands
to move the D-ring!

The exception mentioned above? You can't get out of the cockpit.
Last resort,(canopy gone) is to unstrap, lean forward as far as you
can (pull youself using the instrument panel), then pull the rip-
cord. You WILL be extracted from the glider. It may not be pretty,
thought!

Ref FLARM: Unfotunately, we pathetic Americans are specifically
prohibited from using it. Not that it would do much good in most
parts of the US, glider density is way too low. And I can't even get
most pilots in my club to set their altimeters to QNH! So the chance
of there being pressure to introduce a similar system in the US is
pretty low, IMHO...

Kirk
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