emergency egress, sans 'chute?

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...e-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.