Rescue Aid

Put a water bottle in your fanny pack. Or you could spread out your parachute canopy and pray for rain

Both good ideas, in principle, but fanny packs were outlawed in the late '80s before water bottles were invented....and FAR Part 91.307 does not permit one to use a parachute for emergency purposes (this would include its use as a vessel to collect rainwater) unless it had been repacked within the previous 180 days. You just deployed it, so you're screwed ala Catch-22. A much better idea is to always carry ballast water in your tail tank. Dual purpose solution; the ship will have both a safe CG and since you cannot consume the tank water during flight, you'll always have some in reserve just in case of a land/crash out. Make sure you don't drain too much out, since the NTSB guy will cite you for improper W&B.

Duster wrote on 7/18/2018 8:57 PM:

Put a water bottle in your fanny pack. Or you could spread out your parachute canopy and pray for rain

Both good ideas, in principle, but fanny packs were outlawed in the late '80s before water bottles were invented....and FAR Part 91.307 does not permit one to use a parachute for emergency purposes (this would include its use as a vessel to collect rainwater) unless it had been repacked within the previous 180 days. You just deployed it, so you're screwed ala Catch-22. A much better idea is to always carry ballast water in your tail tank. Dual purpose solution; the ship will have both a safe CG and since you cannot consume the tank water during flight, you'll always have some in reserve just in case of a land/crash out. Make sure you don't drain too much out, since the NTSB guy will cite you for improper W&B.

I carry plenty of water in glider for use after a landout; so my problem is
getting water after a bail out. And, I have an STC for my fanny pack, so it's
still a potential option

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorg...ad-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/...anes-2014A.pdf