Flying with Parachutes

Al McNamara wrote on 8/14/2018 5:22 AM:
At 10:51 14 August 2018, krasw wrote:
tiistai 14. elokuuta 2018 7.10.18 UTC+3 Jonathan St. Cloud kirjoitti:

I do fly commercial rides at our gliderport were parachutes would not
be
practical on the scenic flights.

That's an excuse like no other. We do scenic flights all the time, and no
passenger has ever said that wearing parachute is inconvenient. But
obviously we live in different culture.

Someone on a 'scenic flight' rarely understands the risk involved in
flying, or to themselves. For this reason. at our club, the aim is that
introductory flights (which you categorise as scenic flights) should be the
safest training flight ever carried out. This includes wearing a
parachute, a brief from the instructor on exiting the glider in an
emergency and a brief on parachute deployment. The K21 breakup following a
lightning strike at Dunstable some years ago was an introductory flight (a
one day introductory course in this case) and the parachute saved the
passengers (and instructors) life.

I think there is a significant distinction between scenic flights and training
flights, regardless what you call them. True scenic flights will be conducted in
good weather and not in potentially threatening weather, unlike the ASK 21
training flight, where thunderstorms were likely. I suggest an alternate
description of that flight could be "bad judgement for deciding to fly in those
conditions; good luck parachutes were routinely required".

--
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