Flying with Parachutes

On Friday, August 31, 2018 at 11:22:54 AM UTC-4, Dan Marotta wrote:
I believe the FAA rule is that there's no life limit on a parachute
unless it is unairworthy (by inspection) or the manufacturer specifies a
life limit at certification.Â* If your rigger won't inspect/pack your
chute due to age, find another rigger.Â* My previous round parachute was
42 years old when I removed it from service and bought a square rig.

On 8/30/2018 8:58 PM, JS wrote:
On Thursday, August 30, 2018 at 7:32:15 PM UTC-7, wrote:
There are riggers packing 20+ year old parachutes. Shipping is cheap compared to a new parachute. Of course if you can afford going square it is smart.
Yet to see the 20-year rule on paper, other than something like "paraphernalia won't pack our own chutes beyond 20 years" which is their option but not a rule.

A friend just donated two 20-year-old chutes to our pilot mentoring group. I saw them opened, and the containers, harnesses and chutes looked well taken care of. Picked them up from inspection and repack a couple of days later.
This was a great donation, since the pilots learning XC do not have parachutes and the mentors fly XC with their own.
Jim

--
Dan, 5J

Thanks, Dan. Philosophically I agree with you, as I have jumped many old but airworthy rigs over the years.

All: I'm wondering if this is just a way for the parachute manufacturers to extract more money from us. I finally found the letter given to me by the skydiving center here in Miami. It is just an OPINION from National Parachute Industries, but it has enough weight to it that it has scared both my Miami rigger and my Pennsylvania rigger into refusing to repack it...so I need the name of a good rigger who will, if you know one.

I got my square with container and bag for about $2,700.Â* If interested,
talk with Rigging Innovations (I'm not connected in any way).Â* I'm
extremely happy with my choice and did seven jumps to be comfortable
with the type.

On 8/30/2018 6:00 PM, wrote:
On Friday, August 10, 2018 at 8:22:54 PM UTC-4, John Huthmaker wrote:
I'm just starting out with soaring. Simple question for you guys. How many of you fly with an emergency parachute? It looks like they cost around $2000 online. Pretty steep price; although the cost is insignificant if it saves your life. Is this something I should be looking to purchase?
I own my own glider and parachute and usually fly with the chute. I am also a licensed jumpmaster (or was) with a few hundred jumps, so I'm pretty comfortable jumping out of planes. I feel WAY safer wearing the chute (in gliders and planes), and I've had no comfort issues with it. I may not survive the accident (canopy jams, too low to bail out, etc.) but at least I'll have something to keep my mind occupied while I'm going down and won't feel totally helpless to save myself.

Be aware that I've had two riggers now tell me that they will not repack any rig that is more than 20 years old. There is a new legal(?) standard going around on that. A rigger showed me the printout of it, but I forgot what legal body is endorsing it. It's not official yet, but riggers are worried about being sued because of it.

A new square canopy and container is going to cost me $3-5k apparently. Ugh! Gotta pay to play.


--
Dan, 5J

At 00:22 11 August 2018, John Huthmaker wrote:
I'm just starting out with soaring. Simple question for you guys. How
man=
y of you fly with an emergency parachute? It looks like they cost around
$=
2000 online. Pretty steep price; although the cost is insignificant if
it
=
saves your life. Is this something I should be looking to purchase?


Absolutely wear a parachute. Skydivers carry a reserve because they
recognise that, occasionally, main parachutes fail. Our main parachute is
the glider and we all know that, occasionally they also fail
(mid-air/rigging failure/lightning strike etc). A few years ago, I came off
AT and climbed to 3k and switched to the XC frequency. I immediately heard
"Mayday, Mayday, two gliders collided and I see one parachute".
Subsequently, I found out both pilots survived, the second pilot managed to
land his glider.
Enough said I think!

On Sun, 04 Nov 2018 16:58:07 +0000, Anthony McDermott wrote:

At 00:22 11 August 2018, John Huthmaker wrote:
I'm just starting out with soaring. Simple question for you guys. How
man=
y of you fly with an emergency parachute? It looks like they cost
around $=
2000 online. Pretty steep price; although the cost is insignificant if
it
=
saves your life. Is this something I should be looking to purchase?


Absolutely wear a parachute. Skydivers carry a reserve because they
recognise that, occasionally, main parachutes fail. Our main parachute
is the glider and we all know that, occasionally they also fail
(mid-air/rigging failure/lightning strike etc). A few years ago, I came
off AT and climbed to 3k and switched to the XC frequency. I immediately
heard "Mayday, Mayday, two gliders collided and I see one parachute".
Subsequently, I found out both pilots survived, the second pilot managed
to land his glider.
Enough said I think!

Fully agree. In my club nobody flies without one, be they trial flighters,
ab initios, instructors or just plain members.

I wasn't yet flying in 1999 when the Dunstable ASK-21 got destroyed by a
lightning strike at 2500 AGL, but both its pilots were wearing parachutes
and both survived. When I started learning in 2000 everybody in my club
was using parachutes for all flying[1] and fairly soon this was the norm
for all UK clubs.

[1] the exception was flying in our Slingsby T.21. I'm unsure of the
rationale for this: it seems to be some combination of: extreme
discomfort flying it in a 'chute and/or difficulty in getting out due the
the cockpit being under the wing leading edge.


--
Martin | martin at
Gregorie | gregorie dot org