emergency chute

I personally know two pilots who had to jump. One broke a leg on
landing, the other sprayed an ankle.

My informal survey suggests that about a quarter of those who make
emergency bailouts on round parachutes go to the hospital afterwards,
so I'm not surprised. I've never heard of anyone bailing out on a
square parachute and getting hurt, but that doesn't mean much because
(a) they are still new, expensive, and relatively rare and (b) are
generally used by trained parachutists (everyone I know who uses one at
least went through some ground school and made a training jump) so how
much of this is gear and how much is training is hard to determine.

But believe it or not: Neither of them complained.

It's a matter of perspective. If a power pilot has to land off airport
and he walks away, even needing stitches, he feels great about the
experience because it's something he will do only in a dire emergency,
and probably never. If a glider pilot walks away from an off airport
landing with a trashed aircraft and stitches, he feels it was a pretty
bad outcome, and wonders what he should have done differently. This is
more of the same.

Sport parachute jumpers pretty much accept that they will eventually
use that emergency parachute they wear as a backup. Therefore, they
expect a certain level of performance. That's why when they wear a
bailout rig, they want a square. Glider pilots don't see it that way.

It's not right or wrong. It's your choice to accept an emergency
parachute that has a high probability of putting you in the hospital if
you use it. I simply feel it should be an informed choice.

Michael