From: "nowhere" <nowhere@telus.net>
To: <parachute@continuo.com>
Subject: Parachutes
Date sent: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 14:57:50 -0700

I was stunned to read that there is a soaring club which has chosen to
effectively forbid it's members from wearing parachutes unless they have the
money to purchase one for themselves. I think that this could indeed lead to
a lawsuit if someone is killed when the now eliminated option to borrow a
chute could have saved their life.

In my club we have more than a dozen parachutes available to any club
member at no extra charge. it is made clear to everyone that they have the
option to wear a chute whenever they fly. The cost of purchase and repacking
is included in the yearly membership fees.

The interesting thing is that quite a few members choose not to wear them!
As much of our flying is ridge soaring some pilots state that we fly so
close to the terrain that there will be no chance to bail out if anything
does go wrong. Many also seem to greatly overestimate the height needed to
make a safe bail out and base their ideas about the usefullness of chutes
upon vague anecdotal evidence. I have talked to several pilots who believe
that even bailing out 2000 feet A.G.L. would not leave enough time to deploy
the parachute. The strangest response I ever got when asking a pilot if he
would like a parachute (I was going to get him some cushions for the L23 he
was about to fly and asked if he wanted me to get him a chute at the same
time) was, "No, I've thought it over and decided that, if anything happens,
I'd rather stay with the plane." As if wearing a parachute MANDATED flinging
yourself into space at the first sign of anything alarming!

I have trouble dispelling the myths about altitude required or the average
pilots ability to get out of the glider and pull the d-ring in order to save
themselves. Even getting them to read, for example, the sections in a few of
Derek Piggots' books about the statistics dealing with emergency bail outs
as well as his own personal experiences with them seems to do little good.

As for the providing of parachutes giving a bad image to the club this is,
quite simply, absurd. Is the same thing said about seatbelts or ELT's? Our
club offers a "familiarization flight" for anyone who drops by the field
and wants to go flying. Without exception these people ranging from highly
experienced power pilots to people who have never flown in anything smaller
than a DC-9 appreciate the fact that we give them the option of wearing a
chute and that we put a high priority on safety.

Ray Ochitwa, Vancouver Soaring Association