Bailing Out Successfully

[Crib-Pilot]

I, like many of you, fly gliders while wearing a parachute.  Unfortunately, I have zero knowledge of what it will be like to bail out.  As they say, forewarned is forearmed so it occurred to me that I should talk with those few glider pilots that have had to jump out.

The intent of my speaking to these pilots was NOT WHY it became necessary to bail out ... which seems irrelevant to me ... but rather WHAT we can learn about bailing out from those that have done so. 

I was able to find 17 names of glider pilots who have had to bail out.  I was able to track down nine (9) of these pilots who I asked to fill out a questionnaire I had created.  I was able to hold great conversations via phone with three pilots and the other pilots sent their remarks via email.  I promised that the pilot's involved would remain unnamed.  

Besides answering my questionnaire with the fascinating information I received, I also asked for their "lessons learned".  This, as it turned out, seems the most valuable part of this entire effort.

All of the information I received has been condensed into a presentation which I gave last month at a Chicagoland Glider Council meeting.  After several revisions It seems it is now ready for the soaring community to take a first look. https://aviation.derosaweb.net/presentations/#bailingout

Let me know if you have any comments.  Please reply directly to me.

Thanks, John (OHM)

[John Johnson]

This is a really good read.  Does a great job of breaking down and disseminating the sequence of events the interviewees experienced.  Thank you!

JJ

[George Haeh]

Sadly Alberta has lost three people since 2019.

An instructor and young student were found in the cockpit after the tailplane was taken off in a midair. You w ason't have time to brief a bail out in the air. It must be done on the ground. 

This spring a pilot bailed out from an apparent spin, but the loose D-ring was not pulled. 

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  George Haeh

  403-370-9033

  gh...@fastmail.fm

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[herbk...@yahoo.com]

John, we talked about this. If we had the static line chutes mandated in Europe, the advice could be reduced to one sentence:  Get out of the glider.

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[Stéphane Vander Veken]

Static lines are not mandatory in Europe. IIRC, they used to be mandatory in Germany for student pilots and guests. However, parachutes are not mandatory either. I should add that static lines are not a panacea: they will not function reliably if the plane you jump out of is going down at the same speed as you, they can be cut by the canopy rim while exiting (see the Bjorn Stender accident with the BS-1 prototype), etc. You can have the best of both worlds with some parachute types by having them fitted with a static line + a manual release. Anyhow, don't forget to hook up the static line when entering and to detach the static line when leaving the cockpit. Both have occurred more than once...