Do glider pilots wear parachutes

[evapilotaz]

Do glider pilots wear parachutes? If so why?
Are they dangerous? I understand for aerobatics but just normal flying I don’t understand why.
I’m thinking about getting glider add on to my ppl.

 

[Rgbeard]

Not for normal flying.

I highly encourage you to explore sailplanes! It has a lot to teach you, and you’ll be a better pilot.

 

[Bill Watson]

Do glider pilots wear parachutes? If so why?
Are they dangerous? I understand for aerobatics but just normal flying I don’t understand why.
I’m thinking about getting glider add on to my ppl.

Competition pilots do as do many cross country glider pilots. The danger is midair collisions. Midair’s are an obvious risk in gaggle flying and a distinct risk in pre-GPS logger days when turnpoint passage required a photograph from a aircraft mounted camera. Both risks have been mitigated by the use of GPS loggers which no longer require up to 40 or 50 gliders to turn over a single waypoint. Now they simply have to fly through a GPS defined cylinder.

Of course gliders can do acrobatics as well so there’s that.




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[tonycondon]

Required for competition, and most European gliders seats are really designed assuming the pilot is wearing a chute so it helps to have for comfort.

It is fairly standard in single seat glider to wear them.

It is not as standard in the US for training, especially when training in Schweizers.

 

[denverpilot]

Pretty much all the local glider pilots I know do, mainly for that “European glider seat shape” thing. They also carry as much gadgetry as power pilots do these days, and the panels rival anything I learned to fly behind. They have nicer O2 systems too.

The old Schweitzers are slowly disappearing.

Prices for these new gliders push the prices of restart Cessnas or surpass them, too. About the price of my first condo. LOL.

 

[weilke]

I feel weird flying a glider without a chute.

The glider club in germany where I learned to fly had 3 members bail over the 4 decades of it's existence. One from a midair, two in a control system malfunction.

 

[Bill Watson]

I was in the air with 50 other gliders milling around before a competition start when 2 collided. Both pilots broadcast the situation and after some discussion, one jumped and one landed his damaged ship safely.

Post accident, the consensus was that the guy who jumped should have stayed with his ship and landed it, while the guy who landed should have jumped(!?)

Turns out the jumper had logged over 50 sport jumps and the non-jumper was not jump trained. There’s lesson in there somewhere.

Funny thing is that I was within 2 miles of the collision and never saw a thing, despite all the radio chatter. Cranked my neck pretty bad looking out for falling debris.


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[Maxnr]

Some things that have made me think:
1. Ages ago, when I was a Boy Scout,my issue of Boys Life magazine had an article about about thunderstorm research. A glider was routinely flown into towering CB's. Parachute was worn.
2. I met a member of the Texas Soaring Assn who told me of one of the new members (solo student) who really liked the "green air" under a developing CB. As expected, he was sucked up and it was not accurately determined what altitude he achieved. He was spit out and landed with blue lips and fingernails some time later. The a/c sustained damage. No parachute.
3. A year or so later, I found an article in my SSA magazine (Soaring) that a pilot set the British Isles altitude record in a glider. He made it to 0ver 33,000 ft. by intentionally entering a developing CB. He was well prepared with O2, layers of warm clothing and a parachute.

 

[Zeldman]

I can't find it, but I remember reading about a collision between a glider and a jet, Hawker 800 I think.

The jet made a gear up landing and the glider pilot was dumped out when the glider came apart. He floated down under his 'chute and did not know where he was when he landed. He walked and found a road, then walked the road, parachute under his arm until a passing car picked him up.

 

[evapilotaz]

I guess I will check into my local glider club and see what they do. I'm just concerned there is more risk flying gliders than Powered Airplanes hence the need for a parachute.
Is parachute jump training needed for Glider Operations. You will never get me to skydive unless the plane was going down in flames.

 

[Juliet Hotel]

This Hawker was doing about 300kts when it hit an AGS-29 glider. A big chunk of the glider's wing spar is sticking out under the pilot side window. All involved survived. I doubt that would have been the case had the glider pilot not been wearing a chute.

 

[Zeldman]

This Hawker was doing about 300kts when it hit an AGS-29 glider. A big chunk of the glider's wing spar is sticking out under the pilot side window. All involved survived. I doubt that would have been the case had the glider pilot not been wearing a chute.

That's the one.!! Utterly amazing story from the pilots of both aircraft.

 

[Greg Bockelman]

Curious. What is different about glider flying than powered Flying? Why don’t you wear a ‘chute flying your Cessna?

Barring some sort of structural failure, which is pretty rare, there really isn’t all that much need to bail out of a glider. In fact, for a 2-22 or a 2-33, I would say it would be very difficult to get out of it in a timely fashion. Especially for the guy in back.

 

[Rgbeard]

I guess I will check into my local glider club and see what they do. I'm just concerned there is more risk flying gliders than Powered Airplanes hence the need for a parachute.
Is parachute jump training needed for Glider Operations. You will never get me to skydive unless the plane was going down in flames.

You have interesting risk perceptions and no, you don’t need skydiving training as a requirement.

 

[weilke]

Curious. What is different about glider flying than powered Flying? Why don’t you wear a ‘chute flying your Cessna?

Because
- you don't fly your Cessna in close formation with other aircraft for substantial portions of a regular flight
- you typically don't fly your Cessna into extreme turbulence

Barring some sort of structural failure, which is pretty rare, there really isn’t all that much need to bail out of a glider. In fact, for a 2-22 or a 2-33, I would say it would be very difficult to get out of it in a timely fashion. Especially for the guy in back.

Modern competition gliders are designed for quick egress. You jettison the canopy with one handle, undo your seatbelts with a second handle and go over the side.

No training needed btw. this is not skydiving with a substantial freefall. You just try to get out of the mangled wreckage.

 

[Maxnr]

Curious. What is different about glider flying than powered Flying? Why don’t you wear a ‘chute flying your Cessna?

Barring some sort of structural failure, which is pretty rare, there really isn’t all that much need to bail out of a glider. In fact, for a 2-22 or a 2-33, I would say it would be very difficult to get out of it in a timely fashion. Especially for the guy in back.

Tell me about it. The guy that got me through my add-on glider rating was in love with flying. He was medically retired from the USAF. Briefly, he was in the back seat of an F-4 on a bomb run somewhere stateside. They released a 500 pounder and it exploded just feet under the belly. The ship broke up and he was thrown out side wards. Minus his right leg above the knee. Front seat didn't make it.
It was painful to watch him insert himself in the back seat of a 2-22. But he did it alone. I was familiar with the drill, being a "gimp" myself, and still getting over some Kalishnakov rash in my right leg. No help needed, thank you.
Weeks later, after he was done with me, the CAF came to the field for a big, old flying orgy. It did my heart good to see those good old boys strap him in the front seat of a T-6 (solo) and watch him make skid marks all over the sky.

 

[Rgbeard]

To the Op. there’s lots of sailplane flying that doesn’t involve competition, close-proximity flying, or temptation of the thunderstorm gods.

Just weekend glider flying, and most of those pilots don’t wear chutes and wouldn’t consider it. You certainly can if you choose.

As far as it not being a powered plane, you keep your “glide circle” in your mind and continually know your landing points. The risk is mo greater than an ordinary powered plane in the opinion of many.

Get some glider education and see for yourself. Maybe you’ll enjoy it and learn something fun, too.

 

[Juliet Hotel]

Curious. What is different about glider flying than powered Flying? Why don’t you wear a ‘chute flying your Cessna?

A couple things. Cessnas spend a large portion of their time in the air adhering to certain standard protocols. Odd altitudes plus 500 for east side headings, even altitudes plus 500 for west headings. Even when spending time below 3000 agl, if you're generally either going somewhere (straight line flying) or you're practicing maneuvers which generally start with clearing turns.

Gliders tend to not do that. They tend to stay close to the airport they left from and they meander from thermal to thermal to thermal. And since thermals are power, when you find one you jump on it and circle in it. You're turning a lot, but those turns aren't usually clearing turns in the same sense. You do a clearing turn in your 172 and you see someone heading your way, you're probably going to not do whatever it was you were going to do until that threat is no longer a threat. In a glider you find a thermal and you start turning. If you see a threat, you're going to do your best to stay in thermal or very close to it and not hit whatever the threat is.

The other aspect is mechanical. You fly your Cessna and then you put it back in the hangar or you tie it down. When it needs attention, you take to an a&p who performs maintenance on it using certified parts and approved techniques. The wings went on your Cessna at the factory and likely haven't been off since.

None of that is the case for most gliders. Often the wings and other pieces come off after every flight. Often a certified mechanic looks at it once a year at annual time. In between the owners maintain things themselves whether that's legal or not. And if something isn't to the owners liking and needs medication or repair, the owner makes that happen using the best materials home depot can supply. The term 'certified approved repair' is much more of a suggestion than a requirement in the glider world in my experience.