Last year I bought a parachute, not because I wanted to jump out of a perfectly good airplane, but just in case my airplane suddenly was no longer perfectly good.
I fly gliders most weekends, and my Pilatus is a nice aircraft with decent performance. I enjoy the sport and I have few safety concerns if I pay attention to what I’m doing. The one major concern I do have is about the risk of a mid-air collision. Our club’s base is just west of the Chesapeake Bay, north of Baltimore, and a lot of north/south traffic cruises through the area. Plus, there is always the threat of collision with another glider while working the same thermal, even though our wariness about that situation verges on paranoia.
When I bought the ’chute from Alan Silver, a wise and experienced parachutist and rigger, he talked with me in some detail about my approach to the ’chute. It is important, he counseled, that I rehearse the act of bailing out of my aircraft should it become crippled. The rehe…
