Richard Churchill-Coleman wrote:
> I have to agree with him, and a helmet would be useful too - all my comments
> ignored the test flying phase of flying as we don't have quite the same
> system in UK.
We have no mandatory test flying phase in the Netherlands. I will
receive my papers (hopefully) soon, and the rest is up to me. I can
start my world tour right at the first flight if I want to. ;-)
> 2. My guess is that having your plane controls welded by lightning is quite
> a low probability......albeit a bit unfortunate when it does happen....
I agree with you on this. There are some risks involved with flying, and
this one is one to be taken.
> 3. Just to be clear, I'm not saying you will definitely be seriously injured
> landing in rough terrain .... I just think you will more often be less
> injured steering the airframe into trees, river, rocks etc and letting it
> take the impact instead of you.
I have not so much confidence in a Europa taking much of an impact. A
Cessna is great in this respect, but a Europa, well, I guess the nose
shatters in pieces when it hits the first rock, and then the occupants
are the ones to take the next hit. Glass plaines don't bend or get
diverted from an obstacle, they just scatter into pieces and the
remainder continues its way.
> 4. Round chute landings are compared with jumping off a 12 foot high wall -
Wow. Hmm, I'm not sure whether I would survive that even in my own level
backyard, let alone on "uneven" surface. Now I start to understand why
you think that staying with the airplane would probably be a better option.
> 6. The ideal is to get some training if you believe that using a parachute
> is an option you would prefer. If you can jump with a square, steerable
> reserve, then a lot of these risks reduce significantly.
The emergency pilot chutes I'm aware off are of another type. Getting
something bigger, heavier, is not an option, even not in our hi-top Europa.
> Also, the risk of
> not deploying your parachute properly is much reduced if you are trained.
Ah. So it is not just a matter of pulling the rip cord, as suggested in
the ads? Really, if this is sounding hilarious to you, I'm a complete
novice on this subject. I thought it is just a matter of pulling the
cord and then waiting in some sort of comfort while slowly and gently
descending.
> And of course, are you going to get your passenger trained to skydive as
> well....?
I will share playing the passenger role with my wife, who also has a
PPL, helped to build the plane, and logically, we both would be wearing
a parachute, or not at all. ;-) The occasions where we will be flying
with other passengers will be neglectable.
> It is a question of personal risk assessment as Mike says.
I fully agree.
We participate in a multiple of community forums, from horseback riding
to flying, but I can't deny that the Europa forum is the only forum
where it is somewhat normal practice that once in a while a participant
loses his life while exercising his hobby. So, lots of our efforts go
into minimizing the risks associated with flying. Wearing parachutes
could be one thing to reduce some of the risks. But of course,
everything has a price. If wearing a parachute doesn't give much
reduction of risk (as it looks now), then we will forget about it. At
the moment it seems like we are going to do without it. ;-)
> My personal view (in a world where UK builders aren't allowed much
> freedom to change the original Europa design) is that all of the Europa
> accidents I have heard of so far in my few years on this forum, have
> occurred on take or landing when a parachute wouldn 't help.
I think you are right on this.
Thanks,
Frans
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