Why would bailing out of a Erupoa be particularly dangerous? Many
pilots bailed out in the last war and survived - even flew the next day.
I have made many jumps on round chutes and yes it is a bit of a bump on
landing but I am not sure 12 wall is correct mind you i was a but
younger then. And yes people do hurt themselves landing on rough
terrain but on the whole it is confined to broken ankles. I seem to
recall that the minimum operational jump height out of a C130 is 600
trainig jump height is 800, that said most of my jumps were night jumps
because I had my eyes shut.
I certainly plan to wear a chute when testing and a crash hat ....oh and
some decent boots to reduce the possibliity of ankle injury.
Will
Frans Veldman wrote:
>
> 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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