How Emergency Parachutes Can Save Your Life 

In the 1980s an RAF Bulldog aircraft got into a flat spin. The pilot, an instructor exited the aircraft, but, as the practice at the time was to leave the parachute in the aircraft when landed, he followed his muscle memory practice and left his perfectly serviceable parachute in the spinning aircraft as he fell to his death. After that the practice was changed to putting on and taking off the parachute outside of the aircraft.

Jim packed reserves for me im the 1990's. Nice to see him still out and about

Great learning! often you don't get to deploy or even see you parachute open.

As soon as he said “New Zealand”...automatic thumb up!

Wow! What a brilliant video, Tim. You do perform a very useful function with your films: thank you. For those of us who have not ( and hope to never have to) actually used a parachute it was great to hear some of the finer details. It's also nice to know that I was not talking out of my bottom hole when briefing students on their use! I didn't realise that steering was as 'easy' on a conical canopy and it's nice to know that 250kV power lines can be avoided!!!. I always used to tell people to land with feet & knees together and legs bent but I'm not sure how I arrived at that instruction: I think it was probably from watching too many war films when I was a kid or maybe stepping off a kerb and landing on a stiff heel just made it bloody obvious!! :-) Interestingly though, it is something I have never heard even very experienced (gliding) instructors relate to their students. I have always thought I should go and do a jump just to experience the event but I have never summoned up the 'balls' to do it!! LoL

Great video Tim. What a pleasure to see Jim again; I remember him from the Whenuapai DZ in the early 80s. A real gentleman and a great teacher/instructor.

This guy makes really good content!

I wonder how often anyone has actually had to use a Parachute in a glider. From what I have read most of them were mid-air collisions while in a thermal with lot of other gliders. I have seen a few videos where several up to 10 gliders rotating in a single thermal I could see how easy it would be to collide just being the fact that your turning and difficult to see.

GO Jim! You knock him over and he continues his explanation !! Great Video!

Hi. Nice video. Input to the subject I learned some time ago: When landing in trees... keep you arm crossed in front of you and keep you elbows tight pressed into the side of you body. This will help to protect the big blood wessels under your arm pits to be punched open by the tree branches. A bleeding from these big blood wessels in the arm pit area, is very hard to block. This is also one of the reasons that the knee's is keep tightly together, to hinder puncture of the big blood wessels in the groin area.

A point to bear in mind. These canopy's forward 'drive' is only about walking speed in still air. So once it's fully open, look down between your feet straight away & note your drift across the ground, turn away from any upcoming ground hazards as early as possible, remember - your steering will only turn you & the canopy to face another direction, it's the 'both-hands-up straight-drive' that will carry you to safety - so keep things facing the right way & allow it enough time to get you there! : )

Had no idea how they worked so thank you very much. Don't ever wish to have to use one,

Loving your channel. Great content and really well put together.... this is the best single explanation of deploying a emergency chute I have seen. Your 'assistant' 😁 was first class.....

Start of our season Rigging 2ZC this weekend and donning our chute for the first time in a while. This never gets old and its great to put this stuff back into focus. BTW the "OK I'm ready" joke it still makes me chuckle

Look, reach, pull and if you can think about it, pull in direct line away from the cable housing, (not at 90 degrees to the housing) which in most cases will be downwards and away. Practice without actually pulling, LOOK, REACH, PULL (think about the direction of pull) and recovering both arms into a wide ‘Y’ which will help stabilise your body. 👍

Thanks Tim, that was fantastic!

Thanks Tim for another first class instructional video. Thanks also to Jim for always making time for a chat during his full annual repacking days.

Well done! Reminds me of the days when we skydivers used to jump military-surplus round parachutes (pre-1985). FAA Master Parachute Rigger: back, seat and chest. Formerly worked for Butler, Para-Phernalia and Rigging Innovations.

It is always good to have a “Plan B” (second chance). 👍

Very, very useful. Thank you for your brilliant video! I learnt to fly gliders last summer, and we cannot test-pull the parachute, because the nearest packer is 800 km away at the other end of the country, where we send them in winter for annual repacking. So it was great to see how this actually works. 👍😎

I’m doing the exactly thing in the Israel Air Force, and it so nice to see it from the American side. I would love more videos like this. ❤❤❤

Nice! Very complete.

Excellent video-material about chute and how it actually works! Thank you, Tim!

Excellent overview. Thanks a bunch for posting this!

This was awesome, a true expert explanation. Thank you :)

Thank you very for much for this great video!!! Before I became a parachute rigger myself last year, I didn't know much about the emergency parachutes I have been wearing for years... a little bit shocking in hindsight. These emergency devices are luckily taken for granted nowadays (mostly), but a little bit more awareness of their functionality will definitely be useful for the worst case we all hope to never experience. Therefore this video is very eductional for all glider pilots and I will share it and reference it!

Excellent video, thank you!

A great video, thank you.

Great vid as usual! Far cry from the ones I once used in the military, much more comfortable

Very interesting, our paraglider reserve is definitely a lot smaller but of course not designed for free fall deployment, basically used when we have a collapse or situation that makes our glider a tangled mess and un flyable so we will already have some drag as we are plummeting towards the ground when we deploy our reserve, very cool seeing how your safety chute works.

This is a great channel.

Very good video for ab initio pilots or someone who wants to fly occasionally as a 'refresher'. I had the luxury of a MB mk5 seat on the one and only exit from an aircraft in flight nearly 35 years ago. It was a painful experience even after spending many hours training and re-training for such an episode. The parachute descent was quite calm, although I had severe back pain with a ruptured L2/3 vertebrate fracture. Never flew FJ again.

Very informative!

Excellent discussion on usage of parachute. For pilots in two seaters after a midair there may be no time to spare for discussion. Perhaps in preflight briefing: "If my canopy comes off, you should be leaving too." Comments?

That was a great instructional video.

Good informative video! skydiver and paraglider pilot here! I like Emergency chutes :)

I thank you for showing these types of video. I've been dreaming about trying this sail plane thing. Again, I think you have great video's I wish there was something near the East coast of United States.

There are also discussion points about making the decision in the first place, only the survivors say it was quite obvious, and how to get out of an aircraft that may not be flying straight and level. It is hard to get out of a high performance single-seater glider even after a normal landing while wearing a 'chute, which is why some people undo the parachute straps first. Standing up from a reclining position while pulling more than 1 g is even harder. Also watch "G Dale - Bailout Advice" on RU-vid

There is one more thing to consider before jumping. Do I really need to jump? In most cases there is not enough time to think about it but in some there is. I've had two gliders midair collision. The other glider has been cut into two pieces (tail section and front cockpit and wings section), the other pilot HAD TO jump. That's what he did. My glider was damaged but I had almost full control. It's been almost two years since the accident but I still ask myself. Should have I jumped out? In the air assesment of the damages is not an easy thing. You are unable to see all parts of the glider, you may only imagine what happened, you may feel that on the stick and pedals. I've been wondering for a long time if I made a good decision of staying in the aircraft. Thinking the other way. What could have happened if I have jumped out? 1. I couldn't be sure whether the parachute would open. 2. There was a forest beneath, landing would be difficult, so would be the rescue mission. 3. The major one. I was flying glider that was very difficult to get out from. I'm rather a tall person and now I think I would not succeed in leaving a glider. My advice is. Always be prepared, briefed for the jump. Know your glider as well as the parachute you're wearing. Before every flight take a quick look at the terrain map of the place you are going to fly to know where to find "safe spots" not only for outlanding but also for landing with a parachute. The thing I will always tell everyone. LOOK OUT THROUGH THE WINDSHIELD. Don't stare at your vario, navi. Take into account that the flarm may not work, or the other glider may not be equipped with it. Stay safe, fly nice and enjoy gliding.

12:13 "If you ever have the opportunity to pull your parachute I suggest you do it." Good to know. If falling to death, it is suggested I pull parachute 😁 Awesome information in this video though! Thanks!

Thank you so much for this informative video, it helps a lot. Maybe it is possible to add some information about automatic parachutes? Also a very important disclaimer: a parachute only helps, when there is enough hight. Maybe a tutorial on how to actually jump out of the glider might be helpful too....

When I was in the Navy we would repack inspect parachutes every 210 days . The ones I worked on were used in ejection seats and had explosive cartridges and ballistic spreader guns and we're controlled by a barometric trigger . Little bit different than hop and pop .

Excellent stuff. So many glider pilots know so little about their parachute! Which club do you fly from?

I actually got into skydiving, speed flying, packing etc so that I can be prepared for when I start gliding and sports flying - I have a pilot pack now I just need a Discus or JS1

Parachute Peckah

Really interesting and useful video!!It is very nice to see how a real parachute opens and understand how it is packed and how it opens when you need it. I thought you do not have any directional control with this type of parachute. Thanks for the video!!!

Somerhing that I wasn’t expecting, when I popped a chute for re-packing, is that the rip-cord comes away COMPLETELY from the chute. For some reason this came as a complete shock to me. I was assured that if I was doing this for real, I wouldn’t notice but it’s something to be aware of. If you have time, you can tuck it away somewhere safe, (it fits over your hand and onto your wrist) otherwise just discard it and concentrate on flying something you’ve probably never thought you’d use.

To all glider pilots, go do a sky dive session. You will get the "picture" of what is going on very quickly.

Very well done. Might I suggest that you also do a video demonstrating the popping of the canopy and exiting the glider. Many pilots have never been properly trained in the popping of canopy.

A really informative video, thank you both. On the subject of how hard it is to pull the ripcord; I have twice, when showing them how to use the parachute had a person who had not flown before manage to deploy the 'chute on the ground: "oh! you don't have to pull hard do you!" Always good for a laugh! Our Club now has a very clearly marked "dummy" 'chute for fitting and rehearsal purposes. How did you get on in Omarama? I only know you managed second on the first day (always read the rule book!), what happened on the other days? Best wishes John

If you're A glider Pilot then you should do at least one Parachute Jump, Under canopy on a round Chute,you will be descending at 16 feet a second minimum, and its important to know how to locate a landing zone and aim for it under canopy and make sure your legs are positioned correctly when hitting your landing zone, another piece of advice is to locate the handle before leaving the glider with both hands that way when tumbling towards the ground you won't be fishing around for the Ripcord and a controlled jump on a static line from an aircraft will let you know exactly what you're up against in an emergency situation and the necessity to exit the Glider at a safe altitude if you need to.All sport parachute training jumps on a round are carried out at a minimum of 2000. feet.

G Dale bailed out after a mid air collision. Here is his advise ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-cDXIxHAmSX0.html

thanks, im a sailflying Pilot in Germany, learning for my exam. Hope, i i ll never see the parachute opening up

Thx for the brilliant and very complete video. I am gonna use it for theory lessons for my students. @ anyone familiar with the parachute topic in Germany: Having the same thing in German would be event better.

Good vid. Good refresher and hadn't considered the buckle smacking you in the face. Either you are very tall, or he is very short (maybe both)

Great videos thanks. Any advice on what to do with the glider before leaving it?… wouldn’t be a good feeling to watch your glider fly towards a built up area from the safety of your parachute!

Good video - just hope that, during these difficult times, everyone is keeping they 'packer' up!!! (Sorry, British humour...) BTW Where do I get an 'Emergency Pecker'??

Why doesn't every general aviation pilot wear one? That would make flying twice as safe at least

As a skydiver, the lack of a reserve makes me nervous... well technically this is your plan B already (or C...)

Best wishes for future even larger success with your channel, Tim. Stumbled over it by happy incident, great stuff! This episode demonstrates, that you are also not at all mudget-like. And the clip related question: How would I fit into which glider with 6 feet 5.6 inches (99cm inner leg length, hence not too long back) AND a parachute on? More than 2 decades ago I took a taste at a sniffer gliding day cruise in an ASK21, which the club typically uses for absolute beginners' courses in Lower Saxony here around the corner. Which I was - and stayed, unfortunately..., since only without a parachute I would have been able to squeesze myself into the front... So, where would you recommend that I get an overview on school gliders' trainee height limits? Another club here took a strict limit not to allow students over 195cm - which I am... Or don't you see a chance at all? Looking forward to a realistic judgement. Best regards from nighty - but not at all mighty (Judge yourselves lucky with your scenery!) - Berlin!

cool

Hi, since I actually jumped out 2019 I think I have to make a video about this. Bottom line is to use FROM THE FIRST SECOND you decide to leave the glider maximum force to open the canopy and then maximum power to climb out.

Good show Tim! I live in Dallas, Texas. Did Jim get his fire department T-shirt from Texas or is there a Dallas in your part of the country?

I always wondered why glider pilots wore a chute. Although the risks are similar in powered aircraft, we don’t wear one and is only seen in aerobatics or civilian owned military aircraft. In my opinion, a parachute doesn’t always guarantee survivability as there are many complex variables during collisions or in flight breakups. I suppose the low speed of most gliders have less energy therefore less catastrophic and could give the pilot more time to react.

Curious to hear comment about what you would consider minum safe altitude to use chute and how that is effected by situation i.e speed/direction/other.

One question I have is related to when to pull the d-ring. Does it matter how you're orientated? For example, If you were falling with your back facing the ground or I would assume chest down would be better. What if you are tumbling through the air? Is there an optimal position to be in vs a position to avoid at all costs when pulling the ring??? Oh, and great video. Keep em coming. :)

Very worthwhile VLOG. Always good to revisit safety issues. Great tips on feet, knee & ankle positioning. I'd never given much thought to the way in which the parachute canopy opens so Tim's explanation was very interesting (the canopy opens from the top - not the bottom). In the UK we are trained to pull the handle down towards our left foot (the logic being that the cable passes over one's left shoulder and therefore the least resistance in the pulling force comes from a downward motion (as opposed to a lateral motion off to the right). Having said that, I have always suspected that a surge in adrenalin would ensure that whatever way the handle is pulled - it would have a very similar result ! Keep making the gliding related VLOG's ! Really enjoying them. Thanks ! P.S. I found the following RU-vid video on landings also very helpful : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PiLyqGu2XKI.html

Warning: Having the parachute on and watching this video, although good 1st step, might not be good enough as there is knowledge and experience to everything, especially if it happens:1. fast, 2. under stress, 3. with injury OR 2 out of 3 or ALL THREE. I. It takes time for the shoot to open and slow you down. So, your safety is related to height. If you are too low, the canopy will still be useful to nicely cover your body on the way to the morgue. What is too low? That is dependent on your airspeed, but several hundred ft. or 200-250 m. would be minimum depending on your forward speed while starting to fall down. II. Don't pull the ripcord handle until you are away from your broken glider, likely not flying straight at that critical point of the rest of your life. You don't want glider tail or any part of it, to hook your opening canopy or lines. That's why paratroopers count 'one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi AND THEN PULL the ripcord. 3 seconds is meant to clear the aircraft. Glider is much smaller than big(er) planes skydivers or paratroopers jump from so 2 seconds maybe OK bud NOT the very moment you lose canopy and exit. III. Practice on the ground with the instructor. how to lose the canopy FIRST and then unbuckle yourself from the seat BUT not from the parachute harness! IV. Landing with that canopy over you is also pretty critical. Avoid trees, but especially electrical wires. Yes, I did shoot down electric in the whole village, by blowing up the transformer while shortening the wires between the electrical pole and the barn. (380v). They were v. hard to see against the ground. Land against the wind, not with the wind. 'Breaking the leg' is not 'the lucky strike'. If you are going into some deep or unknown water, get out of the harness at 10-20 ft. above water, so the canopy will not cover you, preventing breathing and swimming and tangling you while in the water. It is trickier done than describe here since the water could be 30 cm. deep or 3+ m deep and from the air it hard to tell. Etc.

👍

Maybe I missed it in the video, but what is the minimum altitude to jump for the parachute to have time to deploy and be useful? I was taught never jump out below 700 meters but I have heard discussion saying it could be used lower than that. And 700 meters sounds high to me.

hi everyone I fly PG since 30 years in Switzerland and two years in north India. I had a near death experience, 28 years ago. PG where horrible dangerous monsters at that time. lucky I did only brocke my ankle , but the impact was so strong, that I had the sensation of being out of my body.it made me fly even more. and the PG became incredible good and save. I always fly with a parachute, and I did some tests over water . i have one question . how do you get out of the plain???

what about a ballistic chute for the whole plane? yeah, it's not cheap and weighs a bit, but...

They look like pretty good parachutes, are they made in New Zealand?

Hello - I am sorry - I am in the progress to get my license in Williams, we fly an Ask21 - I am in California and way 90kg. What is a brand you recommend? Is it recommended to have an automatic opening release? Thank you.

Could you wear one of these in GA? Would I get funny looks if I asked to wear one in a Cessna? I'm not trying to be funny - I have had a few Cessna lessons after originally flying paragliders, hang gliders and sailplanes. All had reserves... Why not Cessna pilots? I always feel quite ill-at-ease taking off with no safety net should the controls lock up or we have a mid-air. Subscribed, Notified and Liked.

I went to Croatia recently- well before C19 but anyway, we had a Lamb and a Chicken Peckah but I didn't see a parachute Peckha. Is it much different?

I'm glad I got mine with my glider. It needs repacking tho

Awesome clip, thank you. One more question - do you think it is possible that poorly adjusted leg strap could castrate you?

Hi Tim. Would it be possible to add Greek subtitles to your very nice and informative video? I can do the translation!!! Regards Thanos

Hi Tim, I am a Uk OAP and an ex hang glider pilot and now a paraglider flyer. I wear a flying harness with a hand thrown reserve parachute for those unwanted situations, not happened yet and hopefully never will. I noticed in this video that you concentrated on the harness chest straps ( this adjustment is also very important in paragliding ) but appeared to neglected mentioning anything about the webbing and buckles in the crotch area and how they should be adjusted for optimum comfort and safety under deployment, or did I miss it in the video

I assume these Reserves would work from terminal velocity? I know our PG-reserves wouldn't! :-O

I realize this is old, but if anyone is watching the comments: at what altitude does the parachute no longer become effective? IE its only effective 3000ft above ground due to deployment time? Just curious

What if my parachute doesn't deploy... do I get a refund?

who's making them, what are the cheapest options?

Practice the landing fall (PLF) as much as possible so that it becomes instinctive,one thing not mentioned is your depth perception is non existent.So as you approach the ground (chin down on your chest),although you can see the ground you can't judge the distance correctly.The gound will appear to rush up and smack you in the feet,it is crucial that your feet are turned well away from the direction of travel and paralell to the ground otherwise like me you'll get pulled forward and bend all your toes at rightangles to the instep (painful).I also had impact fractures to all of the bones in the instep because my toes were pointing slightly down,Once I healed I did it again ang got it right............................................................

should you learn actuall parashooting to be more safe?

Do Emergency Parachutes Come in Deferent Sizes? & Matched up To The Specific Weight of The User ? 🪂🤓🤠🥸🤔🕵👨‍🚀😓