Been looking at some pics of a Varga Kachina (I’ve got a hankering to fly one!), and it looks to me like you could easily wear a chute in it if you took the seat cushions out. It also has a canopy arrangement that ought to allow a bail out.
Can you do this on your own initiative or does a design have to be approved for wearing a chute?
Not that I’m a pessimist….:)
By: mike currill - 10th February 2004 at 08:01
Originally posted by BlueRobin
Yikes all that extra weight… :rolleyes:I had a dream about this the other night for I have been in a glider twice, where they wear parachutes as a matter of course. Both times were with a club and naturally I wouldn’t trust the chute to open when I pulled the rip cord. What if the handle came off in my hand? What if the main didn’t open? Let’s feel around a bit. Where’s the reser…*smack* and end of dream for me.
I remember what a gliding instructor told me a long time ago. Unless you are above 3000 feet or have completely lost one wing stay with the aircraft. The theory was that below 3000 feet by the time you got out of the cockpit the macine would be on the ground any way and less chance of damage to you if you stayed with it.
By: BlueRobin - 9th February 2004 at 14:58
Yikes all that extra weight… :rolleyes:
I had a dream about this the other night for I have been in a glider twice, where they wear parachutes as a matter of course. Both times were with a club and naturally I wouldn’t trust the chute to open when I pulled the rip cord. What if the handle came off in my hand? What if the main didn’t open? Let’s feel around a bit. Where’s the reser…*smack* and end of dream for me.
By: Moggy C - 9th February 2004 at 11:02
Always seems to me another of those US innovations designed to make GA accessible to cretins.
When the PA22 was launched there was some strange kind of interconnection between the rudder pedals and the yoke so that you didn’t have to remember to use your feet.
Moggy
By: paulc - 9th February 2004 at 08:01
Why not fly an aircraft equiped with a parachute – Cirrus offer this option and I believe it has been used ‘for real’
By: macky42 - 7th February 2004 at 10:47
Interesting views, thanks all.
By: Moggy C - 7th February 2004 at 07:10
Re: Sexy Kachina
Originally posted by macky42
….. why not GA?
I think in absolute terms it is that bthere is a greater total danger to life (Both the aircraft crew and unfortunates on the ground) from jumping and letting the a/c come to earth where it fancies, than by staying with the aircraft and riding it down.
Particularly where full harnesses are fitted.
I’d encourage you to fit a decent harness rather than worry about chutes.
The number of GA accidents where anyone would have been saved by using a parachute (Excl. aeros, formations and gliding where they are normally worn) can probably be counted on the fingers of one foot.
Your chances of being in any state to use a chute after a mid air in the kachina are, I would think, quite slight.
Moggy
By: yak139 - 6th February 2004 at 18:47
There is nothing stopping you wearing a parachute if you wish.
I would suggest a parachute worn on your back, more comfortable on journeys, and you dont waddle like a duck walking in one (unlike one you sit on).
By: macky42 - 6th February 2004 at 17:11
Sexy Kachina
It takes all sorts!
I’ve read that it’s nice to fly as well. Yes, it’s because it’s different, I just think it would be fun with it’s tandem seats and stick (no I’m not a fighter pilot wannabe). More importantly, I know I could fly it, no tailwheels, funny props etc.
Back to the main point of the post, the chute, it’s more because of collision, to be honest. It was something that was always in the back of my mind, and was, indirectly, the reason I stopped flying 13 years ago.
Chutes are commonplace in competition gliders (for this reason maybe), why not GA?
By: wysiwyg - 6th February 2004 at 15:26
My mate used to air race a Kachina in the States. He said it was lovely to fly.
By: yak139 - 6th February 2004 at 12:37
Wooden inserts in the well, then sit on a piece of foam.
I use the wooden insert even with the chute as I am a short arse.
By: Moggy C - 6th February 2004 at 12:22
Originally posted by yak139
I do wear a parachute, while I do not find them uncomfortable, I tend only to wear one during aero’s.
How do you do that then?
My 52 had no seats. You had to wear a chute or you had nothing to sit on.
Moggy
By: yak139 - 6th February 2004 at 11:48
I do wear a parachute, while I do not find them uncomfortable, I tend only to wear one during aero’s. The military wear a chute on every flight. So unless you are doing aeros or think you will have a structural failure…..
Like MC, whats special about a Varga Kachina, except its something different from a 152 ?
http://www.planeplace.com/varga/varga001.htm
By: Moggy C - 6th February 2004 at 09:50
Sorry I don’t know much about this sort of stuff.
I’ve taken a Google and found some images of the Kachina.
Can you tell us something about it? What is it that makes you so eager to fly one? Its external appearance couldn’t exactly be described as ‘sexy’ so there must be something else about it.
Parachutes? I wouldn’t bother. Damned uncomfortable on any length of trip and always the second choice after popping the aircraft into a nearby field when it all goes to worms (Major structural disruption apart)
Moggy
Sign In
February 5, 2004 at 11:36 pm