I'd really like Gary's input on when chutes would be wanted, and when they wouldn't be. I've never worn one, but then I've only flown a few small GA aircraft. In general, light aircraft are usually thought of as being the best means to get back onto land in case of emergency. Then again, I can think of a few situations in which a parachute might be a better choice, over mountains for one example. If I were in great big highly visible Lockheed though, with lots of big empty fuel tanks that mostly guarantee flotation, I think I'd take my chances with the aircraft in a ditching. There was no liferaft or emergency radio to take with, so bailing out would mean leaving everything else that might help survival. I don't recall reading that they even carried life vests, but I'm not sure about that. A floating Lockheed would be easier to spot than a single person, if that's what they thought of. Juust how useful might a parachute be over the ocean?
On my honeymoon with my first wife, I flew a Cessna 172 from Chicago to the Virgin Islands.
Since I was a skydiver I had several parachutes so we took them with us and wore them over our
Mae Wests when out over the ocean because it is a lot safer to bail out over the ocean than it is to
ditch, half of the time the occupants can’t get out of the plane due to damage sustained during the
ditching. A parachute is guaranteed to work, if it doesn’t they will give you your money back. I
had our life raft tied to my parachute harness. My new wife, who was not a skydiver, wore a
parachute that had an automatic opener. The opener had a lanyard attached to her seat so if she
went out the door, the lanyard would pull the pin, arming the opener which would then activate
falling through 5,000 feet, count five seconds and then open the chute.
On the leg from Grand Turk to San Juan, Puerto Rico, about 400 miles, right in the middle, out
of radio contact with anybody for awhile, the engine started coughing and shuttering, it lasted
about fifteen seconds. My wife was reading her book and didn’t even notice. It then smoothed
out but I had to sweat it out for another two hours until we saw land again. I ran through in my
mind what I would have to do if the engine did finally quit cold. I decided that I would have to
reach over my wife, open the right side door, undo her seatbelt and push her out because I knew
she wouldn’t go peaceably. Then I would jump out on my side, come down next to her and open
the life raft. But what to do, if, after I pushed her out, the engine started running again? Should I
jump out anyway so that she wouldn’t be alone in the ocean? Should I circle down and then drop
the raft to her and then climb back up and try to get somebody on the radio? Climb back up and
go for help? Fortunately, I never had to choose between these options. I didn’t tell her, until after
we were back in Chicago, how close she came to making her first parachute jump.
I have attached two photos of the chute that my wife was wearing, the orange lollipop houses the retractile automatic opener lanyard.
So, parachutes ARE useful over the ocean and Earhart apparently thought so too.
gl