Just registered here to clear up a few things:
I’ve spent many hours in cockpits with Peter, the deceased pilot. And many years on the ground with him also.
Not a “student” pilot. He had many hundreds of hours including much recent time in Cirrus aircraft.
He had completed many IFR renewals over the years including one in the last month.
I found him to be careful, thoughtful, competent and meticulous in his approach to flying.
In my experience, he always briefed his passengers - including the kids - on deploying CAPS, even when I/we had heard it all before.
Also we talked about the old ‘Aviate/Navigate/Communicate’ priorities quite a few times over the years.
I spoke with him on Wednesday morning for 5 minutes and he was in a very positive frame of mind, having just filed his flight plan.
We arranged to meet next week when he was back in town. I’ve also been informed that after the ARM to CB leg he advised another friend that the “plane was perfect”
I’m reliably informed that a “new” / repacked (?) chute was fitted to the aircraft in January.
I won’t be replying/ posting further.
Clearly atm none of us know what happened.
Just wanted to inject some facts into the discussion.