Umm and Blave, you have actually got the message that sparked my orignal post.
As long as pilots think of a piece of kit as "good" or "bad" we are lost. My wife's pocketbook is full of "good" stuff that is all very "necessary" and as long as there is no limit to what it weighs, no limit to what she can carry, everything that is "good" is included.
The real test for us is to actually not ask an individual question, "Is kit A good?" and so forth, it is to ask, "Is Kit A better than 6 of Kit W plus 2 of Kit G?"
If I had 75 pounds of design value to spend, I would spend it on the next most likely accident cause! If that is "wing failure", or "engine failure and unsurvivable terrain below" then I would buy the 'chute, but it is not, guys.
Here are some data to help decide what the next pound of safety gear might have to be to save the next accident from happening:
http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/01nall.pdf
http://www.planecrashinfo.com/cause.htm
http://www.ntsb.gov/recs/mostwanted/aviation_issues.htm