Drag Chute
A well composed post (obviously) with lots of Q's
You mentioned (quite a lot) about the checking side of things with ref to the PIC of the Lockard River accident, was he doing the correct speeds etc whilst being checked. Contemplate this. We as pilots are essentially no different than car drivers on the road when it comes to behavour & habbits. For Eg. When we see a cop with a radar gun we simply slow down & proceed as by the book, (this equates to being checked by an ATO for Eg., we demonstrate/do the right thing) we do the right thing to the letter of the law on the road & once clear of them the radar gun that is (same as in once we are flying on our own again ) we return to our natural ways. speeding, relaxing the rd rules etc, we all do it. There wouldn't be one pilot/car driver out there that hasn't at some time gone outside the prescribed rules, it's human to do so (where not machines remember) if only to say there I can do it & get away with it, but there's obviosuly millions of reasons as to why we go outside the law.
GPS app's are inherently complexe/dangerous as is flying to some degree, we got them 'cause of progress & that's something we can never change. There will always be accidents for a variety of reasons, lets hope that we all can learn something from this above accident. Remember am quite sure that no one wanted this to happen but it did & will sadly continue to do so, RIP to all those that left us wondering!
None of the above is meant to be taken as offensive to anyone, just a belief/observation by myself.
Capt Wally