430, SPIFR can enhance safety, if used wisely. One checkride every 6 months isn't nearly enough to keep anyone proficient, each pilot has to be determined to practice at every opportunity. Since many programs prohibit actual IFR, that can be hard, and if pilots are prohibited from filing IFR, then the SPIFR machine is indeed eyewash. Whether it is safer depends on the pilot. If the pilot stays in practice and doesn't push weather, then safety can be increased, but if the pilot pushes weather, then the opposite can result. VFR only pilots, in VFR only machines, don't have IFR to fall back on and should be more conservative, and stay out of dangerous weather. I suspect the actual situation is a mixture of all the above, and more. IMO safety depends mostly on the pilot's ability to stay immune to perceived pressure from the crew and management to take flights (whether it exists or not) and from his own instinct to go out and try to save lives. In truth, we seldom save lives, but do often reduce morbidity. In no case is it worth risking our own lives or those of the crew in the back. Ground ambulances still work.