With all due respect to SN3Guppy and Skyhawk Pilot, both self-confessed sport parachutists, I maintain my position that you have to be several iced buns and a couple of pies short of a picnic to want to make a parachute descent on a purely voluntary basis - I note SN3Guppy in a previous post recounts his hospitalisation after one particularly unfortunate event, which in itself doesn't act as an advertisement. However, I recognise that my chosen pursuit, competition aerobatics, might well be regarded by some as being in picnic hamper content deficiency territory, but each to their own.
As regards the comment about helmets not needing frequent inspection and rebuilding - I can only say having experienced the quality of soldering and component fit on an eye-wateringly expensive custom lid from a certain Californian company, that certainly isn't the case - not that the products of other manufacturers seem to be much better, and at least Gentex spares and after-market replacements are easy and cheap to obtain (I heartily recommend the services of Oregon Aero, should you need them).
I suspect than some form of head protection might save a lot more lives in accidents involving typical GA touring types rather than the provision of personal or airframe parachutes, but that is probably another thread's worth on it's own.