SNS3Guppy - the most mass-produced aircraft you flew and four (flying?) left - was that the B17, or what?
PB4Y-2 Privateer; the USN second delivery version of the B24; produced in superior numbers to the B17 with a superior load, speed, and armament. Not a pretty airplane, but a tough one, and a prolific one.
Just HOW did you get to be many multi-thousand hours experence knowing how many many threads should show beyond a nut? If only we could all be like that - but I guess you have military/professional flying behind you that got you to that skygod (for light GA) level? The rest of us don't and won't get that benefit and we are going to keep missing things like a safety-wire having been put in wrong. Maybe if you write a book for us that would be a better alternative to a chute? Seriously. Why not?
This is part of the dangerous mentality to which I previously referred. Knowing the mechanical standards when you inspect your airplane before and after flight aren't of a "skygod" nature; these are basic things that you must know to properly inspect your airplane. How can you walk around it and say you've given it a preflight inspection when you don't know what it is you're seeing?
Write a book? Ample texts are already in production on the subject. A standard in the US which has applicability nearly everywhere is called AC43.13; Acceptable Methods, Techniques, & Practices--Aircraft Inspection and Repair. It comes in two parts; AC43.13 2B, and 1A.
You can find the first part here:
AC 43.13-1B CHG 1 [Large AC. This includes Change 1.] Acceptable Methods, Techniques, and Practices - Aircraft Inspection and Repair
The circular as follows has been cancelled, but still provides good guidance:
AC 43.13-2A [Large AC] Acceptable Methods, Techniques, and Practices - Aircraft Alterations
Most instructors don't insist their students learn this material, largely because the instructors don't know it...another area in which the heritage of inexperience fails both the teacher and student. Again, however, I ask how you can preflight your airplane if you don't know what you're seeing?
Here is the dividing line - you think so lowly of pilots that you feel more of them will kill themselves BECAUSE they have a chute, than those who will be saved that got into difficulty for the same old reasons pilots have, do and will.
I said nothing of the kind. You will do well to put words in your mouth, not mine. However, as you've introduced this fallacy, it's well worth noting that a pilot who undertakes the use of a parachute in ignorance takes a mighty big chance. We don't do things in ignorance in aviation. We don't guess. We know.
We don't guess at fuel reserves. We calculate them. We don't guess at weight, nor balance. We calculate them, and know. We don't guess at ETA's; we calculate the time enroute and apply the known performance of the airplane to come up with detailed correct technically-based answers. We don't guess we can land the airplane; we know we can. And certainly we don't guess we might figure out how to handle the parachute on the way down.
It's laughable, really. Pilots seek out an instructor and obtain a checkout when moving from a Cessna 150 to a 152, or when learning a new radio system or display...even the smallest nuances are taken seriously with the airplane. The parachute, however, a compact, inflatable aircraft in a little bag on one's back...is simply taken in complete ignorance and a rough approximation of faith. Do you approach a new airplane by refusing to learn performance numbers, emergency procedures, normal procedures, or refuse to get a checkout? Of course not. But many here balk at the idea of getting proper instruction regarding a parachute.
The problem here? You don't take the parachute seriously. You should. Treat it as though your life depends on it, because it very well may. Improper use of the parachute, something as simple as not performing a pincheck, riser routing, or protecting the system handles, can kill you or create a dire emergency even though there was nothing else amiss in your world. Take the parachute seriously. It's a serious piece of equipment.