and an easy way to make money.
I'm not sure about that - perhaps it is for the crooks. There's a reason the good ones cost £1000 a week. Social services generally pay below cost, and nursing homes are obliged to take a certain proportion of social services residents - I've really never understood how they get away with this. The outcome is that if you don't keep your nursing home full, and with a high proportion of private residents, then you can lose money very quickly.
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I am always pleased to hear about older people doing things like flying, and this chap's forced landing was good enough for his wife to survive it.
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I see the point about accidental deployment being an issue, but you could make the same argument against ballistic recovery systems. Actually, could you combine the two?
I guess the real argument is that you would have to take all that weight with you even when flying over Arizona, whereas with a life-raft you only need to take it when you need it.