the chute should be there to compliment basic handling skills and not to be a substitute for those handling skills !
Pace
This is a key principle behind the CAPS system and I agree entirely.
Some of those posting here have made it look as though (to caricature a bit
) Cirrus pilots are told to pull the parachute as soon as a warning light comes on and that, therefore, Cirrus pilots don't bother to learn basic skills.
That is not the case. This comment was recently made on the COPA forum discussing this incident:
"Train to use CAPS if necessary, but train even more to avoid having to use it in the first place. "
That is a much better reflection of the real attitude.
Just like the pilots of any other make of aircraft, there are bad Cirrus pilots and basically competent Cirrus pilots who make mistakes that the sky gods posting here would never make.
Only today, I was watching an Air Safety Institute video about a Piper pilot who got caught by a storm in America after misunderstanding the limitations of the Nexrad weather display and died together with his family. That doesn't make all Piper pilots reckless fools.
(BTW, it's worth a watch:
http://aopamailer.aopa2.org/trk/clic..._id=F1306ESW04
Just like the pilots of other aircraft, I also believe that the majority of Cirrus drivers are serious about flying standards, training and safety. This is borne out by the attendances at CPPPs and the activity of both COPA and Cirrus Aircraft themselves in promoting this at a level as good as, perhaps even better than, any in the industry.
The key difference is that we have the option of the chute and are taught to make it part of our emergencies handling and to be sure to use it early enough to ensure it does it's job and in circumstances where not doing so would put us at greater risk of dying than using it.
If that makes me a lousy pilot: Guilty as Charged