Hi All,
I'm sorry but I just do not like the BRS parachute system. It may be OK in the vast open expanses of the US Middle West or the Australian Outback, but in the built up and crowded UK or the mountainous or forested areas of Europe I think these things pose a danger, both to you and to people and property on the ground, and they just should not be legal. Once you fire that rocket you have lost all control and your future is a hostage to fortune.
In regard to pilots flying outside their own or their aircraft's limitations and the endless succession of accidents resulting from the same old causes, as listed by Big Pistons, I think current training does have a lot to answer for. Ground training in too may clubs consists of 'read all these books then sit all those exam papers and then if you pass the exams you'll know all you need to know'. This sort of 'training' is all too soon forgotten and is never revised or retested.
There is also, I suspect, a tendency for some private pilots, who have only learned their theory from reading the writings of Trevor Thom or Jeremy Pratt, to think that the risks they have read about are to some extent theoretical and can be ignored as long as you don't go too far. An attitude that suggests that they see little difference in regard to the management of risk between flying a Pa 28 and driving a motor car.
BP.