i'd say pretty much the same thing but in a different way - i have seen many well-off pilots who (implicitly) think that having a glass cockpit with the latest of everything is almost equivalent to a force field that will protect them against anything - and if it doesn't, the BRS will. the toys and gadgets distract the pilot from the real task at hand - which is to fly well within the performance envelope. the fatal accident record of the cirrus seems to support that. IIRC, its fatal crash rate is higher than that of the rest of the GA fleet (someone correct me if i'm wrong, but i'm pretty sure i've read this in a number of publications) . i also seem to remember that insuring a cirrus is limited to one (or very few companies) and carries a very high rate because of these incidents.

unfortunately, any aircraft, when pointed at a hard object will eventually hurt its occupants. gathering ice, exploring the unusual attitude part of the flight envelope, trying to fly VFR in solid clouds (and whatever other stupid pilot trick) will often result in premature landings and rapid decelerations. the PIC is the only individual with the burden of sometimes difficult decisions - no amount of electronics or chute can discharge him from that responsibility.

that fact seems to get forgotten when the plane is sold as a "safest" and "foolproof" plane. most if not all the plane's mag reviews seem to emphasize how failures are very unlikely or quasi-impossible. however, the single most vulnerable and least reliable aircraft system, is the chair-joystick interface and is rarely adressed. (the pilot, whose fundamental design has not changed significantly over the last 10,000 years).

some recent cirrus accidents make the point - consider the recent one where the pilot with low hours and a brand new plane took off with his family, flew into IMC and perished. consider the pilot who flew over the cascades, seems to have taken on severe icing, and tried to deploy his chute which didn't function properly. or another pilot who was seen doing slow steep turns and stalls at low altitude and finally got the plane to spin into the ground. ... and i could bore you with many more examples. unfortunately, this type of accident seems to be too frequent in this airframe.

IMO, a serious commitment to airmanship, pilotage, and remaining well away from the ragged bleeding edges of the performance envelope is the only way to significantly improve the safety of flying. the truly weak link in flying an airplane is the payload in the front left seat.

"my skills as a pilot have taken years to develop and improve very slowly with much hard work, while my ability to do stupid things has remained totally intact and has not required any training"

frank