Wolfgang Schwanke writes:

Oh nonsense. How would you know what "a lot of people" do anyway.

Because some aspects of human behavior are well established.

Actually most pilots I know are scared of using the chute and try
anything to avoid the situation.

I don't blame them. If you're in a position to use a chute, you're in
serious trouble.

Incidentally the European style microlight licence is valid in all
countries part of the JAR group, which includes many European
countries. It can be had at around 4000 EUR total costs, give or take.
Downsides are the inability to fly at night or in certain airspaces.

The restrictions would probably be unacceptable to me. That's a lot
of money just to exclude night flight and some controlled airspaces.

In any case, I wouldn't have much use for a European license, as I'm
mostly interested in flying in U.S. airspace. In the U.S., the rules
are the same from coast to coast.

Then again, the initial PPL VFR licence has the same regulations and
requires "upgrades" to do anything else.

See above.

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