Cirrus BRS deployments - Alan Klapmeier's comments on NPR

In article , C J Campbell
wrote:

The second incident (Florida I believe) was just after a take-off
where the ceiling was 400'. I would assume that the pilot was
instrument rated (not confirmed). If not then the conclusion is
obvious. If instrument rated, what conditions would have occurred
that were not available to the pilot to cause him to be unable to
safely land mere minutes after take-off?

The pilot was instrument rated with 600 hours in a Cirrus. For the
parachute to work he had to be at least 900'. Since the ceiling was
only 400', I suspect he was in the soup without instrumentation. Maybe
you could land under those conditions, but most of us could not.

One advantage of CAPS is that at least the airplane's instruments probably
survived the landing in whatever state they were in when he took off. They
can be put on a bench and tested and we will see whether they all actually
failed or not.
I would guess not. Having 'everything' fail is extremely improbable. Even
instrument rated pilots sometimes become disoriented in the clouds.

What ever happened to "needle, ball, airspeed"?
Pilot's lose their gyros and claim instrument failure. If you practice
partial panel, you can get the airplane down safely.