"Mike Schumann" wrote in message
k.net...
The bigger issue is whether pilots are taking risks with Cirrus planes
that they wouldn't otherwise take, because they know they have a BRS chute
available.

Mike Schumann

My take on the situation is that rational pilots will pop the chute in
situations where they *might* survive anyway, but where there is some chance
of getting killed. This means that more Cirrus will land under chute than
would have crashed otherwise.

For instance, he may work himself into a situation where he realizes that he
has an "X" percentage chance of killing himself, and a (100% -X%) of making
it to the ground using conventional means (i.e. no accident). At some
probability of killing himself, he's gonna pop the chute.

Let's say that chance is 10%, and his survival is guaranteed if he pops the
chute. So he pops the chute, wastes an airplane, and ends up in the papers.

Without the BRS, there was a 1 in 10 chance that he was going to make the
papers anyway and a 9 in 10 chance that he was just going to have a good
story to tell.

Assuming that every Cirrus pilot pops the chute at the 10% chance of a fatal
situation, we have 10 Cirri under chute and no fatalities. In other makes,
you'd have 9 examples of no story at all and one fatal crash.