"We'd rather die than suffer the ignominy of helplessly floating down to earth under a canopy of shame."
as opposed to a row of flattened corn of shame? lol I have a friend who built a gorgeous Zenith 701. He was visiting the mid west with it where he is from when a screwdriver left inside by someone else unbeknownst to him, slid forward and jammed the controls under his seat. he fought it while spiraling so steep that he could see dirt between the corn. broke it free and pulled out just in time to level out into a crash landing in the corn. could have used a BRS right there! instead he built another 701 in record time. I know you're kidding there, but I would consider it a last resort but when used, a canopy of "modern safety equipment". As to an autopilot, I installed one in my Avid, flew it 3000mi cross country, and then sold it. Seemed to make me a worse pilot and less in touch with the plane. As to Mark's 27 forced landings, well, wow. But then again he has lots (!) of hours so how many hours between forced landings? and these are *experimental* planes, made to learn with. I'll wait until others finish adding to the BRS conversation before mentioning my planned ejection seat, halon systems, emergency decel rocket prop spinner, nascar air conditioned fire suit, and inflatable emergency flotation system (kidding!)
