The BRS is a tool and nothing else. Use it or don't, but to ascribe
malice to its mere existence is silly.

There are certainly legitimate uses (Ultralights that had structural
failure and deployed the chute successfully, for example) and suspect
ones (a theoretical case where someone goes NORDO and pulls the silks
in panic), but in the end, it's up to the customer to exercise
judgement (the same judgement that we, as pilots, are expected to use
every time we go flying) as to whether or not it's appropriate.

Years ago, I read many of the same arguments against GPS, but it has
become quite a useful tool. Sure, there will always be the occasional
person who files direct everywhere, never knows exactly where he is
because the GPS is doing the thinking and so on, but for every one of
those, there are hundreds of pilots that treat it like a tool and get
added safety out of it.

Myself, I don't feel a compelling need for a BRS, but maybe 10 years
from now I'll have one, who knows? Time will tell, and I'll just work
to avoid being 'that guy' that uses it as something other then a last
resort.

Ben Hallert
PP-ASEL