I'm taking flying lessons, and the Flight Design CTLS I'm in has one of these systems. I believe you can use it up to like 80 knots or more. I have to remember

I'm taking flying lessons, and the Flight Design CTLS I'm in has one of these systems. I believe you can use it up to like 80 knots or more. I have to remember to take the pin out at the end of the run up, and back in when shutting down. When they first came out, there was some reports that they they caused just as much loss of life as they prevented, but I think the stats are now in favor of them. They're not really meant to protect the plane but the pilot and passengers. As far as a rule of thumb I think my instructor said that once something goes wrong in flight, it's the insurance company's plane, so just try like hell to survive and forget about aircraft damage. There have also been many incidents where the chute was used, and the plane eventually flew again.