I was deeply impressed with the COPA instructor a few years ago who posted on AOPA, I believe it was, with his account of his inflight "emergency." He described skirting thunderstorms IMC in his Cirrus, when the "emergency" occurred. The airplane began climbing and he realized that the autopilot wouldn't hold altitude. He described the instruments as simultaneously failing, but it didn't take much understanding of his statement to see that he simply couldn't maintain control without the autopilot. He reported that he shoved the nose over and dove to get below the bottom the overcast, which took him well below MEA, while "screaming and praying for God to save me."
Somewhere in there he deployed the CAPS parachute, which promptly failed. The rocket tossed the canister, from which the parachute did not deploy. Once VMC and beneath the overcast, he proceeded visually to an airfield and landed.
He apparently was at 7,500', but initiated a 2,800 fpm dive down to 800' where he broke out, all the while screaming and praying.
So, no regulation, but do that. Scream and pray. It's the Cirrus way. Remember, pull, and pull often. Do it early. Get it out of the way right off the bat. In fact, don't wait for an emergency. Create one if you have to, but pull early, pull as often as you can. Buy more. They'll make as many as you want and remember, every deployment, no matter how unnecessary, is a "save."
