Originally Posted by
USMCmech
s.
I also teach that if it's day VFR and over good terrain to plan conventional forced landing. This gives you the most control over where/what you will hit, but retains the option until 500 AGL of using the parachute if the field doesn't look good. Night, IFR, or over poor terrain, I'll use the CAPS which is the lesser of two evils.
Of course, waiting for daylight (good airmanship in a single engine piston airplane) enables a much better chance of keeping a forced landing site under the airplane (basic airmanship) and seeing to make a forced landing (basic airmanship). IFR and IMC are two different things, but if one waits for clear weather or avoids the clouds in a single engine piston airplane (that has one generator, one engine, minimal performance, etc), it's not an issue either (basic airmanship).
Far better to not accumulate evils in the first place.
Over half the CAPS deployments have been at night and in IMC. Over half. Add to it a number of deployments in situation in which the pilots should never have been. Eliminate all those unnecessary deployments by not being there in the first place...and the saving grace turns out to be basic airmanship, rather than launching into situations where the parachute becomes the attractive, or only option.