Should You Consider A Whole Aircraft Parachute?

The rugged landscape unfolded in front of me. Forest stretched for as far as I could see, interspersed with small lakes in the mountain valleys. These were not the kinds of mountains found out west, but they were imposing nevertheless, given that I was in a tiny homebuilt aircraft.

As I contemplated the beauty of the landscape, the unseen hand of turbulence shook the aircraft, sending an unexpected stab of fear into my consciousness. Instinctively I tightened my grip on the stick and looked around. Wilderness.

As fear crept in, I thought about what I would do if I lost the engine or the canopy. “Not good,” I said out loud to myself. Should I have added a whole aircraft parachute to the kit? It certainly would have given me more peace of mind in the moment.

All was well that day, but I never forgot it. The airplane project after that one did include a parachute. Should you add a whole aircraft parachute to your homebuilt? Here are a few points to consider.

Retrofitting a parachute to your existing homebuilt will be difficult. In addition to the cost and logistics, you will need to spend time on engineering, weight and balance, possibly structural modifications, and reapplying for your airworthiness certificate, since adding a chute would be a major change. 

I considered a retrofit on my first homebuilt but quickly discarded the idea when a call to the manufacturer of the kit was not promising. If you’re flying a popular kit that offers the option from the factory, you can give them a call to see what’s involved.

A much better situation, if you do want a whole aircraft chute, is to plan for it up front in your build. It will cost less to purchase it at the beginning, and it will be far more straightforward.

A whole aircraft parachute might address:

• A structural failure

• An unintentional or unrecoverable spin

• Jammed controls 

• A mid-air collision with another airplane or with a large drone or bird

• An engine failure in rugged territory

• Pilot incapacitation or pilot disorientation

Are these events rare? Very. But peace of mind wins here.

Skip it if you:

• Don’t want the extra cost. You’ll spend well over $3,000 on the option.

• The chute and deployment cables will add weight. In an airplane additional weight means you won’t be able to carry as much for the camping trip.

• Maintenance. You’ll have to repack and refresh—there will be intervals where you’ll need to send system components back to the factory. That will also cost money.

• Parachutes are less effective at lower altitudes. Many of the loss of control accidents we see in the vicinity of the airport are low altitude accidents, especially that turn to final. A parachute needs space and time to deploy.

• The systems can fail, or you may decide not to pull the handle when you should have.

• There are no guarantees. You might be lowered into another object or into a tree.

The bottom line is that the events that  will cause you to deploy a whole aircraft parachute are very rare. That said, peace of mind can win the day.

This isn’t an easy decision to make. The bottom line? Anything we can do in the way of adding safety equipment in our aircraft is a good thing. If you make the choice either way, you’ll know that you thought it all the way through.

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This article first appeared in the 2026 September Issue of KITPLANES magazine.