I wear a parachute in my Europa. I agree with LeSwing, that psycologically it might be a bigger overcoming to jump than “just” pulling the red handle. OTOH, if you get out (I evaluated this chance for my type of aircraft as good due to the gullwing doors) it’s more or less guaranteed, that the chute opens, provided that you are sufficiently high above the ground (which is about 100 metres for my chutes). You don’t have to think of anything else after bailing out, since my chutes open automatically after seperation from the plane (ripchord attached to the airframe).
There are scenarios where you might be even better off with a conventional parachute on your back (e.g. when the aircraft is on fire especially at high altitude or when the airframe at the point of the BRS container or cables is severely damaged after a midair…)
However I’d also go for a proven BRS system, would it be available for my plane. Especially the chances for passengers is probably higher, since they are not able to prepare themselves mentally for the situation that hopefully never occures…
I was once in a situation where I was prepared to use the chute, but finally managed to save also the plane 
europaxs wrote:
I agree with LeSwing, that psycologically it might be a bigger overcoming to jump than “just” pulling the red handle.
OTOH you have reminded yourself before takeoff, that you have a parachute. There have been some fatalities where the pilot could have used a BRS, btu didn’t. This was probably due to the reason, that the BRS wasn’t present in the minds of the pilot during the emergency. That is different, if you put on a parachute before flight.
europaxs wrote:
I wear a parachute in my Europa. I agree with LeSwing, that psycologically it might be a bigger overcoming to jump than “just” pulling the red handle.
mh wrote:
There have been some fatalities where the pilot could have used a BRS, btu didn’t
I know 3 guys who successfully bailed out from mid-air in gliders, all did not even think about it, jumped and open the parachute (they never had any jump before), two of them reported that the trickiest part was to jettison the canopy: after releasing the red handle, they were stuck for a long time waiting for it to just disappear, they find out later “by luck” that a light touch by hands does blow it away !
For mid-air collisions, the bang and loss of control should be enough to kick you out without even thinking
On other grey scenarios, like fuel starvation/partial engine failure you may have some time to think and act, as you will try an look for other alternatives your precious option is losing its value…
I just discovered there is at least another front-end BRS installation in an RV7, like mine (which I believe was the first ever). I took these pics myself yesterday in a maintenance shop:
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