Some Thoughts on Ballistic Recovery Systems and Alternatives
I find the subject of modifying an RV to install a BRS an interesting one. While I believe that the Chute O Matic systems are a remarkable improvement on some aircraft. I personally would want on in my Cirrus, Mercedes or any other vehicle that was an "S" class luxury mode of transportation. I believe that the RV may not be the best application for the technology.
We know that the Cirrus BRS is an integrated system that was designed around a requirement for a BRS from early in the development process. Well done!
The requirements for the RV apparently have never included a design requirement tat would support the installation of a BRS, therefore it appears that most attempts at making the necessary modifications to the airframe quickly run into problems. This is the burden of trying to design a one size fits all solution.
Given that the RV airframe continues to prove how strong it is my suggestion would be as a first order safety upgrade to consider one of the several cockpit airbag systems that have come on the market in the past few years. They are light weight, relatively low cost, and require minimal modifications to the airframe to be effective. As an added bonus, it appears that they would not have an adverse effect on the aircraft's CG.
Continuing along the line of the Experimental aircraft and the folks flying them I would suggest that the next line of defense would be to address the requirement actually separate ones body from the aircraft. For this I believe that some effort could be put into a reliable and positive means of separating the canopy from the airframe with a minimum of effort. As experimental designers and builders I believe that this is certainly within the scope of what has been done and certainly could be done to most of the RV airframes should it be desired.
Once the crew is clear of the airframe there are several good parachute systems on the market that could be used to safely get back to Terra firma. A day or two at the local skydiving center would give most users the training, information, and confidence to fly the parachute and probably be in better condition that if they had ridden the airframe down under canopy.
Keep in mind that once the BRS is deployed the aircraft most likely will belong to the insurance company anyway so there is no need to reduce damage to it anyway.
As an alternative the user / builder may want to consider one of the very good egress systems out there from Marin Baker or UTC (Ex Goodrich) ACES II or 5.
Martin Baker - Mk17 Ultra Lightweight Escape System
http://www.martin-baker.com/products/ejection-seats/mk17
Just some random thoughts on some of the means to get home safely.