Crashing in the water, particularly the water temperature of the Great Lakes, is nearly a death sentence. You can definitely survive impact and get out but you’

Crashing in the water, particularly the water temperature of the Great Lakes, is nearly a death sentence. You can definitely survive impact and get out but you’re not likely to survive the water unless rescue is minutes away. The exception is the end of a particularly warm summer in maybe Lake Erie or southern Lake Michigan. Now compared to over land, you can easily land a small piston engine plane just about anywhere. Highways, large parking lots, open fields, all become acceptable landing spots. In a Cessna 172 which is commonly used for flight training, impact speed can be as slow as 45 knots. Even a crash into a dense forest is survivable with some luck. I guess I’m just not familiar enough with LA airspace to fully appreciate the lack of space for training flights. I’ve been in and out of LAX and it is busy no doubt. I just haven’t done GA operations in that area so I wasn’t all that familiar with all of the additional airports and traffic. Personally, my pucker factor would be exceptionally high practicing stalls, or multi-engine training with engine shutdowns and Vmc demos over open water. Regardless of the temperature.