4 ms·
The point is, being a hobby pilot is extremely dangerous.
by tormeh 4y ago
The point is, being a hobby pilot is extremely dangerous.
- anamexis 4y agoIs it? In US General Aviation, there were 332 deaths in 19,454,467 flight hours in the year 2020. https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20211117.aspx https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20211117.as...
- ineedasername 4y ago>Is it? Yes, it is. Very similar to how dangerous motorcycle riding is. Work out approx. hours of operation from miles driven (say avg. 30-50mph) and from there use annual fatalities. [1] Given that, death-per-hour for 332 deaths/19M in flight hours is roughly comparable to the 6000 deaths seen in motorcycle accidents. Much higher than automobiles, much higher than commercial flight. [1] https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-motorcycle-crashes https://www.iii.org/fact-statistic/facts-statistics-motorcyc...
- anamexis 4y agoOk, so per hour it is comparable to motorcycles. But consider also that the average private pilot only flies 100-150 hours per year. I don't disagree that it is more dangerous than automobiles or commercial flight. But I wouldn't characterize it as "extremely dangerous." Nor would I characterize motorcycles as such.
- Dylan16807 4y agoGoogle says "motorcycles are usually ridden for around 3,000 miles per year on average" so that's less than a hundred hours. Another result says the median is 1000 and 90th percentile is around 5000. Neither one is "extremely" dangerous but it's a far cry from "all these strict regulations make it extremely safe" like with commercial flight.
- ineedasername 4y agoI guess we disagree on motorcycle danger then. I consider motorcycles to be extremely dangerous (mostly to their drivers). A friend of mine died about 1.5 years ago on one. I'd had two other people (not as close) in my life die in motorcycle accidents so I used to cringe inside every time he told me he was going riding over the weekend, though I would just wish him well & to be safe. Riding made him happy, was a stress reliever for him. And as far as that goes there are probably worse habits like smoking & drinking to excess, but that doesn't make any of them non-dangerous.
- oldgradstudent 4y agoAssuming all hours were flown at Cessna 172 cruise speed of 140mph, that gives about 2e7 * 140 = 2.8e9, divided by 332 gives about 8.4 million miles per fatality. Compared to 85 million miles travelled per fatality on the roads in general, and about 4 million miles travelled per fatality on motorcycles. 2X better than motorcycles, 10X worse than road fatalities in general. And that's being quite generous about the mileage.
- anamexis 4y agoI don't think miles travelled per fatality is a useful point of comparison for general aviation. This puts it about on par with pedestrian deaths per mile travelled, and I don't think most people would call walking "extremely dangerous."
- TylerE 4y agoBeing a lazy hobby pilot is dangerous. The majority of GA crashes are pretty basic pilot error/"gotta-get-there-itis". Motorcycles are the same way, actually. An overwhelming amount of fatal motorcycle accidents involve alcohol at night, usually in combination with not wearing proper gear.
- someweirdperson 4y agoBikers frequently get killed by other forms of traffic (at least as a major contributing factor), pilots typically kill themselves (usually unintentionally, of course), with rare exceptions.
- fijiaarone 4y agoGetting killed by running into a semi because you were weaving in and out of traffic at 90 mph and ran a red light is not really the traffic’s fault.